RTA47

This why I say! Practicing before you hunt! like you hunt. Will tell you if your going to hit your stand with you bow are not?As far as the raincoat is concerned? If I was worried about hitting my sleeve at all I would you an arm band? Silent Ijust don`t want to find out these things after I am up a tree and hunting. I don`t want worry about any of that.Yes silent I did! Thats why I say By practing like you hunt up a tree in the stand? shooting at 3-D targets? and by moving these targets all around in every position that can be thought of and at unknown distances is in fact preparing you for most of the shots that you will be faced with.All shots no! Most shots Yes!I don`t think you take anything one step futher than I do? Maby a different method than I to equal the sam results? I just do it before I get in the stand and you do it after your in the stand.Just a typo silentno big deal.I do not believe it is overrated at all. They depend on there nose for survival We all try to set our stands to avoid the whitetails nose.But losing respect for there nose might prove to be a big mistake? It may be thebiggest buck of you life?[]Congrats on the success!!My record speaks for it self also.Iwill be 40in aug and 24 yrs strickly bowhunting number of deer taken don`t know? Number of buck 120 or above 10 mounted 3 of them official P&Y one that hangs in a local archery shop just for display and many thatI have never had scored.And a crap load of smaller bucks. Sometime or other I will try to post some pics.I live in the southwhich is also not known for having big bucks.There aremany bowhunters right here on this forum that has taken many more bigger bucks thanyou or I havehaveAnd many more will. But no matter where you hunt for whitetails? Saying that you have lost respct for there nose just don`t seem to make common for any bowhunter to say to me.(imo)Regardless of any record.By practicing before the hunt or taking a shot before you enter the woods would insure you of this?Personally I would not be worred about it!If I thought maby I snagged something going in or dropped my bow and bent something I most likely would not hunt and risk screwing up my hunting area untill I checked my equipment

silentassassin

I do both. Like I said, I just take it one step further then you do. I wasn't worried about the raincoat hitting my arm. It isn't nearly as bulky as some of my other clothes but I was wrong and it did and they only way I found that out without making a bad shot and possibly wounding a deer was by shooting out of my stand.

That's funny because I never know what tree I am going to be hunting out of nor do I know what limbs are going to be where etc when I am shooting 3D.

No, I do both. You do one step. I do two steps. Two steps minus one step equals one more step[>:]

Well it didn't work for 150,000 of them last year in Arkansas alone

You are right, it might be or then again I might kill 12 more in the next 16 years. I am sure that we all get winded occaisionally and I am equally sure that there is nothing that you can doto keep from being winded 100% of the time. I am also 100% positive that you have to be hunting to be able to kill deer and sometimes you are better off hunting a stand with a less than perfect wind than you are not hunting itat all.

You may be making a little too much of it. I siad I have lost some respect for the whitetails nose. That doesn't day how much respect I used to have nor does it say how much respect I currently have, but merely that I have lost some of the respect that I once had for the whitetails nose. I use to think of whitetails as being able to pick up the slightest hint of human scentfrom hundreds of yards etc. etc. I no longer think they are capable of these feats.

So practicing before the shot and entering the woods you can be sure that nothing came loose and that nothing was bumped loose and that your peep didn't slide etc. before it actually happens.............WOW you must be psychic

Well that's what I am doing, instead of wondering or not knowing, I am checking my equipmentThat way I can continue to hunt knowing everything is good to go. I don't have to leave a hunt to go check and see and I don't have to find out something happened after I wounded an animal.

BigJ71

I personally don't take a pratice shot, infact I do most of my praticing on the ground. I will take a few from a stand before the season but that's it. Now as far as a pratice arrow goes? Go for it. It won'tmake one bit of difference to the deer you are hunting.

Scent on the arrow? give me a break. You mean to tell me that none of you have ever had a deer walk right under you and never smell you? Yes they have a great sense of smell but lets not get carried away here. Sometimes they can be down right stupid. I had a doe under my stand last gun season that just would not go away. That standis a built platform and is only 12 feet off of the ground! She was eating right under me and I could hear her chewing!I highly doubt an arrow stuck in the ground or a stump will break the deal. Do you guys have any idea how much scent you leave on the gound, the branches you touch on the way to your stand and how much you leave on the tree, steps etc.. in the actual act of climbing into it? So if you shoot at a deer and miss, your hunt is all over because there is an arrow out there with your scent on it?

I think sometimes people get carried away trying to appear to be super hunters and they slowlyslip past into the extreme and don't realize it. Hey nobody here needs to impress anyone, just do your thing. If you want to shoot a pratice arrow do it. It just may let you know that something is not right with your set up. If you don't then you don't. It doesn't make you a better or worse hunter just a different hunter. I don't because I will probably miss what I'm aiming at and send myself into the "think tank"for the rest of the day.

RTA47

Same here! But that was not my meaning Didn`t work for 4 of themGa, last yr ether but they did not wind me ether!I am not saying they may or may not have smelled human scent around maby where I walk ect.there really is no getting away from that. But having a whitetail stand directly down wind of a hunter? say 20yrds-30yrds?Sooner or later that hunter will get busted.[/quote]I agree for the most part.Except what if your hunting a mature whitetail buck in a very thick area close to his bedding area? Would you still hunt that same stand if you knew the wind would be blowing in his direction on that day or? Would you wait for another day when the wind has changed?Does not take a psychic at all to believe his equipment is good working order Agreed!

RTA47

I believe this convertion is going no where!(imo) I think there really is no wrong or right here only matter of opion? So for the recard if I have shown anyone here any disrespector anyone`s criditability Silent I apologize for doing so..rta47

DaveH

I ocassionally take a practice shot IN THE MORNING AFTER I'M FINISHED FOR THE MORNING HUNT.

kerr73

I just draw it back once in a wile .With my luck i would spoke a deer if i tryed shooting it when hunting .i do pratice with it before season weekly or more if i can and when the season has started even more

rick_reno

Nope.

jerseyhunter

same here

davidmil

Every time a deer comes by.[8D]

NOPE.... I do pull and let down occasionally when it's cold to keep the muscles from freezing up.[&:] I also do isometrics etc to keep from locking up. If it's real cold I may pull back and let down every 45 minutes or so, maybe more.