There’s a time and place for tinkering, but equipment doesn’t make the shooter.

Archery seems pretty simple on the surface. Nock an arrow, pull back the string and let it go. As you start to peel back the layers, though, you begin to hear about tuning, spines, peep sizes, F.O.C. and any number of things that serious archers and bowhunters care about. It’s easy to go down that rabbit hole and get lost trying to find the perfect “set up.”

I see it often in my day-to-day life. Archers changing this item or that, asking shop owners if they think a new bow will help them shoot better – anything and everything they think (because, dur, internet) will get them to the promised land.

But, maybe, it’s time these folks admit they suck ass.

Unless you’ve got a shooting jersey (that a sponsor gave to you for free) hanging in your closet, you probably suck at least a little bit. By that definition, I suck, too – which is fine, by the way, because I admit that I suck (comparatively speaking) and spend a lot of time practicing and honing the equipment I have. I don’t pawn off my problems on stabilizer mounting solutions.

Admittedly, I like new shit as much as anyone. But, any changes I make to equipment are done during the winter when there’s nothing to bow hunt and life is meaningless. And, I do it with a desired end state, which is to get my shit tuned and start shooting. I ain’t out here fiddle-f**king with everything ’till my brain turns to tapioca pudding. YES, I SAID FIDDLE-F**KING AND YES, I LIKE SWEET TEA. JUDGE ME IF YOU WANT.

Coming to grips with the fact you suck ass is the first step on the road to recovery, and how much one sucks depends on their goals. If you think you’re gonna win the Lancaster Classic one day, you probably suck a lot (for now). Regardless of what you want to accomplish, 30 minutes of true practice is worth more than 30 hours of tinkering. Beestinger and Easton both make a great stabilizer – are you really a good enough shooter to notice the difference between them?

The “Butterfly Effect” is very much in play when you start messing with your equipment. Just about anything you do will affect your point of impact, so how can you expect to improve when you’re changing shit all of the time? Stick with something for a while and go from there.

When it comes to bowhunting the goal is to kill critters. Think about what animal you’re going to target – if you’re a Whitetail tree stand hunter, your equipment probably looks different than someone’s who hunts out West. Do what’s best for you and don’t make decisions based solely on marketing schemes. By the time hunting season rolls around, I’ve already spent countless hours shooting my hunting bow and ensuring it’s dialed-in. That’s hard to do when you keep f**king with it all year – so, don’t do that.

At any rate, there’s a lot more that goes into shooting well than adding new gadgets. Good shooters can shoot just about any bow with any equipment and be just fine. Do whatever you need to do to become a good shooter, and the rest of this shit will sort itself out.