Mistakes you have made bowhunting?

[andrebeergog]

More than once, in the excitement, I have pulled the arrow off the string and clanked it against the riser spooking the animal.  Grossly mis-ranging an animal in the fog!  Should have used my range finder, come to find out I would have had the time to do so.

[wt]

Using my neck instead of my eyes to locate the elk I stocked within 20 yards of.... oh hi .

[BIGDOG253]

Getting addicted to it

gets to be expensive real quick

[SureThing]

 Where do I start? I think I have made them all until the next season then I find one I haven't thought of or I repeat one I forgot about.
1.For me the one that repeatly bites me in the ass is rushing the shot or another way of saying it is forgetting the basics of executing the shot.
2.One year it was my infatuation of wanting to watch the arrow hit the animal. Couldn't figure out why I had missed low every deer I shot at. After the third or forth deer it dawned on me I was dropping my arm so I could focus on the arrow.
3.Buck fever on does. Up to that point I had heard of it but didn't know what it was until the first doe that walked into my stand on my first archery hunt. I shook so bad from my toes to my head my arrow fell off my arrow rest and I almost fell down. Went home and sold my guns.
4. Climbed up a big oak tree with wide sweeping branches  and didn't check for obstructions or shooting angles. Needles to say it was a great tree for seeing and shooting at deer but not for hitting deer. I emptied my quiver and with every shoot my cam or bow would hit part of the tree. To make matters worse I had to watch those deer feed under my stand for quite some time before I was able to get down and retrieve my arrows. Then I forgot about leaning my bow up against the truck when I unpacked and. Didn't remember it until I drove up onto the driveway two hours away. Yes,I ran it over and it was in several pieces when I went to pick it up that night.
5. Not that long ago, fast compound bows were in the 250fps range and to get a bow to shoot faster you would do all kinds of unthinkable things by today's standards. Like shoot an overdraw, shoot high poundage or shoot light arrows. If a little is good a lot must be better I use to think. I did all three at the same time. I bought a  90# 30" new Astro bow installed the longest overdraw I could find and shot. Short little 1914 Easton X7's off it and thought I was the *censored*. Until, I had a 170 class whitetail buck standing on my 40yrd marker looking out into an alfalfa field totally relaxed. I remember when I was at full draw thinking this is the easiest deer I have ever killed. When I touched off the release that deer squatted down jumped into the air and spun 180*. My fast arrow hit him square in the bung hole and penetrated the depth of the broad head. Note to self- noisey/loud fast bow doesn't kill deer, old slow QUIET bow killed lots of deer.
5. So excited to go hunting I forgot my release in the truck.
6. It was my turn to drive and dropped my buddy off at his area when I got to my spot I went to get my bow only to find my buddy like my bow better than his. Unfortunately, for him my bow is to long for him and I always carry a back up bow.
7. This one didn't exactly happen to me but happened to my buddy while we were hunting the wilderness back when re shot fingers. We sat down for a lunch snack and he put his finger tab down. Cracked out a sandwich and a couple of Grey Jays show up. Before he knew what was going on one of the camp robbers swooped down and flew off with his finger tab. I think he could have gotten it back if he wouldn't have jumped up and chased after that stupid bird.

[JJD]

Getting addicted to it

gets to be expensive real quick

Archery is for sure a money pit.  If ya try to go cheap, it will just cost you more later.
Unfortunately, its too late, I'm already addicted.

Where I am fairly new to archery, writing down the various mistakes is just too painful at this point   

[Little Dave]

Can someone answer these simple questions...

If I am shooting "up hill" at say...40 yards. Where do I place the 40 yard pin?

If I am shooting "down hill at say...40 yards. Where do I place the 40 yard pin?

You are going to aim low in both those situations.  How low depends on the angle of the shot.

If you think you can estimate the angle, you have the yardage, and carry a cell phone... this might work.
Let's say you have a target at 40 yards but a 30 degree incline....
On the calculator enter cos(30) x 40 and the answer will be about 35.

[Eric M]

Set up my treestand in a tree that was occupied by a colony of ants. Didn't notice it the morning I put it up. Dumped a truckload of apples 32 yards away from it. After letting it soak a few days climbed up into it and  they bit me until I had to leave the tree. While sitting in the tall grass that evening the four point I was after came in and snorted at me for 20 minutes at 80 yards.  So because of the apple investment KEPT the stand in that tree and only used it in mornings. Ended up getting really cold one morning and I got so stiff I lost my grip climbing down hitting every branch. You know that feeling when you're falling and you know you're gonna break your neck? My knee joint caught a branch and I hung there with my face 3 inches from the ground. Limped back to my truck. One hell of a bruise. That was 3 years ago. Fast forward to this year I'm picking apples for my camera set ups and lose my footing. Go to grab the branch that's behind me except it isn't. Fall out of that tree too. Yeah. My wrist still hurts but I didn't break anything.

[mfswallace]

My biggest mistake has been not shooting when I get a chance, because I wanted to get just a little closer. Lost lots of animals to this

Yep, let it fly if it is a good shot and you are comfortable, don't try to make it a perfect shot...

[The scout]

one thing that has happened to me more than once is thinking the animal is walking away when it's really feeding around, or I've had bull's tearing the place up and I thought they were walking off. waiting for a perfect shot placement has bit me quite a few times as well

[haus]

Saturday 1hr in, had a bull locate bugling to my south moving away from my location and as he drifted off I heard a brief grunt to my northwest. Did the math real quick guessing it to be a herd bull that didn't desire any other bull knowing his herd location and the brief grunt was to move them. Covered a couple hundred yards in a hurry, slowed to where I thought they might be and as I stepped over a log I looked down to check my foot placement, looked back up and out steps a 6x with a broken antler on the other. He was broadside at 35 yards level as perfect a shot as you can ask for, but I'm standing there without even an arrow knocked  Froze in place and he ignored me, got behind a tree and knocked an arrow as he moved ahead into some small firs. Gave a low cow call angled away from his direction and he responded with a really low volume bugle. Lead cow that I didn't know was there cut back and began feeding in front of me with her calf, bull cut back and moved into another set of small firs below me with the lead cow in tow. At this point I figured screw it they aren't alarmed I'll just walk right right in there and see if I can get a shot. Moved through the firs and peeked around the last couple, had a 30 yard shot at the bull slightly quartered away. Started to draw back from behind cover, but I didn't notice the lead cow was just to my right and caught me. 

[Nice Racks]

Not learning your lesson by keep listening to a hunting partner who 95% of the time "peters" out on scouting plans and then comes up with some lame excuse as to why he can't hunt elk right now.  I'm screwed. Have camp all set up and now thinking about throwing in the towel and going home.  Anyone wanna hunt the Mossyrock unit?

[westsidehntr]

Not learning your lesson by keep listening to a hunting partner who 95% of the time "peters" out on scouting plans and then comes up with some lame excuse as to why he can't hunt elk right now.  I'm screwed. Have camp all set up and now thinking about throwing in the towel and going home.  Anyone wanna hunt the Mossyrock unit?

Just make the best of it and keep at it by yourself if you can't find any partners. You can at least get some satisfaction out of sticking it out by yourself.

[TopLevelPredator]

I missed a small bull 2 days ago.  I thought that I accounted for the downhill angle, but what I wasn't thinking of was the steady wind blowing directly at me.  Grazed the top of his back and he lived to see another day.  I'd also blame all the small branches and my small shooting lane, but that's Washington.  Live and learn!

[nickrj11]

I have a pretty good one for this....

So last year opening weekend of early archery, I'm at the top of a ridge and see a small but legal bull (3x2 to be exact) walking along the creek. So i make my way down and around the ridge keeping my distance hoping to get downwind of this bull and let him come right to me. Long story short, I get within 80 yards of this young bull but there was a large patch of brush and twigs between us.... across the creek. There was a tree downed across the creek that I began to carefully walk across. As I got to the end of the log on the other side I slipped, lost my balance and went crashing to the ground. Goodbye bull  . Atleast the only though I had going through m head was to just save my bow, dont break the bow man!!! So I held it out in front of me so that i wouldnt land on it and it worked, my bow is fine to this day.... Back wasn't though lol

[earlmarne]

Tue. I called and got up to move on 10 min later and got busted by the elk that was coming in.
All week I have been hunting high til I found all the sign down in the nasty stuff.