Well, to start this probably ain't going to be very good so you stop reading now!!!
If not then here goes....BowDog came from my Kennel that I was operating raising German Shorthair Pointers...I also trained them and competed with them in bird dog trials thru NSTRA,AKC.
I got my first recurve when I was 12 couldn't figure out how to shoot it so I drilled it and mounted a single pin sight and still couldn't hit nothing...
Then in 2004 opening day of bow season my sight pins had vibrated loose on the ATV ride back to my lease and there I was frustrated...I came home furious took the sights off and threw them as far from me as I could...then I started looking down the arrow with my compound and release up high next to my eye...got really good...killed a doe a week later at 20 yards..
I was at a friends house who was a predator dealer he handed me the bow,tab,armgurad,arrows and threw a tuna can out in the yard and told me to focus only on the can..I hit it 4 out if 6 times...
I kept trying to only focus on the spot,split finger,and couldn't get the accuracy I wanted aft 1,000s of shots frustrated again,sold it all after a year...went back to the wheels to hunt...still burning to learn to the recurve...bought it all again after 3 weeks of deer season...didn't change anything and nothing changed still sucked...my dad told me I would never be good enough to shoot a deer with a recurve bow....this really made me mad...but the way I was shooting he was right and I knew it.
I sold it all again...defeated,embarrassed, this time I bought a $1200 ACS longbow 64" 54# didn't change nothing a d once again nothing changed...but I was getting desperate...so I joined a indoor league...I didn't know what the arrows numbers meant I bought what was on sale..I was shooting a 340 beman classic....I was holding at 5 o'clock 12" low and 12 right never broke a 189...thwt was 2009
Then I kept buying bows looking for the one that would hit every 10 ring I bought and sold over 100 since 2009. Finally bought MBB with Rod Jenkins showing the gap methiod...I knew it something I had to learn and I did...I went to the trad Worlds in 2010 I was practicing 3 hours per day at least 300 shots a day my elbows,shoulders,back every muscle was exhausted from shooting way too much but I couldn't be beat here locally....
2010 Trad Worlds I had already bought the belt to wear the buckle on...honestly...went and got beat to death...could not control my nerves, finished 18 th...but knew what I had to work on...learned ALOT...in2011 started shooting other IBO shoots with John Dimmer and Jim Powell once again got beat to death....but was still learning..and shooting better..
In 2012 my Dad was dying with cancner and my mind was anywhere but shooting the bow and my scores proved it...missed the Trad Worlds because he died on July 19 2012..the opening day of Trad World...once he was gone my mind was clear and I felt like I had something to prove to him and myself...
In 2013 I kept perfecting my form patience and discipline...I shot in 5 ASA shoots and 5 IBO shoots never placed worse than 2nd won ASA shooter of the year,won the IBO Triple crown,the IBO Trad Worlds turned in the highest score the whole weekend...placed 2nd at the IBO Worlds behind John Dimmer who has became a dear friend..
One of the greatest lessons learned for me was at Louisville in 2013 I got to watch Alan Eagleton shoot a bow and just watching him taught me as much as anything...so much patience,discipline and humbleness...
My journey with a recurve bow has been tough, long,expensive and sometimes heartbreaking...but through the valleys there has been the mountaintops...and if I never even place in another shoot the friends I've met like Calvin,John,Mitch,Scott Antzak,Jared,Dave Wallace,James Ruley Alan Eagleton,jason Wesbrock,Matt Potter and so many more this journey has been awesome...I don't regret one minute...
Dewayne Martin
