How to get into Bowhunting
Tim Burnett: Hey everybody, welcome back to my bow shop. Today's topic is how to get into bow hunting. The biggest thing that I'll say is ignore the influencer. Every influencer out there, myself included, has motivation to lean you towards something specific. I've had my archery shop now for about 10 months and so I've been able to talk with a lot of different people coming in the doors that are at different levels of hunting or different levels of archery. I've been able to gather a lot of information and ask a lot of questions. There's a lot of new people, as well as a lot of veterans in archery, but I've been able to ask them a lot of questions and gather some information on how a person can get into bow hunting.
Tim Burnett: It's definitely going to be a lot easier for someone that has hunting experience and a hunting background to get into archery because they understand and they've experienced the hunting process of it. Whereas somebody that's new into hunting is taking on the full gamut of it. So here are some of the notes that I've jotted down that a person could consider as you find yourself getting into bow hunting. Are you fully committed to the process? Are you fully committed to eat what you kill, process the meat, have it processed? Are you fully committed to how hard bow hunting is going to be?
Tim Burnett: The second thing would be, do you have any hunting experience at all? Or I would also lump in outdoor experience, whether it's fishing or camping out, backpacking any of that kind of thing. A lot of people coming into the doors have had hunting experience. They've gun hunted for years or they've hunted with family, or they did as a youth and are now getting back into it. So there's a level of hunting experience there. That's great because that's only going to help you to be that much better early on in archery.
Tim Burnett: Number three, do you have any friends or coworkers that hunt? That's going to be huge. If you can have a mentor or a friend or someone to go through this process with, it's going to be a lot more enjoyable and you're going to be able to share and bounce ideas off. Unless you're just that individual that just has to do everything on their own and just thrives on that, it'd be great to see if you had any friends or coworkers or associates or anybody that you know that has any, any bow hunting experience that would be willing to give you some information.
Tim Burnett: Then do you have the time and the resources? Do you have time to dedicate to shooting your bow? Do you have time to dedicate to sighting in and sighting it in with broad heads and getting everything packaged together like it needs to be? I've worked with a lot of adults and youth since opening the shop that have had zero experience with shooting a bow and by the time they leave the shop here, they've shot the bow dozens of times. They've gotten themselves experience with it. They like that feeling. They like the emotion. They like the aggression of when that arrow goes off. They've really enjoyed that.
Tim Burnett: Number six, ask questions. Ask yourself questions, ask the computer questions, ask people questions, ask your friends questions. Take or retake hunter safety or hunter's education. In a later video, I'll go through kind of the process of this. It's really simple. They've made it to where you can do all of the course online. Go through at your own time, your own leisure, go through all the questions. It's also a very educational program. Even if you took it as a kid and hunted as a kid and you took some time off and you're new getting back into hunting, I suggest to retake it. Get yourself signed up, logged on and go through it and refresh yourself with all that information.
Tim Burnett: Some states have an archery specific course. I know here in Nevada, they've got one. I believe Idaho has one. So you just have to check with your state. Some of them are mandatory. Some are not. You can meet others that are in your similar situation. When I went through the course with my son, there were several adults in there. There were several younger adults, older adults taking the class. Whether they were retaking it or taking it for the first time, there was a lot of people in there that are in your similar situation. Don't be afraid to ask questions of everyone, your instructors of the course, talking to people in the class. Just ask questions.
Tim Burnett: The third one on here that we talked about with customers is getting to know your local bow shop. That's been probably the most humbling thing and the most thing that I'm grateful for with opening the shop here is the numbers of people coming in the door that just say thank you. They're excited to have a professional hunting shop in the area. Myself and my staff know what they're doing. We're a hunting shop. We understand it. Not all bow shops are hunting shops, and that's okay. You'll get the information that you need from them. If that's all you've got. You'll get the archery side of things and the educational side of things.
Tim Burnett: Hang out and learn. Meet other hunters who might be willing to help. We have a lot of guys that spent a lot of time in here. We've created a lounge. We've created an open, welcome environment. We've got a working range that is for customers. It's not open to the public. It's for someone that needs that one-on-one attention. It's for someone that needs to fine tune their sight or their gear, their setup. We're totally focused on building confidence in here and being a shop of information.
Tim Burnett: Not all hunters are open with information. I'm not going to be open to specific details or areas and most guys probably aren't, but that's okay. At least I feel like most hunters are willing to help. If you are genuine in asking the questions and you're just not a ding dong. Just don't be a ding dong.
Tim Burnett: Number five, demo all the bows. Shoot them, see what you like. In a later video, I don't know what that one's going to be titled so you probably just have to search it. It's probably going to be how to choose a bow or how to choose your accessories. We're going to actually go through the steps and the process of choosing a bow. What we'll show is all the price points that we have. We'll also show all of the styles, which they're all fairly similar in those regards, but also some of the comparisons of how they might be set up. Then we're going to break down the process of how to set those up so that we can kind of show what you might go through as you're getting through the process. Qualify their budget, qualify their skill level or interest level, qualify their desires, their interests, what they really want out of it. Qualify if they're brand loyal or a brand person. Then just leave it up to them from there.
Tim Burnett: If you do have a bow and you've gone through that process, go to the 3D shoots. It's awesome. There's just great people out there and great information to be had and it's a great experience to shoot 3D targets. A lot of true hunting situations. Do your research online. There's this video, there's podcasts, there's all of the SOLO HNTR hunting videos. There's you name it. So many resources out there. The biggest thing that I'll say is ignore the influencer. You've got to figure it out for yourself. But every influencer out there, myself included, has motivation to lean you towards something specific and it shouldn't be that way for you. Shoot every bow that you have available to you.
Tim Burnett: Learn about wildlife behaviors. I think that's one that a lot of people skip. My brain hurts there's so much to it. Even just a deer track of just different things of how a buck track is different from a doe track and directions. There's so much information there. Maybe I'll try to get some videos out on that too, but it's just so much fun to learn about the animals that you're going to be hunting and learn about their behaviors.
Tim Burnett: Then research the regulations in your area and the hunting seasons. Each state has its wildlife departments. Some of them it's fish and game, some of them it's department of wildlife, some of them it's parks and wildlife. It's just figuring out for you within your specific state and your area what is it called? Every state has a website dedicated to hunting and fishing information. Seasons, dates, regulations, everything it's all in one central location. You just have to have the patience and the desire to read it. Getting into hunting and bow hunting specifically is not a picture book. You've got to do the reading and you've got to do the learning.
Tim Burnett: It's not just asking questions and only that of people that know. You've got to do some legwork on your own and then there's a lot of resources out there. OnX has packaged a lot of resources within their app. Then lastly, as this video's gone way longer than I wanted to is talk to your wildlife departments. They want to help. I don't think people will realize and recognize how much effort has been put in through these wildlife agencies to gather information and to get it out there. They're not marketing agencies, they're not PR firms. They're not great at social media, but the information is there. It's up to us to find it and it's up to you to find it.
Tim Burnett: So that's enough for my rambling. Hopefully as I move on through these videos we'll get these refined a little bit and give you the information. I really do want to help and I really do want you all to be successful. Above all, I appreciate all the support that you've shown SOLO HNTR brand over the years. Check out our apparel, the pro shop. Everything is at Solohntr.com. Thank you very much and I'll see you again next time.