New Bow

[Al Agnew]

I started bowhunting many years ago. My dad was an avid bowhunter back in the days when there were no compound bows and not a whole lot of deer, and shot several back then when success didn't come easy. As a kid, I wanted to do what Dad did, so he got me my first bow, a little 45 pound recurve. I never actually hunted deer with it, but soon got one a little more powerful, and hunted for several years, unsuccessfully.

Fast forward to the year I met my wife, 1982. Three of her brothers were avid bowhunters, and quickly got me re-interested. I bought a cheap compound bow, don't remember the brand, and started practicing. Back then, the let-off in most compound bows wasn't all that much, and power was everything because everybody wanted a bow that shot as flat as possible. I could barely draw the thing, and couldn't hold draw for very long. I did shoot one doe with it.

Soon graduated to something a little closer to top of the line...overdraw, radical cams...it took hours upon hours to get a bow like that adjusted to where it shot anywhere near consistently, even if YOU could shoot with consistent form. Oh, it was fast, though. Shot a couple of does with it.

By that time, Mary's brother Jeff was almost a semi-professional bowhunter, and was being partially sponsored by High Country bows. He always had the top of the line High Country, and whenever he'd get a new one, he'd give me his previous one. We shot the same weight and draw length, so it worked out well. Still took a lot of tuning to get a bow to shoot well, but the bows were getting lighter and shorter while losing nothing in speed.

I kept his last High Country bow for a long time, but he'd changed to Hoyt bows, and convinced me I needed to change as well. He sold me his Katera when he got a new one. I'm still shooting that bow, and I marvel at the relatively simplicity of it, with no stabilizers, full length arrows, simple but very nice rest...and best of all, it's been perfectly tuned ever since I got it. It isn't the fastest bow out there, but it's accurate...if I miss I very well know it's my fault and not the bow.

Now that I live part time in Montana, I wanted to start bowhunting out there. You can buy a license for whitetail does over the counter, and there are always whitetails along the river and on the island in front of the house. So this year I took the Katera to Montana and told Jeff I needed a new bow for Missouri.

(By the way, I didn't get a whitetail doe in Montana this year. They wandered through the yard all summer long, paying little attention to me, but once the season started they became very wary. One morning I happened to look out the window of the house and saw a doe and her half grown fawn walking down the driveway away from the house. I grabbed the bow, slipped out the door away from the driveway, and crept to the corner of the house to see where they were so I could formulate a stalk. By that time they were a good 100 yards from the house and there was a woven wire fence between me and them. I barely stuck my head out from the corner of the house in a narrow gap between the house and my truck, and that doe just happened to have her head turned my way. Somehow, she saw me instantly. She stared and stared, and then flashed her tail and trotted off.)

Now Jeff is shooting Bowtech bows, and I'm now the proud owner of a Bowtech Insanity. I picked it up at Dunn's, rigged with sight and rest, the bow guy measuring my draw length and installing the peep while I waited. He cut me a dozen arrows, sold me a new release and six expanding broadheads, and I took it home. In the yard, I nocked an arrow 20 yards from the target, and my first shot was four inches to the left of the 2 inch diameter circle on the target. I shot another arrow, which hit an inch from the first one. I adjusted the sight, and my next two arrows cut the edges of the circle. I backed off to 30 yards, and put four arrows in a four inch group, just to the left of the circle. Slight sight adjustment, and my next arrow centered the circle, with the one after that missing it by an inch. Back to 40 yards, and four arrows were in a six inch group, but low. I adjusted that pin, and put two more within three inches to either side of the circle. 50 yards and my last sight pin...I adjusted it so that was slightly farther from the 40 yard pin than the 40 yard pin was from the 30 yard pin before shooting, shot five arrows, and they were all around the circle, all within 4 inches of it, with one hitting it dead center.

I put the practice "blade" in one of the broadheads, and shot it at the four different distances. It was right in there every time.

No tuning, no adjustments other than the sight, first time I'd ever shot that bow...I think I'm gonna like it!