How To Set Up A Compound Bow For Beginners

What's up guys? I'm Sydney Wells and welcome back to Barstool Outdoors. For today's video, I'm going to be doing a little bow hunting one-on-one. More of a bow setup, if anything, for all you new bow hunters out there. This year, I'm shooting the PSE Evo XF, which is their new 2022 bow. I'm excited about it. One, because I love PSE. I've shot it for three years now, and I have the Mossy Oak limbs and the sand color base, which I actually am pretty excited about. Different. My other one was all black, so now I have options. But first, let's rewind and go back to the other day where I went to my bow shop. What's up guys? What's up, sweetheart? You can't run away from me. Hi, my name's Chad McSimon. I've been doing this for 28 years here at Presley's Outdoors. Yep, and we've known each other for... Since I was little. A little baby kid. Yeah, I've been around here so long that I literally grew up here. So, all right. Absolutely. We're going to walk you through what we're kind of doing today and how to get it all prepped and ready. I shot a different site last year, and it was okay, but it kept moving around on me. I'm kind of tough when it comes to my bow. I'm not as caring to my bow and my bow strings, and I always like spotting, stalking, and crawling around. So, I'm going to try the three pin. I'm going to be doing like the total archery challenges this year, which I'm really excited about. But those go all the way to 100 yards. I need a pin that can go all the way that way. Usually, I'm used to like 20 to 60 max when it comes to bow hunting. This year is going to be a little different for me, which I'm excited to try out. Just get my loop ready for you. The QAD right there. My loop will be right here where the nock will attach. These are our peep sights. We've got a quarter inch, 7 32nd, and 3 16ths. Just tying your cord in for your drop away rest. We have everything we really need on the bow besides my stabilizer. Now, we gotta go get your draw length. Make sure everything's good there. Under 60. That's where I want you. So, since I just drew back my bow, now we're moving the peep and the nose button where I felt comfortable and where I could see through it and see my whole sight. My battery is exhausted, so we're going to take a break. I'm going to shoot my bow, and we'll be right back. I am at Blackwell Archery Range here in Warrenville, Illinois. I put out a tweet, and a lot of people recommended this place, so that's why I'm here. I have my new bow set up from Presley's Archery in Bartonville. I didn't get to shoot in there mostly because their range goes back to about 30 yards, and they were kind of under construction. So, we came here. It's the next day, and I'm going to go ahead and tell you guys what we put on there just for a review. Just to like let everybody know, I do not have my stabilizer. It's on my other bow. I forgot it, and I'm going to have a friend bring me my stabilizer, especially when I'm going to start shooting longer distances like 60 yards. We don't have really any wind today, so hopefully, I'm not that shaky. I think I'll be okay. I'm going to practice here at Blackwell mainly because I don't have a backyard where I live, so I can't do that. Otherwise, it's gonna be highly illegal, but back home at the farm, I usually shoot morel targets. I don't even know what kind of targets are out there right now, but there's practice targets for anybody to shoot. I highly recommend morel targets. They have an assortment of different ones. My favorite for this season, this turkey season's coming up, there's a turkey one, and you can flip it over, and there's a deer on the other side, which is very convenient. I'm going to go ahead and do a little review, but I just want to preface that I am not a competitive archer. I like to bow hunt, and I just want to show you what I like to use and what my preference points are when it comes to archery shooting for hunting. I shoot Carbon Express Maxima 250 spine arrows. I have a 100 grain field point on right now, but these are my favorite arrows. I've been shooting these for like three years now, and they've done a dang good job. I've shot a lot of different animals with one arrow. Just got to change out that Grim Reaper, and it still shoots fine, so this is what I prefer. This is a practice knock on right now, but usually I shoot nocturnals that light up once you shoot, so you know where your arrow goes. Head to store.barstolesports.com if you like the sweatshirt that I'm wearing. This is one of the best sellers, and it's personally one of my favorites. So we talked about the arrows. Next, the bow setup. Like I said before, I usually shoot like a 10-inch AAE stabilizer. It's good for vibration stabilization, especially when I'm holding my bow out or I'm shooting longer ranges. Just lets the arrow fly a little bit better. Talking about sights, this year I'm changing it up a little bit. I'm going to go ahead and do a Spot Hog Fast Eddie 3-pin, and they're movable. So this is going to be really good for my total archery challenges this year. If I have a target at 100 yards, I can move that pin. A lot of people use single pin sights, and I'm a little nervous to do that, which is why I like the 3-pin, because it'll be more realistic if I'm out bow hunting. So I'll have a 20-40-60 pin, and I'll be able to go in the middle or like change it up a lot easier if I'm shooting deer and whatnot. And then for the total archery challenges, as you all know, it's kind of just at your own pace, and I can change the dial a lot slower than I would want for longer distances. I heard that this Spot Hog is pretty indestructible, pretty durable, and the pins won't move on me if I'm crawling on the ground, if I got a twig, or whatever. So that's mainly why I'm giving this a shot this year. This is going to be the first time you guys are going to see me shooting it for the very first time without a target, and then as the summer goes by and I shoot my first turkey with it, I'll let you know how it goes. I have not sighted this in yet, so we're going to do that today. Notice they put SLOC-01 on there. My rest, I have a drop-away rest. It's a QAD. I really like it because you just click it like this. I always click it. I know like when you draw back your bow, it'll go up too, but I just feel more comfortable when I click it knowing that it's up. And I like the drop-away because during turkey season I shoot flu-flu arrows, mainly because I'm trying to shoot the head off of a turkey. So it still lets the arrow fly very decently well. It's also made in the USA, which is nice. And then I have a loop. The guys at the archery shop put all red on there. Kind of wanted to match the PSC logo. I have my Truefire wrist release on right now, but then you just go right in there and draw back. So right here you can see this little eyepiece. This is so when I have my anchor point on my nose, I look through it with one eye, usually my right eye because I'm right-handed. So I would look through it with my right eye and I'll be able to line this circle with my sight circle. And that's another way for me to be more consistent and be able to look at the pins clearly through the eyepiece and into the animal or target. And then I have my anchor point. My anchor point is a Bomar nose button. I've shot this also for a year and I love it. The anchor point is good for whenever you draw back, you're in the same exact position every single time. So I draw back like right about here. The Bomar nose button usually is right on the tip of my nose. So I'll do a couple of practice shots and show you guys what I mean by that. Like I said, I'm a bow hunter, not a competitive archer, and there's a lot of other people that know a lot more than me. But if you have more in-depth questions, especially about what kind of bow you want to shoot, this is a compound bow. Your draw length, how much poundage you want to pull back, etc. Go to your local archery store and they'll help you out. This is my first shot with the new sight on the bow, so I gotta make sure it's sighted in. We're gonna start off at 20 yards. Shot that first one a tad bit high, but I'm gonna shoot another one to make sure I'm consistent. Um, looks like they're right next to each other. Are they? Yeah. I mean, for consistency, I think you got it. Yeah, that's consistent. That's good because that means that I put the sight down just a little bit. I used rangefinder to mark off 20 yards, making sure my shots are consistent, and then I'll start moving around my sights. I'm gonna shoot one more arrow just for funsies. Since we're at a shooting range, too, I gotta make sure that we're both done shooting before I like walk off. Or if I'm shooting another shot, make sure that we're on the same page here. I feel like I'm pretty consistent. These two arrows are right really where I aimed, so I think I'm pretty good at 20 yards. The first one was a tad bit high, but I'm not too upset about it. I feel like a fluffball. Another little tip is if you're wearing a chunky jacket like I am, make sure that you are doing proper technique and you don't have your arm completely straight, otherwise your string is just gonna hit it and your arrow is gonna not be accurate. That one felt good. Sometimes I have a problem with having a quick trigger and like jamming it instead of slowly going. Maybe these need to be closer together. What kind of brand is that? Stokerized. They have a bunch of different kinds, like they've got an aluminum one. I've tried that one and this is way better. Okay, I'll try it. This is Will. Will and I actually went to college together. Sean's behind the camera. We all three went to college together. He's a bow hunter, too, so I just called him up. So that's nice. Now I have an archery buddy. He shoots a spot hawk, so he's gonna just like help me set it in, show all the kinks and bells and whistles to the sight. I moved it slightly to the right because it was shooting a little too far to the right. Yeah, you got plenty of room. Start at your 20 and use that top pin to walk your way down to 60s. What I like to do is hit 30, hit 40, hit 50, hit 60, and it's gonna help you line up your sight. Once you get your 60 on, it will say, you know, you're on your 12. You're on number 12. Okay. So you'll take number 12 and lay it over this, and we're gonna mark it with like pencil marks. Most people just do it out to 60 and then they just put the tape on, but sometimes it's a little bit off, like it's in between numbers, and then that having a pencil mark for 30, 40, 50, 60 is gonna help line up. Okay, cool. How long have you shot the spot hog? I've had it for two seasons at least now. Yeah, so you have had some... But it's a double pin, so it's a little bit different. It's the same setup. Same setup, just one extra pin. Yeah, exactly. And this is my first time. Usually I shoot like a five pin, which is good because I have like 20 to 50, 20 to 60, but changing it up. Moveable sight. To my understanding, Will's still teaching me about the spot hog because this is, like I said, my first time actually shooting a sight that has movable pins. And right now we're setting it into 20, then go to 30, so on. And we pick out the tape that's most compatible with where my pins are at, and then we'll cut up the tape and put it on the sight. I actually reused these, so I'll just stick it back on here so you can peel it off. Oh, okay. It's the first purple, right? Yeah. Okay, so now we're putting the tape on where I marked the 20. Pressure the 20 again to make sure this is right. Yeah. I'm trying to get spot on this year. Usually I'm like, all right, it's going to kill an animal. 20 is handled, 20 is on, we're good. Right in the middle of the X, now onto 30. Yeah, so basically that should be your 30. Second indicator will technically be 30, and that should be 40, but it'll be a good reference point just to start to see where we're at. So we'll move your pins first, and then we'll switch your indicators after that. Okay. This is going to be your 20, 30, 40. Okay. Oh, so you just moved it to the second? On your sight tape, that would be probably around 30. Okay. Like I said, it depends on your arrow. Yeah, like that. So like right about here, probably? We're learning. You need to go forward a little bit this way. Right now we just ranged with a vortex range finder to see the yardages. Now we're using the top pin again to see how accurate we are at 30 yards. How accurate the side is right now at 30 yards. So why am I to the right? There's a little bit of wind. I mean, we're only at 40, but it shouldn't affect it too much. We're at 30. We're at 30. I feel like it's that one right there. Now we're going to shoot the 40. Yeah. 40. Perfect. Every time we do a further distance, we move the sight down just a little bit. I think that's good at 30. Yeah. It's right about 30. It's going to be probably pretty close to the same amount from 20 to 30, from 30 to 40. Maybe a little bit more, but yeah, that's probably perfect. Let's give it a whirl. I'm going for the green. Okay. So top pin. Yep. It's still top pin. That was pretty damn close. Do you shoot a Bowmar nose button? No, I just have a kisser. Yeah. These are awesome. I've been thinking about going home. It's just so much more accurate, I feel like, because it's just on the tip of my nose rather than, you know, because sometimes also I feel like it bothers my release because it's in your, like, it's right here. You know what I mean? Sometimes I can move my head a little bit, but it's just another pressure point. Yeah. It, uh, kisser isn't great for the beard too. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that was me. I mean, it wasn't bad, but it's okay. I was shot a little to the right. See, I was wobbling a little bit. Oh, wobbly. It wasn't a bad shot. Like if that was on an animal, it would have been double wrong. Done. Well, that first shot was amazing. Yeah. Second shot is parallel to it. So, uh, what's the inside scoop on Sydney in college? I don't know. She's kind of mystery, man. Yeah. Hunting all the time. What are we at right now? Forward? Yeah. You're about even with it. I'd shoot one or two more of that just to make sure. That was me. I mean, I feel confident, but that was me. Hit my sleeve a little bit. Yeah. It's right on top. I want to go look at those really quick. That's me knowing I messed up. See, Sean, it's pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. Accurate? Precise? Precision. Precision? Wait, accurate or like when you hit the target in the right spot? We're dialing in at 50. So now I'm going to move the sight back a little bit more. Okay. 60 yards. Yeah. I dialed the sight down like just a tiny bit. Yeah. That wasn't a good shot. I'm just getting a little tired. All right, guys, let me take a break. Next, this commercial break. You hit the yellow, but you know, it's still not that bad. Just a couple inches below. Same spot. That's money. That's money, dude. No more. It was still left. It's still low. It's still even with the other arrow. Yeah. So Will just helped me get my bow sight into approximately 60 yards. There was a crosswind at the end. I got a little tired. So the 60 was a little shaky. So before putting on the tape, I'm probably going to come back and shoot my bow again. So I'm more precise. Big shout out to Will for coming to help me set up my spot hog. He shoots one too. He just shot at 60. Wasn't that impressed? Just kidding. That was a joke. Yeah. He obviously knows what he's doing. But yeah, if you like this video, make sure to like, subscribe and comment below if you want more educational videos like this. Like I said, I'm not a professional archer. I'm a bow hunter. Love shooting archery since I was little and I'm learning as well. But we'll see you guys at the total archery challenge and all of our bow hunting adventures here in 2022.