Bow hunting tips needed?
by admin on Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 | 5 Comments
I just bought a bow a couple of days ago. It is set at 60 pounds and I am having trouble drawing it today. What can I do to make those certain muscles stronger and make drawing smoother? Its making my arms sore. I know your supposed to take it easy at first but I want to at least cross that barrier soon. Also what are some target practicing tips?
I find swimming a good sport for building some of the same muscles as archery, but only drawing a bow uses exactly the same groups as drawing a bow! In other words, practice, practice, practice!
However, may I suggest that 60 pounds is way too heavy for a beginner? Pulling a bow too heavy for you will throw off your form and get you into bad habits that will be very hard to break. Instead, you should start with a bow slightly lighter than you can comfortably hold at full draw for 10 seconds. Work your way up gradually.
In my experience, the best way to work your way up in draw weight is to shoot every other day. (The day off gives your muscles a chance to heal up and build up.) Count your shots, and only shoot as long as you are comfortable and accurate. I used a cribbage board to keep count. When I could shoot 60 times in a session, I would increase my draw weight, but only by a few pounds.
Don’t be in a hurry. There’s no need EVER to get to 60 pounds, let alone to get there fast. Concentrate on your form first. 40 pounds is generally enough for hunting.
Great advice from Trish.
I’d like to add an exercise method, but this require a recurve or longbow. If you have one of those around you can use it to strengthen your archery muscles. Take a recurve bow around 30 pounds or so. Stand in front of a mirror if you can, pretend you’re shooting in a direction perpendicular to where that mirror is to you. So if mirror is straight in front of you at 12 o’clock, target is either at 9 or 3 o’clock. The mirror is there to ensure you’re still in the proper form through out the exercise. Another archer watching you would be ideal. Now draw back that bow to full draw, hold it for 5-6 seconds. Then slowly let the string down, without letting the bow down. Let the string down only about half way and then pull it back again and hold another 5-6 seconds. Keep repeating until failure. Rest for the same amount of time you’ve spent, so say you did 4 reps earlier taking about 25 seconds, rest for 25 seconds. Then repeat again until you’re tired. All the times you’re holding, your head should be pointing towards the imaginary target but turn your eyes just enough to look in the mirror. Watch for you shoulders, make sure they’re not rising up and watch for your posture to make sure you’re not leaning back. Your body should look like a T.
The worst case scenario if you push yourself too hard too fast is you can tear your rotator cuff muscle, this is the most common archery injury. Very easily done when you’re using compound bows, you’re using the entire body to pull through that peak weight, your rotator cuff might not be up to the task and will tear. One thing that would make it worse is if your form is not proper in the first place.
You can easily take a deer with 45 pounds, ease up a bit on the poundage, you will be able to practice more and be more accurate than when you’re straining at 60 pounds.
Other exercises that need to be done involve training the deltoids, that’s your shoulder muscles, and your lats, muscles on the side of your torso just under the arm pits. Lateral arm raises, lateral pull downs, military press, forward and reverse arm raises, butterflies and reverse butterflies, all done with low weights and high reps (20 reps). These will strenghthen the supporting muscles.
Rowing and bent over shrugs, will strenghthen the trapezius muscles used for drawing the bow. Pushups, will stengthen the triceps, used for stabilizing your bow arm.
Squats and dead lifts, are optional exercises, it will strenghthen your core muscles and stabilize the entire body.
I had that trouble I upgraded the old 60 all the way up to 80 for some reason. What I did was just trying shooting for a while every couple of days. but if it is heavy I don’t suggest drawing with fingers.
hey man .u need to drop the wait down to 55# and shoot it for a week or so then set it back up 5# at a time. ive been bow hunting for 9 years now.anything else just ask . hope this helps
Simple, dial it down a bit. Turn it back to 45lbs maybe and shoot it like that for a few weeks. It may not feel like much weight, but it will get the muscles used to the motions. Then gradually dial it up until you can pull back the 60lbs without getting sore. Just like working out. You don’t go out and bench 250lbs, you start small and work up to it. Good luck.