Bowhunting takes more discipline than almost any other type of hunting. If you’re a good shot with a rifle, you can pick one up and, with a few trips to the range, get your mojo on. However, if stick and string is your game you know that you have to practice, and the sooner you commit those critical form and shooting skills to muscle memory the better you’ll shoot. Archers speak to the “flow of the shot,” which means it happens almost automatically. They anticipate the shot, aim, release, and follow through without a single conscious thought. In fact, trying to remember some element of your form is one of the best ways to miss a buck at the moment of truth.
The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife is urging their archers to begin practicing, and their tips work in anyone’s neck of the woods. Here’s how to get off to a great start:
June is the halfway point on the calendar and is highlighted by the longest day of the year: the official start of summer on Friday, June 21 this year. For Kentucky’s 90,000-plus archery deer hunters, the Summer Solstice seems to trigger another seasonal phenomenon–the need to get ready for the upcoming hunting season. Kentucky’s 136-day archery deer season opens in late summer, this year 15 days before the first day of fall. The season dates are September 7, 2013 through January 20, 2014.
The signs are everywhere across rural Kentucky that deer season is not that far off: mast is beginning to grow on trees in the woods, fields are lush with clover and tall grass. Deer fawns are becoming more visible and bucks are growing back their antlers with renewed vigor. When deer season opens, deer will still be in their summer pattern and highly visible while feeding late in the day in fields.
For avid archery hunters, it’s never too early to think deer…
