~A confession to make~

[Deitz Dittrich]

Saturday evening, it was raining where I was. The rain let up about 5:45 giving about 40 mins of shooting light left. I had 7 does come threw my shooting lanes with in 20 mins after the rain stopped.. the first 6 were does with fawns... but the last one was a loner. She stopped 19 yards broadside slightly quarting twards. I got to thinking about an earlier post about how your string can soak up water and your arrow(i shoot feathers) can soak up water and so I decided that with all that to hold 6" higher(in hind sight way more than needed... but then again you know what they say about hindsight) than normal and even if it didn't I would still end up with a kill shot. The doe turned her head twards me just as I was pulling thr trigger, not sure why or how. But the arrow went right where I was aiming, (did not hit low from water on string or arrow)... anyway, she ducked and I ended up shaving about 13 hairs off her back. Not even all the way down to the skin...

A clean miss! My first. I knew it would eventually happen.

Ohh well, life goes on.. learn from mistakes and hunt all that much harder this next weekend.

[Dan Wood]

When they drop down on you, it makes things even tougher... Was she looking at you? I've had a couple jump my string over the years, typically very jumpy deer or they spot me before the release.

I switched over to vanes years ago because my feathers getting wet and de-formed all the time from hunting in the rain... Vanes aren't quite as forgiving, but I haven't noticed any problems since switching..

[Royce Aardahl]

At 19 yards aim where you want to hit. If you are shooting modern crossbow you should be plenty good out to 40 yards. Maybe a bit low at that distance if you've got big aluminums and 5 inch soaked feathers. Good luck next time.

[Stratosman]

At close range like that I wouldn't subscribe to the theory that water on the vanes would affect the shot noticably. Think if the speed that the arrow is launched, I doubt any water that had beaded up on the vanes would remain in place long enough to affect the shot. Even so, I always spray silicone sealer on my feathers, this seems to help them maintain there integrity even when wet.

[jbjr]

It has been my experience through many years of shooting that unless the feathers are soaked to the point that they are lying down next to the shaft, your point of aim should not have been impaired.

The deer jumping the string is quite another issue.

I did not think it was possible until two years ago when I had a doe, dive just as I released my arrow at 25 yards and that arrow also flew over it's back.

At the time I know my arrows were chronographed at over 300 ft per second.

I also learned long ago to shoot vanes instead of feathers to help eliminate the water issue altogether.

[BLACKJACK]

I've also been thinking of switching back to vanes on my next batch of arrows. I try not to hunt in the rain because of the rain washing out a blood trail issue, but eventually the feathers get wet and never spring back to their full shape.

[Deitz Dittrich]

I realise now in hindsight that nothing I did was good about that shot. Yes Dan, like I said she had turned her head twards me, I'm not exactly sure if she was looking directly at me or not. I was too busy aiming too high..

Lessson learned... I have thought about switching to the spin wing vanes. I have always shot feathers and change is difficult!

[Ole #1]

Vanes are the way to go, I switched about 6 years ago and haven't looked back.

Rain shouldn't discourage you from going hunting, it should get the deer moving. If you have a good hit on a deer, it will leave more than enough blood to track, even in the rain.

Ole

[Dan Wood]

I switched to vanes after a hunt in Kansas.. I saw the buck of a life-time at 40 yards while still hunting during a major thunderstorm.. I passed on the shot luckily. I took some practice shots afterwards and I was way off with the rain and wind really doing a number on my feathers... I switched to vanes after that and never have had a problem with vanes shooting in rain.. No more steaming my feathers after every hunt..

[bigbucks]

I started with feathers, went to vanes, went back to feathers, am now shooting vanes again, but happen to have one with feathers in my quiver as well. I like vanes a little better as they're quieter, but they do seem to come off a little easier. To me they're both fletching & both work fine. I've shot about the same number of deer with each.

[Royce Aardahl]

Feathers look cooler and that's very important

[CrappieJohn]

Exude...A friend and I split up a couple packages of the spin vanes to re-fletch some arrows earlier this fall. What we found was that they are noisier from the radical spin. They shot well, but there was more air noise and it could be heard from behind the shooter.