DIY Bowhunting Challenges to Keep You Sharp Before Fall

The summer off season is the perfect time to challenge yourself and keep your bowhunting skills sharp before the fall deer season opens. Challenge your form, consistency and ability to hold your bow at full draw to ensure you go into hunting season as skilled and prepared as possible.

Tighten Your Groups

Challenge yourself to get your arrow groupings as tight as possible. A tight arrow grouping refers to arrows that are very close to each other in a cluster. These groupings don’t have to be over the 10-ring, they can be anywhere on the target. A tight arrow grouping indicates consistent form, so this is a good sign for the bowhunting season. Adjust your form by unlocking your elbow, picking a consistent anchor point and keeping a loose grip on the bow. When you make these adjustments you should see the gaps between your arrows start to close. Once you’re happy with the grouping, take that form you just worked on and work on your aim, adjust up or down, left or right, according to where your groups are in relation to the 10-ring. Eventually, you’ll have tight, consistent groups over the 10-ring almost every time you practice. Consistent aim on a target should translate to consistent aim in the woods.

Work on Your Ability to Hold at Full Draw

One of the barriers that could derail your form in the field, even if you’re consistent in practice, is the inability to hold your draw. When you’re bowhunting, you could potentially need to hold your draw for a while as you wait for the deer to turn to an optimal position. If your draw weight is too heavy, your arm will begin to shake as you’re holding the draw, which will throw off your aim when it’s finally time to release the arrow. Work on building up your arm and shoulder muscles to increase stamina during the off season. You can use resistance bands in your home or gym to mimic the drawing of a bow. Keep increasing the amount of time you hold the draw position with the bands little by little each time you do it and over time you’ll strengthen your triceps, biceps and traps and will be able to hold at full draw longer by the time fall comes around.

Practice from Your Stump Blind

Use your Stump blind during the off season to practice with 3-D deer targets. Practicing with a realistic deer target from the same blind you’ll be hunting in is the best way to prepare yourself for real-time hunting conditions. If you elevate your Stump blind on our Steel Tower System, practice your shots from the elevation. You’ll need to get used to accounting for the angle of the elevation in your shot. Use a rangefinder to get your bearings of how distance differs with elevation. Set your target in various positions like quartering-to, quartering-away and broadside. The rings on 3-D targets are placed over the same spot as the vital organs would be on a deer to help you learn proper shot placement. Hitting a deer in the vital organs is essential to an ethical harvest, so you want to make sure you practice until your arrows are consistently landing over the vital area.

However you decide to challenge yourself this off season, use our Stump blinds to help you practice in the most realistic conditions possible. Work on your form, consistency, and ability to hold a draw and you’ll walk into the fall hunting season prepared to make a successful harvest.

How do you challenge your bowhunting skills during the off season to keep you sharp for fall? Let us know in the comments below.