Following my trip to Pro-Line last week, I was chatting with my friend who is a serious bowhunter. When I told him I was going to buy a bow and was considering a low-end “starter bow” he kiboshed the idea and offered to sell me his old bow, a 2010 Mathews Z7, and everything I’d need to hunt, except skill.
This morning I drove two-hours north to test the bow out. Wow. I could tell on the first draw that this bow and I are going to do some great things in the field together.
In terms of the setup, the previous owner really decked the bow out, QAD Ultra Rest HD, Spot Hogg 5-pin Hunter Sight, Axion 5″ Stabilizer, Scott double-caliper release, Easton A/C/C Pro Hunter arrows. Currently, I’m fairly clueless when it comes to why all those things are good, but the quality inherent in the Sight and Rest are plainly obvious.
Today I fired around 10 arrows, which is probably all I’d want to fire per day given the draw weight relative to the condition of my shoulders. I’m restarting my shoulder rehab modality, so that will also help.
Also, I quickly learned a valuable lesson about string slap and proper form (the upper bruise is from Wednesday):
Honestly, I expected to spend a long time hunting with rifle before experimenting with with bow, but due to the crazy laws and regulations around New York City, as well as the fact that I have a potential mentor who is a serious bowhunter makes bow a straightforward choice.
TheNouveauJäger
thenouveaujaeger 
dad
October 16, 2011
Good luck with it. I have to say that I certainly would never have the patience to use a bow. The thought of sitting quiet and still in a deer stand all day strikes me as the most boring ways one could spend a day, but that sait, there are an awful lot of hunters who actually go out in the fields and stalk their deer’s in order to put meat on the table. By the way, you have seen those leather pieces that protect your arm from the bow string. I took archery in physical ed and they saved me on numerous occasions and we were not using compound bows, just long bows.
Later,
Dad
thenouveaujaeger
October 16, 2011
I have a wrist guard, but I wasn’t wearing it the first shot. Zing!
JSGS
October 17, 2011
No wrist guard needed you need to shoot with a slightly bent elbow and this is a great setup….Nice job buddy.
thenouveaujaeger
October 17, 2011
Yep. All in the technique…
JSGS
October 17, 2011
Great bow package, you will be happy with this setup. Of course you have a little Oregon connection with the Spot Hogg sight =) You will remember to shoot with a slightly bent elbow now. Later.
sean
August 17, 2012
Thats nothing when i started shooting compound bow parts of my are would be dark red and other parts being a light purple
TheNouveauJäger
August 17, 2012
Yep, that wasn’t the worst slap I got, but I do think it was the last one 🙂