Part 1 - NY hunt - rough start

[nyexhunter]

Saturday went out in Cortland county with my Matrix as the NY hunting season started. It was a little windy and did not see any deer.

In the afternoon when I was getting down from my stand I tied an overhand knot to the stirrup of my cb. The knot slipped out and my cb cartwheeled down striking the steps on my ladder stand twice and landing on the ground. Fortunately the ground was soft where it landed and it looked like it hit the limb tip into the ground before landing upside down on the scope.

Got back to camp and one of my friends helped me set up the target and the sighting bench. He put the arrow in my bow after it was cocked and I took a shot at 20 yards. The arrow barely hit the target about 18" to the left. Initial thought was that something was off with the cb most likely the scope.

However, when we looked at the arrow, there was no aluminum flat insert on the end and there was a break about an inch from the end with the back of the blazer vane lifted a bit ( I later found the insert next to the shooting bench).

I then shot twice more making sure to shove the arrow tight against the latch in the back. It was then right on the money.

2 lessons learned. The first was to take extra care to secure the crossbow before lowering from stand - take your time. The second was to make sure the arrow is pushed back tightly when loading and now I will be checking it periodically while hunting.

The 3rd thing I learned is that the matrix is one tough crossbow.

[vixenmaster]

I cringed readin yer post. Glad it ended better than it started