Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, and now your host, Tony Peterson. Welcome to the wire to Hunt Foundations podcast, which is brought to you by First Light. Today's episode is all about bows, but also the fundamental question of whether an upgrade is really necessary for you or not. In the not too distant past, I spent a decade of my life as the equipment editor for bow Hunter
Magazine and bow Hunter TV. That gig was pretty amazing from the perspective of getting new hunting gear and being able to try it out in a wide variety of scenarios. It was also an eye opener on many fronts, not the least of which was setting up and hunting with
like six or seven brand new bows every year. As you can imagine, that will shape your opinion on bow technology, bow fit, and whether it's worth it the upgrade every year or every couple of years, or only as often as Haley's comments swings through the night sky and signals that random cult leaders and their followers should drink the poison cool aid and head off to Narnia or wherever they go. This episode is all about new boats, whether
they are actually worth it or not. Before the Rhona swept across the globe and change how we all gathered together for various events. I did a lot of speaking engagements and a lot of outdoor shows. As you can imagine, my seminar topics nearly always centered on white tail hunting, usually white tail hunting on public land or something similar.
When you've got an hour to speak, you learn pretty quickly that about forty five minutes is a good run time and for the actual seminar, because you'll need to answer some questions afterwards. Oftentimes fifteen minutes for that isn't really enough, but it does give you a glimpse into what the crowd is thinking, and when you deal with a lot of crowds, you get a pretty good glimpse on what the average white tail hunter is actually thinking.
The questions that come up immediately after a deer seminar, they almost always involve gear. People ask, you know, what broadhead do you shoot, what's the best decoy, what's the best dear scent? And of course the question that comes up every single time, what bow do you shoot? Now this is a loaded question, my friends, kind of like are you a forward or chevy guy? Or what's the best bird dog breed? To get? The thing about bows, at least modern compound bows is they mostly all look
the same. They mostly all advertise pretty similar features and performance specs. They mostly all carry a similar price tag, which would make Fred Bear roll over in his grave. Here's the thing, though, bow choice, It's highly subjective. Even if you had unlimited funds and could buy whatever bow you wanted every year, if you were real honest with yourself,
you'd probably brand hop. What I mean by that is you probably wouldn't become a fanboy of anyone brand if you could shoot the newly released flagship models set up here specs every year. My mother in law, who is partially a resident of this planet and partially a resident of some alien world that is totally untethered from reality, she likes to get hunt. Hell. My whole family is obsessed with finding eggets and other cool rocks. We are
just rock hounds through and through, I guess. And while we're walking a lake shore with sore necks, while staring at the ground straining to see a hint of reddish purplish translucents that might indicate an egg it. My mother in law likes to say things like, you know, I
believe the aggets choose you. Maybe those pockets of water or air that formed in magma over a billion years ago and then filled in with silica and other minerals, one layer at a time to eventually form these cool rocks with concentric lines like topographic maps, and then took a wild ride along the rise and follow the dinosaurs, and then much later beneath the crushing weight of the glaciers as they crawled their way down from Canada, only
to eventually melt and recede, leaving us with thousands of lakes in a landscape greatly altered. Maybe they're just there for us to find, and once in a while we do, and that's just cool. They don't pick us. We picked them, just like we do with our bows. Yet I get where Mrs fruit Loop is coming from, because when you shoot a lot of bows, it does feel like one model will choose you. This is where the bow buying
process gets interesting. Since I don't know you, I'll give you my preferences of the bows that tend to choose me. They're almost always built with a very smooth draw cycle a really solid back wall. They almost always measure about thirty to thirty three inches between axles and are not engineered for and foremost to generate blistering aerospeeds. They're usually engineered for that great intangible that is shootability, where accuracy and comfort are king. I'm a white tailed guy, mostly
as most of you are. So chasing high readings on a chronograph. It's not really my thing. I don't care how fast my bows are ever, or I'll put it that in another way. I guess the bows that are out there right now, hell, that have been built in the last decade, they're all plenty fast. If they're well tuned, they will put two holes in the biggest bucks, provided you hold your pin where you're supposed to, and you
shoot decent arrows tipped with decent broadheads. I was only going to brush over this speed thing, but I just can't do it. I won't do it. It seems I've triggered myself, so here it goes. Sometimes scratch that. Oftentimes, to get those sexy ibo speeds that manufacturers can advertise, they've got to build bows in a certain way. They tend to shorten the brace high which is the link between the throat of the grip and the string. The shorter of the brace height, the more time your arrow
spends on the string getting pushed down range. There's also a cam component to the whole thing, with what you'll here described as aggressive cams. All this means for most of us is that the bow will be more likely to make that scary jump on you while you're aiming,
but not when you're ready to shoot. We all know that butt pucker moment when you're calmly trying to float your pin across the target, or worse, waiting for a buck to step into your shooting lane, and then your bow starts to go and your shoulder has to get involved real quick. There's nothing that will take your mind right out of the shot process faster, and that's something
that sticks with you. You don't forget that moment or that feeling, and it will sit like a little devil whispering in your ear whenever you draw, and especially when you draw and have to hold for longer than it usually takes you to get through your shot sequence. Personally, there are enough tiny fallen angels whispering in my ear.
I don't need anymore Now, the good thing about boat designs and the end years behind them is that they've gotten way better since about like two thousand and seven, when we really decided speed was the end all to our bow needs. Bows today can achieve pretty impressive speeds without ripping your shoulders out or making it miserable to tune them. But there seems to be a sweet spot aerospeeds that falls well below the marketing speak, but it's
still plenty high enough to do his job. I guess you know, maybe the biggest word of caution here is understand what's going on. If a manufacturer is really touting the speed aspect of the bow you're interested in, make sure to shoot that bow set up to your specs plenty before you swipe your credit card. Now, at this point it's probably prudent to talk about what makes a bow comfortable for you, not just what I like. But
as I said earlier, we are strangers. So the best way to figure it out is to do what you can to shoot some different models. If you have a good relationship with a pro shop and they'll set up some bows for you, that's a huge plus. Use your release, the release you use hunting and shoot them with your eyes open, and then shoot them blank bail style at close range with your eyes closed. Ask yourself, how does
it feel. Do you like the way the draw cycle feels as it rolls into the valley and eventually hits full draw. Is it a little squishy at full draw or is it rock solid? How does the grip feel? Is it bulky or slim which do you prefer? If it is bulky and you don't like that, can you take off the grip plates to make it slimmer. Now I'm not an Olympic caliber shooter, so take this for what it's worth. But I am pretty picky about grips. The slimmer the better for me. I don't want to
make tons of hand contact with my grip. Ever, I don't want anything sticky or well grippy on my grip. To me, that part of the bow should touch just a little bit of my hand during the actual execution of the shot. And that applies to backyard shooting sessions and the rare times when I've got a hundred fifty buck walking on a trail by my stand. When you shoot some different bows, you start to get a feel
for the draw cycle too, and for the grip. You'll see what dead in hand really means, but only if you shoot a bow that is truly dead in hand against one that isn't. This is one of those things that is easiest to get by experiencing it, and it matters. Some of the bows out there seemed to almost aim themselves and hold themselves on target, which is a pretty amazing thing. And this is what I want. I want to enjoy drawing and holding my bow and feel like it settles in so that my pin goes where it's
supposed to. I don't know the magic behind the designs of those bows, but I know when I get my hands on one, it's no different from I don't shotguns in my experience. If you hand me pretty much any shotgun, I can probably wing shoot okay with it, but some
just jive with me. I've got a little weather b O'Ryan over under twenty gauge that was mostly supposed to be a grouse and woodcock gun, but over the years has been with me for ducks and roosters and prairie chickens and quail and even a few turkeys, just because I love the feel of it and I shoot it so well, comes to the shoulder quickly, settles in nicely,
and it's balanced just right. I'm sure your listeners who are heavy into guns can relate, whether it is a shotgun of your own or maybe your favorite deer rifle. The thing is that little twenty gage wouldn't cut it for everyone. There are plenty of people out there who would not shoot it that well and wouldn't appreciate the field because it didn't work for them the way it works for me. They need to find their own gun, just like we need to find our own bows. Your
process it's definitely gonna be different than mine. Hell, maybe you love speed bows. Maybe you want to use one pin for every shot from five yards to fifty, or maybe you hate having big pin gaps, so you want blistering speeds and it's your number one priority. Or maybe you want comfort, but you have a different definition than I do. Either way, if you're even remotely into sitting a new rig, do yourself a favor. Forget your brand loyalty.
Oh scratch that tamp down your brand loyalty. Cover up that white tattoo on your shoulder, Scratch that Matthew's decal off your truck. Do whatever, do whatever you have to do to be somewhat objective, because here's the thing. The best bow for you right now might not be made by the company that made your last best bow. And I'm not saying brand loyalty isn't important, especially if you're concerned with customer service issues and some of the extras
that go into making a big purchase like this. So I'm not advocating a switch just for the sake of it. I'm just saying, be open to the reality that a switch might be a good thing for you. And my time at bohn R magazine taught me that every bow manufacturer out there has the potential to make an amazing bow, but from year to year, the field might change, or the focus of the flagship design might change. That means the bow brand that I absolutely love last year just
might not do it for me this year. This has happened to me a lot, and it has opened my eyes. Individual models matter, from brand to brand, and from year to year. It's easy to get caught up in the fanboy mentality, but maybe not the best idea all of the time. And of course, through this whole rambling nonsense, the same thing keeps bubbling to the surface. You gotta do some work to find out what works for you.
And bow choice is important because that is the tool that we use to send sharp sticks through the air and hopefully deliver a merciful death to deer another game, a quick five to ten second death that results in no suffering and short, super sweet blood trails. That matters a lot. It also brings us around to the original question, the whole point of this podcast, which is do you really need a new bowl? Probably not, but that depends
on how much you like your current rig. If you're in the market for a new one, is it just because you can't stand not spending an extra so or is it because you're not that happy with your current bow? Do you feel like you could be shooting better? What's your confidence level like at every range, but especially the far end of what you consider your effective range? That's important. Have you had some tuning issues that you just don't feel are fully resolved, or once they are resolved, keep
coming back around after another couple hundred shots. Do you think your bow is too slow or too loud? Or did you shoot next to a buddy you as the latest and greatest and get just a bit jealous. Has it been one year or ten since you bought your last bow. These are all questions worth asking yourself, but I think the most important is are you enjoying shooting your current bow? Because if you have fun, it's usually because the bow is comfortable and it puts the arrows
where they're supposed to go. Enjoyment matters in a few different other ways. To first off, if you're having fun, it means the bow is working the way you'd like it to. It also means that you probably shoot more, which is huge. If you're not enjoying shooting your bow for whatever reason, but usually because you're not as accurate with it as you'd like to be, then that's a red flag. There's something going on. That might be a simple tuning fix, or it might mean it's time to
go shopping. Maybe you've gone a little stale in your practice regimen because you know your current bow is good at twenty thirty maybe forty yards, but you'd like to stretch that out and do some long distance shooting. Now this is a topic for a different podcast, but I think practicing at extended ranges it's mooe importante, Mi amigoes.
Not only is it fun, but it's telling. It will highlight shooting form issues, tuning problems, and has the potential to give you loads of confidence, which is worth a lot. It'll make shooting sessions more enjoyable and helps to turn those close shots that you'll actually take on deer into much easier propositions. If you can shoot a paper plate group at I don't know, eighty yards, you don't have much of a reason to miss a white tail's vital
at twenty. It feels that way too if you happen to practice a lot of extended ranges, so maybe a new bow would open up that world to you. Anyway, you've got a lot to think about, but also a lot of time. If you're kicking around the idea of a new bow, this is a great time of year to start your research. It's a great time to head to the pro shop to gauge how serious you really are. It might lead to new purchase or make you realize
you're good enough with your current rig. Either way, if you've got to itch to explore the possibility, scratch it now, well before the serious summertime practice sessions kick off and your local pro shop turns into a madhouse with the chaos of the preseason, and be sure to tune in next week as I shift gears to a topic that every one of us has devoted some thought too over
the years, buying deer ground. Even if you think you could never afford a single acre of recreational property, I think you should give it a listen because that was the camp I was in for a long time before I got out of it without going totally broke, which is what I'm going to talk about next week. Yeah, that's it for this week, my friends. I'm Tony Peterson and this has been the Wire to Hunt Foundations podcast,
which is brought to you by First Light. As I always, thank you so much for listening and for all of your support. If this episode didn't quite give you the white tail fix you're hoping for, head on over to the wire to Hunt YouTube channel to check out our weekly how to videos and give the Meat Eater dot com slash wired a look to browse our vast library or white tailed articles