Andrea Bertrand
FNG
- Joined
- Jun 11, 2021
- Messages
- 4
7/18/21 UPDATE: Final Review is up:
Mathews Prima Women's Bow Review
Original Discussion:
To start off, my name is Andrea Bertrand, and my husband is a Rokstaff member on Rokslide, @Travis Bertrand . I have hunted a lot with him over the last 15 years and we've travelled to places in and out of the country hunting. Many women may think it is not something they would enjoy doing with their husbands. But for me, it's one of my favorite things to do with my husband. I started going on hunting trips with my husband because I did not like the idea of him going alone, being miles and miles backpacked into a wilderness. He likes to backpack hunt more than anything, just like many men, he will do anything or go anywhere, no matter how dangerous, to be able to follow his passion for hunting. After a few hunting trips, I realized how much hunting could teach you about many things and grew to love it, just like my husband. I now go on nearly every hunting trip he goes on. I enjoy it so much being able to spend time with him and being outside in nature and taking in the breathtaking views one has while out in the field. Hunting with him has been such a positive thing in my life. It requires a lot of teamwork and commitment. Believe it or not, hunting with my husband has improved our marriage in so many ways. It was always nearly an impossible option to get away with just the two of us since we have young children. Hunting has allowed us to travel together, enjoy hiking, and be out in nature together. It is a great way to get quality time in with your spouse to deepen your relationship. He has taught me so much about animals, the land, and hunting in general.
It has been very neat to be able to get the opportunity to learn out in the field. It took me a while to learn that hunting is not just about harvesting an animal. For me, every trip is about being in nature, enjoying your time, and sometimes taking another living life to provide for your family. I thank the Lord for every trip we can go on together, whether we harvest an animal or not. For us, hunting is a lifestyle from start to finish. It is also a family affair. We harvest, pack out, and process the meat as a family. Our children love being included in this process. It makes them more thankful for their food and sometimes makes them better eaters because they are excited to eat what they helped prepare. I am so grateful that we can provide the best possible nutrients and protein for our family with wonderful organic meat throughout hunting.
This year, I wanted to start the year off positively and have something for myself to focus on. Covid was really starting to be a downer mentally, and I was looking to start doing something new and different that would hopefully lift my spirits. I decided I wanted to learn how to shoot a bow because it's something that always has been intriguing to me, but I didn't know much about it. My husband and both of my children shoot archery, so I decided it would be a fun opportunity to learn to shoot and finally understand archery talk in the household.
Travis and I were planning a trip to Hawaii at the end of May to hunt Axis deer. My goal was to have this my first hunt as well! I immediately started planning the process for how I was going to be able to hunt with archery tackle on our trip successfully. I knew that May would creep up on us in no time, so I had to get my butt in gear. The first thing I did was go to our local archery shop to try some bows and get my draw length figured out. When I went to shoot, I could not believe how challenging it was just to pull back the string. It took everything I had to pull it back with a release. I knew then that it would take a lot of hard work and time to get me where I wanted to be with archery by the end of May.
We decided to order a Mathew's PRIMA woman's bow with the help of @robby denning , and I immediately got on their website to look at my options for the bow. To my surprise, the PRIMA is a semi-custom bow, and I could pick out just about everything on it. I had the choice to choose from quite a few colors on everything from the riser, limb, string, and accessories. The website even lets you choose from multiple string colors along with your choice of color of string twist. I spent hours on the website designing my bow.
After ordering my bow, I decided it would be good to go with my family to shoot at a local indoor range to get an idea of what would be next on my journey to success. We went and did a 1-hour session, and one of the employees worked with me on posture and little things to teach me about the shooting process. It was very helpful and made me realize my journey with archery has just begun. We received an email back from Mathew's telling us it would take around three months to build my new bow. To be ready in May, there was no way I could wait that long to start this learning process, so we rented a bow and got down to business.
One of the most important things I needed to do before I started learning how to shoot was to be able to pull the bow back! I changed my whole workout routine to work on building up the muscles I needed to shoot archery. The PRIMA bow I ordered is a minimum of 40 pounds and a max of 50. We decided it was best to go with the PRIMA's minimum poundage and work up to the higher poundage once I got comfortable. I worked out five days a week building upper body mass, and I was doing specific exercises targeted for archery. After two and a half weeks, I was able to pull back a 42-pound bow finally! Honestly, that was one of the hardest things I had to do with the whole process of learning archery. It was mentally and physically challenging, and I knew if I didn't build up my strength quickly, I might not have a shot at being able to hunt on our trip.
My journey continued, and we decided it would be best to take a weekly one-on-one lesson at one of my local indoor ranges. My instructor started by having me shoot blind to get a feel for correct anchor points and releasing the trigger correctly. After a couple of weeks of getting that down, I was now shooting five days a week in between lessons at my house. I then started shooting at 20 yards, and learned how to use the five-pin sight on the bow at further distances. I learned how to pin gap and hold high and low for yardages the pins were not set for. I experimented with my pins for these distances, which made it a challenge having my arrow actually hit where I wanted it to.
After knowing my sight at different yardages, we started working on shooting positions I might encounter in the field. I learned how important it is to practice shooting sitting down, kneeling, and most importantly, letting down my bow if I didn't shoot. This was pretty hard at first but very valuable to learn because it may cost you an opportunity at animals if you scare them away while letting your bow down.
As my hunt was getting closer, I was now working on shooting with the clothing I would be wearing in the field. My instructor explained to me how important this was beforehand. I was even shooting with a bino harness on to get comfortable with my complete setup as it would be out in the field.
Stay tuned for more on my journey, as well as my thoughts on the Mathew's PRIMA !
Mathews Prima Women's Bow Review
Original Discussion:
To start off, my name is Andrea Bertrand, and my husband is a Rokstaff member on Rokslide, @Travis Bertrand . I have hunted a lot with him over the last 15 years and we've travelled to places in and out of the country hunting. Many women may think it is not something they would enjoy doing with their husbands. But for me, it's one of my favorite things to do with my husband. I started going on hunting trips with my husband because I did not like the idea of him going alone, being miles and miles backpacked into a wilderness. He likes to backpack hunt more than anything, just like many men, he will do anything or go anywhere, no matter how dangerous, to be able to follow his passion for hunting. After a few hunting trips, I realized how much hunting could teach you about many things and grew to love it, just like my husband. I now go on nearly every hunting trip he goes on. I enjoy it so much being able to spend time with him and being outside in nature and taking in the breathtaking views one has while out in the field. Hunting with him has been such a positive thing in my life. It requires a lot of teamwork and commitment. Believe it or not, hunting with my husband has improved our marriage in so many ways. It was always nearly an impossible option to get away with just the two of us since we have young children. Hunting has allowed us to travel together, enjoy hiking, and be out in nature together. It is a great way to get quality time in with your spouse to deepen your relationship. He has taught me so much about animals, the land, and hunting in general.
It has been very neat to be able to get the opportunity to learn out in the field. It took me a while to learn that hunting is not just about harvesting an animal. For me, every trip is about being in nature, enjoying your time, and sometimes taking another living life to provide for your family. I thank the Lord for every trip we can go on together, whether we harvest an animal or not. For us, hunting is a lifestyle from start to finish. It is also a family affair. We harvest, pack out, and process the meat as a family. Our children love being included in this process. It makes them more thankful for their food and sometimes makes them better eaters because they are excited to eat what they helped prepare. I am so grateful that we can provide the best possible nutrients and protein for our family with wonderful organic meat throughout hunting.
This year, I wanted to start the year off positively and have something for myself to focus on. Covid was really starting to be a downer mentally, and I was looking to start doing something new and different that would hopefully lift my spirits. I decided I wanted to learn how to shoot a bow because it's something that always has been intriguing to me, but I didn't know much about it. My husband and both of my children shoot archery, so I decided it would be a fun opportunity to learn to shoot and finally understand archery talk in the household.
Travis and I were planning a trip to Hawaii at the end of May to hunt Axis deer. My goal was to have this my first hunt as well! I immediately started planning the process for how I was going to be able to hunt with archery tackle on our trip successfully. I knew that May would creep up on us in no time, so I had to get my butt in gear. The first thing I did was go to our local archery shop to try some bows and get my draw length figured out. When I went to shoot, I could not believe how challenging it was just to pull back the string. It took everything I had to pull it back with a release. I knew then that it would take a lot of hard work and time to get me where I wanted to be with archery by the end of May.
We decided to order a Mathew's PRIMA woman's bow with the help of @robby denning , and I immediately got on their website to look at my options for the bow. To my surprise, the PRIMA is a semi-custom bow, and I could pick out just about everything on it. I had the choice to choose from quite a few colors on everything from the riser, limb, string, and accessories. The website even lets you choose from multiple string colors along with your choice of color of string twist. I spent hours on the website designing my bow.
After ordering my bow, I decided it would be good to go with my family to shoot at a local indoor range to get an idea of what would be next on my journey to success. We went and did a 1-hour session, and one of the employees worked with me on posture and little things to teach me about the shooting process. It was very helpful and made me realize my journey with archery has just begun. We received an email back from Mathew's telling us it would take around three months to build my new bow. To be ready in May, there was no way I could wait that long to start this learning process, so we rented a bow and got down to business.
One of the most important things I needed to do before I started learning how to shoot was to be able to pull the bow back! I changed my whole workout routine to work on building up the muscles I needed to shoot archery. The PRIMA bow I ordered is a minimum of 40 pounds and a max of 50. We decided it was best to go with the PRIMA's minimum poundage and work up to the higher poundage once I got comfortable. I worked out five days a week building upper body mass, and I was doing specific exercises targeted for archery. After two and a half weeks, I was able to pull back a 42-pound bow finally! Honestly, that was one of the hardest things I had to do with the whole process of learning archery. It was mentally and physically challenging, and I knew if I didn't build up my strength quickly, I might not have a shot at being able to hunt on our trip.
My journey continued, and we decided it would be best to take a weekly one-on-one lesson at one of my local indoor ranges. My instructor started by having me shoot blind to get a feel for correct anchor points and releasing the trigger correctly. After a couple of weeks of getting that down, I was now shooting five days a week in between lessons at my house. I then started shooting at 20 yards, and learned how to use the five-pin sight on the bow at further distances. I learned how to pin gap and hold high and low for yardages the pins were not set for. I experimented with my pins for these distances, which made it a challenge having my arrow actually hit where I wanted it to.
After knowing my sight at different yardages, we started working on shooting positions I might encounter in the field. I learned how important it is to practice shooting sitting down, kneeling, and most importantly, letting down my bow if I didn't shoot. This was pretty hard at first but very valuable to learn because it may cost you an opportunity at animals if you scare them away while letting your bow down.
As my hunt was getting closer, I was now working on shooting with the clothing I would be wearing in the field. My instructor explained to me how important this was beforehand. I was even shooting with a bino harness on to get comfortable with my complete setup as it would be out in the field.
Stay tuned for more on my journey, as well as my thoughts on the Mathew's PRIMA !
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. I haven’t stopped shooting since Hawaii! Archery is fun and addicting.
