Are You Ready For The Shot?

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If you get your bow or rifle out a day before your once a year trip and think you're ready to take the shot that will harvest a trophy buck...well you may be in for a surprise! The best thisg to do is be sure you are practicing all year long to make that shot of a lifetime. No matter what you shoot deer with be sure you shoot at ranges, in the back yard, at 3-D shoots, kneeling, from your tree stand, sitting, through and over/under branches, and as often as possible. Get your rifle and bow tuned up by a professional shop over the summer before the fall rush.

If you are a bow hunter practice with your field points but also make sure your broadheads fly true. If they don't, retune your setup for broadheads. Try and shoot at unmarked distances so you develop the talent of making good range estimates. More people miss low because they thought their 20 yard pin was good for the shot and the deer was farther away.

Regular practiing will make your season much more enjoyable. Be sure to keep practicing right through the season to keep your skills sharp. Its amazing how fast rust will accumulate on our shooting skills. Try to shoot at least 3 or 4 arrows the day of or day before a hunt just to make sure nothing has loosened up. More than once you'll found some problem that is better fixed acamp than discover the problem when in the deer stand

Now that you're hunting and you see a deer moving towards your firing lane its time to keep control of your excitement and get the payoff for all your work. If you've practiced seated shots you may be able to draw without standing. If you need to stand you're taking a chance of spooking your quarry. Be sure to mover very slowly only when the deer is moving. Since they don't have stereo vision (they mostly see you with only one eye but with wider field of view) when the deer are walking their whole world is bouncing up and down and they are less likely to see your movement. Draw not when their heads are behind trees but when they have passed you and have their kill zone fully exposed. This prevents the stopped deer problem. Whether they hear us draw or have a sixth sense the deer always want to stop behind the tree giving you no shot and a drawn bow to hold for usually too long.

Once they've gone by you their attention is usually not focused on your area and the preferred side from behind shot is presented. So take careful aim and shoot. let it go and pray. But also consider shooting a few inches low if the deer is within 25 or so yards. Often time an animal hears the bow, gun blast or sees the sudden movement and in the split second before the projectile hits home the deer begins to prepare to bound away. In doing that they tend to hunch down and your shot goes high.