First time shooting a real bow

Day Zero


I am pretty excited to shoot this bow for the first time. I wasn't even sure I could pull the string back without looking super awkward. I'm actually kind of nervous. I strapped the release to my wrist grabbed the bow and the first arrow I'm going to shoot. Told my girlfriend to take a video. I nocked the arrow and hooked on the release trigger and pulled back the string. I was able to pull it back without to much trouble. I noticed that on the string there was a little hole (called a peep sight) that I could see thru and use the sight to aim. I never knew this was how you aim till that moment. Of course my first shot completely missed the target haha. I was hoping I could have gotten lucky first shot.

I shot about 50 arrows and holy shit am I tired my left arm is beat. My shoulder, elbow and bicep hurts.  So I have to give it a rest. The draw weight is definitely way too much for me at this point. I want to keep it high for now so I have to get stronger and develop the muscles to pull this thing back like a pro. Plus I have no idea how to adjust the draw weight... I'm guessing it's 60 or 70lbs right now.

I was getting better, I was surprising myself how quickly I was getting the hang of it. It turns out I do poses the magic to shoot a bow and arrow. I'm getting this aiming thing figured out. I don't have any idea if my form is good or not. I just want to shoot and get my body strong enough to shoot this thing. So my plan is work on the strength first, form second and then accuracy. I shot 178 arrows on day zero. I took another video of my 100th arrow. I shot it just a little low of the bulls eye. (it's hard to see in the video.)

Practice, practice, practice. That's what I'm going to do...

I don't have any idea how many arrows a typical pro archer shoots in a day of practice. So I decided I'm going to shoot at least a 100 or as many as I can. In 90 days I want to have shot 10,000 arrows.

Day 1

I have set up a spread sheet on my phone so I can track my arrow count and accuracy. It's pretty cool when I get a few more days logged I will  have to share how I made it.

Here's how I'm doing on my second day ever shooting a bow at about 25 yards. I'm feeling pretty good about this.

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Archery. First things first

I'm really excited to get started with this blog and to start fresh with a new idea to go zero to hero with. So I want to get into Archery and live out a childhood fantasy and shoot like Robin Hood. haha. So First things first.

I don't own a bow...

I don't know anything about bows. Nothing.hmm.  What i do know is that I want a compound bow and that's about it.

So I did what anyone would do. I Googled it. I searched "what is the best compound bow?"

I borrowed this image from
 hunter's friend

The first search result led me to a great website to learn about compound bows. huntersfriend.com/compound. I read this website top to bottom. I got lucky with this site it was a huge help. I recommend anyone who wants to know the basics about compound bows to read this site first!





I learned about things called Whisker Biscuits, Split limbs and Fetching.
Basically what I learned about choosing a bow is these days there is a lot of good bows to choose from and it depends on how much money you want to spend. The "best bow" or Flagship bow from each company is really expensive. So now I'm armed with some great information to set out to buy a bow. Did I mention I don't have the money in the budget to buy the type of bow that I want?  Yeah, I had no idea how much these things cost ($300 to $1800) Buying new isn't really an option. That is the second obstacle I need to over come. To get started I just wanted to get something half ass decent.

I'm going to need sponsors and donations and lots of support to get going on this I'd like some company to "sponsor" me and my idea of becoming a pro archer in 90 days. However I'm not going to wait around for that to magically happen. I'm taking what I have to get started now. (start NOW, no matter where you start it doesn't matter. Just start.)

I checked Craigslist and found a ton of awesome compound bows for sale. I had some problems finding the one that has everything I need to start shooting today, and falls within my budget of $250. I need to come up with more money some how. I slept on it and came up with an idea. The next morning I realized I have nice hand gun that I could trade! I don't ever shoot it and its to large for conceal carry anyways. I did a craigslist search for someone that is interested in a trade. I found some people who where open to idea of trading I sent out 3 emails, and with some luck 1 out of 3 was interested in my trade! I drove down to Denver and everything looked good so I have a bow now. Fells like it was for free since It didn't cost me any money.

First things first:

1. Learn the basics about bows.   Check.
2. Get a bow.                              Check!
3. Learn to shoot...                       Coming soon

Here's my trade.

A Taurus .45 cal which I paid $350 for about 3 years ago. I shot it maybe 3 times in the first year. I really liked it just don't need it right now. This was a great idea on my part.








Here's my New bow.

It's a Redhead xsc-33. It came with everything I needed. A whisker biscuit (arrow rest), sight, release trigger, case, arrows and a $60 target to boot. New this was about a $600 set up(so I'm told). it's a few years old but judging by the arrows and and target it hasn't been used that much at all.






I've got a long ways to go to be where I want to be. But I'm started. In two days and no money I got my first bow. I can't wait for tomorrow and let er rip!

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Next: Tomorrow, a fun day of shooting...

Got to start somewhere

My Name is James I'm 30 years old and I live in Colorado. I went to school to be an Automotive Technician  I graduated in the top of my class from two different schools. I worked as a transmission tech for a Chevy and Caddy dealership. I realized I couldn't make the kind of money I wanted working for someone else. I had the opportunity to open my own shop at 24 years old. I jumped at that opportunity and built a business from nothing. I had a very successful 5 years doing that. My business grew, and so did the stress and work load. It was getting harder and I was working more and more. I sold the business a year ago. I have enjoyed an awesome year of freedom. I took several vacations, went hiking/backpacking for 3 months straight. I've been working a lot on health, fitness and personal development.

During my 3 month hike I had a lot of alone time with no one to talk to but myself... I tried to develop a split personality so I could talk to myself like Gollum and Smeagol from Lord of the rings haha. It never worked out. I guess I'm not crazy enough. So instead I thought of things I can get abscessed about when I get home. One of those things was another blog. I enjoyed the blog I did for my hike, Sharing my experiences with others and having a way to look back at what I have accomplished. I want to do the same thing with this one. But grow the concept Go zero to HERO into something more than just a blog. I don't exactly know what that is yet, but I'm working on it. For now this Blog is about me, and what I plan to accomplish and how I did it. Maybe a motivational tool of sorts.

Did you know if your not actively doing things to affect your life in a positive way. It's going down in a negative way? It's true, there is no staying the same. Everything you do in your everyday day to day activities either affects you negatively or positively. That's the Slight edge principle. I read the book it was incredible. "The Slight Edge" by Jeff Olsen is about simple daily disciplines that equal massive success. I brought that up cause it's a huge part of how I intend to achieve success. I highly recommend this book.

One of my zero to HERO projects I'm really excited about is becoming a pro archer. Thanks to a friend of mine (Thank you Dale) who brought a decent kids compound bow camping with us something amazing happened. I was actually able to hit the target. Which was a first time ever. I want to see if I can get good enough in a really short time to go pro or maybe win some local competitions and compete in some national events. I'm only limited by how far I want to take it.

Next:  First Archery post...