Notes from the August Board Meeting |Page 3|General Business|Forum|Bow Hunters of Alabama

Everyone is asking why people voted the way they did, but no one is responding so I’ll kick this off. I abstained from most of the votes, as can be attested to by Kenny. He asked me about why I wasn’t voting during one of the breaks. I did not vote on the ones that I felt I wasn’t informed enough on. I felt like the ones of you that were passionate about some of these issues would appreciate me not canceling your vote out if I did. The ones I did vote on/for were; the new crossbow class. I felt like this would generate more revenue for clubs by allowing more participants, it might also give the opportunity for someone with physical restrictions to compete, target destruction be darned. The targets are shot up after one, maybe two tournaments anyways. I voted in favor for the motion to allow movable sights behind the riser in the bowhunter classes. In my opinion, it’s legal to hunt with, they still have to judge the distance and pick out a spot where they think the 12 ring is, they just get to hold “dead on” instead of holding high or low. That doesn’t mean they are going to get it every time, and some people hunt with them. I also voted in favor of the master bowhunter program. In law enforcement and in the military, awards are given for accomplishments and for recognition. This I think was done to promote camaraderie among us. It gives us something fun to strive for, and it’s an excellent bullet point on a resume for pro staff shooter positions.
There may have been more that I voted for, but those are the ones I can remember off the top of my head. I was not at the May board meeting because I hosted a shoot that day. I didn’t vote on the speed limit change because I figured that it would be a waste of time. When Kenny did his online poll about it a while back, I was the only one to vote for leaving it where it stands at 280, so I assumed it would pass. I like the factor of having to be pretty precise in judging yardage. You could train a monkey the mechanics of shooting a bow, judging the yardage to me is what separates the shooters. I know someone is going to say, “why not just have a yardage judging class where everyone writes down their guess and then zap it with a rangefinder to save the trouble of pulling arrows.” Making the shot makes it fun. I held my own this year and last shooting well under the speed limit. I could have done better in some shoots, but it was because I failed, not because my bow didn’t shoot 10 feet per second faster. There is an old saying that goes “beware the man who only owns one gun, he probably knows how to use it well.” At the BHA state shoot I finished 2nd (by two points) with a bow that was shooting 278. Had the motion passed to change the speed limit, I own a BOWTECH Insanity that ibo’s 355 and I would have pulled it out on the next shoot. After my wife and little girl and extended family, hunting and archery are my passions. I just like to compete and stay in the hunting mindset during the summer. I would have adapted to the new speed, and for the record, I did NOT vote for Obama. Either time.