Well, color ME stupid!

[dave-t.]

If it is labelled wrong, you can get new 70lb limbs from BowTech. You shouldn't have to go through it, but it is an option.

I would also suspect cables are the issue. Shouldn't be a big deal to change them, but it should have been the first time either.

I've been so happy with my 60lb bowtech, that I don't think you have anyting to worry about regarding effectiveness on deer. It'll kill'em.

What I would be worried about is cam timing, and bow damage due too the wrong length cable. I would have thought the timing marks on the cams would have been noticed if you took it to a shop for some of this work, but you never can tell when you leave it to someone else for set up and tuning work.

I wouldn't think that the bow would be shooting 'in tune' with b-heads if there was something mechanically wrong or out of spec with the cable. If it were me and I was set up to hunt before I could get to a shop, I'd hunt with it the way it is and get it looked at when I had the opportunity.

I'd also go with the 60lb setting as an inbetween, before jumping from 50 to 70lb in one swoop.

[GF.]

I thought about that piece, Dave; bumping it #20 at a whack might be asking for trouble Thanks to you guys, I'm no longer terrified at the thought of adjusting the rest for tuning, so it's not as if I'd be into $75 every time I wanted to dial it up or down a bit.

I doubt that I'd get anywhere with BowTech, though, having bought it second-hand; though maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised, if it comes to that. Maybe if I tell 'em I'm nationally-known compulsive poster on bowhunting forums








No worries about penetration as it stands, though.. I walked through the 3D course at the old club on Saturday and missed one target low, resulting in a rock strike.

That was expensive. Stuffed the insert back in about 1.5" and flattened the field point but good.

Anyway, no lack of penetrating power is expected, even at the #50 - especially with those Stingers. Those arrows are moderately heavy, by compound standards, and they do move right along.


And back to the 3D course...Truth is, I missed a couple of targets, but that was the only arrow destroyed until I took just a couple of shots at the last target of the day. It was down-hill enough to mimic a tree stand shot, and long enough that I would have to be highly motivated and feeling real good about myself to take a shot at that range in the field. Anyway, I used my #3 pin and should have used the #2. All good shots, but the one went just over the top and I couldn't find it. So I used the old stump-shooting technique of repeating the shot so that I had more arrows to go find. At one point, I had 1 arrow destroyed and 4 MIA out of the 6 I'd started out with. Found 3 f the 4 missing shafts, but since they went deep into the much and were completely submerged in a bit of standing water, the fletchings are totally shot (unless you guys know of a cure).


Beyond that, though, I did have just a bit of trouble with range estimation; I got more high hits than belly-liners, though. Just makes me wonder about the chances of a meat-hit above the spine. I'm sure that's about as survivable as they get, but that's no excuse for missing and - me bein' me - not any consolation. I would think that a belly-line hit could be a real problem, though, if you were just back of the brisket. Maybe you could get a big enough piece of liver to ensure a blood trail of some sort?

Obviously, the answer is that you don't take a shot that's long enough to screw up, and when I did shoot (for practice' sake) noticeably longer than I ever would while hunting, I still had very few 'wounding' shots. My worst hits were all inside the 8-ring except for those few that were high or low, and once I started 'bracketing' the vitals on those longer shots - #1 pin on the spine, #2 as low as I dared hold - it got a lot better. Very helpful to have those lower pins to align with the foreleg, too. That little trick put an end to the 'farther forward than I'd like' hits, though these, too, were almost 100% in the 8-ring or better...

Sure is a nice feeling to stack 3 shafts into the 12-ring from 3 different yardages...

[dave-t.]

Hitting long builds a lot of confidence.

I thought I was doing good practicing out to 50yds, but when talking with my elk hunting pals, they were shooting to 70+yds and would consider hunting shots at that range. I was feeling pretty inadequate before Steve stated the obvious...."Elk have a giant kill zone compaired to a deer." Oh yeah.

[GF.]

But they can step out of the way of an airborne shaft even quicker.


One other thing about Elk is that they eat a lot of grass. That makes the paunch almost impossible to penetrate, so a well-fed bull is not nearly so desirable a target on a quarter-away shot as one might hope.

And they're not push-overs, either. You saw 2 good bulls that were probably lost by guys who thought that they, too, were 'solid' at 70 yards or more, so how many more get lost every year because somebody underestimated his limitations?

It doesn't even take that, really. I saw the CSO (Chief Somethin' or Other) of LL Bean on a show where he plunked a nice bull right behind the shoulder at slam-dunk recurve range, and they just never saw him again; and I won't forget the cow that my brother shot last year - the one that just walked off and dies somewhere else...

That was one thing about the Elk target there on the course. I took about 3-4 turns on that one, looking at it from a lot of different ranges that seemed somewhere between 'representative' and 'long' compared to the shots that I've had at real bulls over the years. Lotta high, 8-ring hits on the #3, #4 and #5 pins, but the ones that were just under the line kinda had me spooked. I have no idea how well I would have been able to trail an animal that was hit like that. You like to tell yourself that 8-ring means 'Dead', and I do believe that to be true, and better than just 'generally speaking'....

But killing 'em is one thing and finding them is another, some days.

Anyway.... I really do want to get back in over there at the club, if for no other reason than the ability to practice those long, long, ridiculously long shots. I don't know what range my #5 pin is set for, but I do know that I can place my first shot in the 8-ring of a bighorn ram 3D with it when the range is right I may not shoot any better than that off-hand with a rifle anymore...

Great confidence builder, and let's face it - 99% of this game is half mental