It Starts

I am a 28 year old PhD student at the University of Utah. I recently bought a bow and look forward to the opportunity to go bow hunting for my first time this fall. Since the age of 12 I have been hunting with a rifle which mostly consisted of going to the same place every year and hoping to scare something up that was within shooting range. My purpose in hunting is mostly about enjoying the outdoors and filling the freezer with meat for the year. I enjoy seeing wildlife in their natural habitat and understand that it is my duty to protect the environment and not allow the life of an animal be wasted. My goal then will not be to harvest the largest animal out there, but to be able to learn how to harvest legally whatever I am able to get closest to. If that happens to be a trophy animal, then even better.

 My experience in shooting a bow is minimal. I have participated in some archery shooting in Boy Scout camps, but otherwise had no experience prior to picking up a bow a couple of weeks ago. Starting out for me, I think the most important thing to being prepared is some basic strength training and repetitions with a bow. To this end I made sure to buy a bow well before the season and start practicing. I am generally fit, but found out quickly that the muscles used for pulling back a bow are different muscles than I regularly use. When I bought my bow I was able to get it back with some effort at 58 pounds, but I found my bow arm shoulder started to feel sore after just a few shots. Fearing injury, I have recently reduced my draw weight to 50 pounds while I strengthen and stabilize my shoulder. Through some strength training and repetition I hope to be able to hunt at or near 60 pounds by August.

I plan to post regular updates on my progress in getting prepared. I will be addressing things such as strength training, sight setting, scouting, etc. as I learn and try out different methods myself. My focus for now will be on getting ready for the 2013 deer hunt in Utah, but may also include elk.

 Now for my first progress report. As mentioned before, my bow arm has been getting sore after just a few shots. The last few days I have spent some time at the gym trying to strengthen my shoulder. My first day at the gym included 2 sets of using a pulley machine to first pull 60 pounds down to the back of my shoulders 10 times and then to the front of my shoulders 10 times. I also did 2 sets of 10 on each arm of basically a lawn mower pull at 50 pounds and 10 shoulder presses using a pulley machine at 60 pounds. I finished the workout by doing 10 minutes of arm cycling. Today I spent some time in the pool swimming 600 yards while alternating between front crawl and back crawl every 50 yards. If anyone out there has any recommendations for building shoulder strength and preventing injury feel free to share.