Putting in the work, Shooting 30 with a Hoyt Pro Comp Elite bow

My First 30...

This was the fist time I was able to hit 10's on all three targets. I did it 4x that day. That day my shots where still kind of all over. I'm still learning  how to adjust my sight. I read the directions finally. one click on the knob is like 1/32 of an inch on the target at 20 yards. I wasn't counting clicks I was just turning the knob a bunch and looking at the scale on sight moving it one to two dash marks. which is like 20 or so clicks which explains my problem. Now I make 1-3 click adjustments.

 I have been tracking my progress every time I go to the archery range. I have a spread sheet on my phone that I have been using to keep track of number of arrows, accuracy and a few other stats.  so far I have shot 540 arrows with the new bow for a grand total of 1590 arrows I have ever shot. My percentage of 10's/bulls eyes have gone up from 29% to 50% since I have been shooting my Hoyt bow.

Thanks Nic Helwig at RMA. It seems that every time he's working at the range he comes by and gives me one tip that helps me shoot just a little better. One tip a day is all I need.

Looking at the graph and checking my stats I can't help but feel excited. I'm doing it! I'm moving closer to my goal. I'm getting better every day. Everyday better, everyday closer.

Yesterday at the Shooting range

 First three arrows, 10's! I adjusted my sight 2 clicks left. (follow the arrows). Yesterday I shot 50% in the 10 ring my best day ever despite losing my glasses. My sight is like a scope(is a scope), it magnifies a little and I used to be able to see the x in the middle. Now I can't. I just aim for the center of the yellow lol.

Doing a little shooting at home off the deck. I love this bow I love this sport. I am just so excited to see how far I can take this. Even though I know I am just beginning, I have determination and high expectations I'm not going to settle for anything less than my goal.

I'm planning on going to the Vegas shoot in February which is a really big deal. I will be competing against 2000+ other acherys with pry years more experience and world metals and big name sponsors. I don't know if I have a chance in hell of even making it past the first day. But thats what I am training for. Follow my blog (upper right hand corner to follow by email or follow on google) to get updates of my progress and to see how I do in vegas...

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Time to get serious. My new Hoyt Pro Comp Elite

When I get an idea in my head Ijust can't shake it. I usually see it through to get what I want. I have decided that if I'm going to be taking this seriously I need to get a serious bow...

 I bought the bow I was talking about in my last post. I had to figure out how I was going to pay for it. At this moment I didn't exactly have $1500 laying around. We live in America, any amount of money can be had with the right about of effort and determination.

Nic let me shot the bow on Wed night before he closed up the archery shop and I decided I had to have it and bought it the next day. This bow is so awesome words can't do it justice...

This is what i got.

Hoyt Pro Comp Elite bow
Micro Elite Arrow rest (Limb driven)
Axcel ax4500 sight
FUSE carbon blade stabilizers
2 full bore arrows
2 release. 1 thumb release and the other is a back tension release.

This bow shoots so nice after I got it sighted in.

It only came with two arrows so I had Rocky Mountain Archery (RMA) make me another one to the exact specs as the other two. 

Spliting an arrow is impossible... Right?

First Day at the archery range 


So I have decided it's time that I go into Rocky Mountain Archery and shoot at the range for the first time. I have been wanting to go there for weeks now. I loaded up all my stuff and kiss the girlfriend good by and headed to the range.

Rocky Mountain Archery is a nice place. It feels nice and neat inside. I met Nic the guy running the place for the evening and paid my $7 + $1 for a target. He asked if I wanted to buy his bow for $1000... Haha yeah right $1000 for a bow. He was only kidding. He really wanted $1800. Come to find out that the bow he's selling is a Hoyt Pro Comp elite! Wow this thing is nice. I would love to have it but I don't think I'm ready to spend that much on a bow just yet. However that's the bow that I have had my eye on.

So I got a quick run down of the rules of the range. And it's show time.

My bow was shooting pretty good. I started talking to the guy next to me. He thought I was doing pretty good considering I have only shot my bow 10 times.

Here's some of my good shots

Nice little grouping.

I was having a pretty good time. It was fun shooting here with other people around to talk to. People with a common interest.

I'm pretty excited I am getting close to shooting my 1000th arrow! While I was about 4 or 6 away, I had shot my third arrow and I heard it hit one of the other arrows. The guy next to me said "that didn't sound good." I said "that would be funny if I had split my arrow." Which is impossible. I thought I remember an episode of myth busters saying it's impossible. He said that if he ever split an arrow he would quit archery cause it's never going to get any better than that haha. I said. Well I think it only counts as being really awesome if it's a bulls eye too. He said that if I had split my arrow in the bulls eye he would give me a wooden buffalo nickel. (Whatever that is). So the last archer shot and called out that the line was clear. We walked down to retrieve our arrows...

I couldn't freaking believe it. I seriously thought splitting an arrow was impossible. I guess it's called robin hooding haha. It just split the nock wide open. And went down the shaft and stuck. Ridiculous. It's not a bulls eye so it's "almost awesome" but I'm keeping that one. So I just lost two more arrows.

It was getting close to closing time. There was only 4 of us shooting. Nic asked if we want to shoot the zombie from the balcony? Heck yes. So he pushed it out and we unloaded on it. So cool.

I think the hardest part about a Zombie Apocalypses is...  Trying not to act excited!!!

After I was done shooting for the night Nic was talking to me more about his bow. Turns out it's like a $3000 dollar set up! After you include the sight, arrow rest, string, cams, stabilizers, peep, two releases, and arrows. Wow...

Here's a photo I found online.

It sure is pretty...

The seed was planted for sure. I want it.

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...