Shoot once and straight, and don’t miss

Many years ago several of us adopted a basic bow-shooting philosophy, and it is every bit as important to us today as it was back then. We called it the Shoot Once, Shoot Straight And Don't Miss philosophy.

It is a philosophy to aspire to, and we've taught it to thousands of bow hunters over the years. The philosophy is easily understood, simply stated, and if archers follow it beginning a little over three weeks when the bow-deer season opens, there would be fewer wounded deer.

Here is the whole philosophy pulled together as concisely as possible.

*Shoot Once -- How can there be any misunderstanding about this one? Bow hunting is vastly different than hunting with a firearm where one or more shots can be easily taken.

A bow hunter, 99 percent of the time, will have only one shot at a deer. A miss or a wounded animal will send the deer in hasty retreat. About the only time a second shot might be taken is to finish off a mortally wounded animal.

*Shoot Straight -- This and the next basic tenet of this philosophy are most important. Shooting with accuracy only comes from consistent and perfect practice. If the practice is faulty, the shot will be faulty as well.

This means controlling your breathing and nerves, drawing when the buck is unaware of your presence, hold your head up with both eyes fixed on the proper spot for a killing shot, aiming properly once you've achieved a firm and consistent anchor point, making a smooth release, and holding your bow steady without moving it (follow through) until the arrow hits your aiming point.

There is little excuse for error unless the arrow hits an unseen twig, but it's up to the hunter to know that twig is there and to take a clean broadside or quartering-away shot. All other shots are low-percentage opportunities, and should never be taken. If you don't have a high-percentage shot, wait for another opportunity. Don't trust to luck.

Work up a step-by-step checklist of all the things to do before shooting.

*Develop a mental checklist, and run through it in order before releasing  the arrow. If you plan to hunt from a tree, practice shooting from an elevated position.

*Know your limitations. If you can't consistently hit the kill zone on a deer at 25 yards, but can hit it at 20 yards, a 20-yard shot is your maximum effective shooting distance. Know what you can and cannot do, and never exceed your limitations. A miss, or even worse a wounded deer, can be the only two plausible results of exceeding your effective shooting range.

Shooting a deer is easy if you do everything right in sequential order.

*Don't Miss -- This is the culmination of all of these facets of this hunting philosophy. If the above two facets are followed to the letter, and you never exceed your limitations, and always achieve a firm anchor point and aim properly (and don't drop your bow arm at the shot), you will hit and kill that deer.

This simple philosophy is easy to write about but a bit more difficult to put into practice. It requires total hunter concentration, complete focus on all of the minute details, and it means knowing your bow and at what distance is your limit of accurate shooting.

Follow these simple rules -- Shoot Once, Shoot Straight & Don't Miss -- and you'll be eating venison this fall and admiring the antlers of a nice buck. You can bet on it.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors