The Archery Project

I've been a short bow guy my whole life — 30, 31, maybe 32 inches max. But after hunting and shooting TAC events with my Mach 33 this past year, something shifted. This episode breaks down exactly why I've changed my mind on longer ATA bows, what finally pushed me over the edge, and whether the trade-offs are actually as big a deal as I always thought they were. We get into string angle, draw...

Your bow didn’t “just stop shooting” overnight, and the fix usually isn’t a mystery product or a random twist of the rest. We take a stack of listener questions and turn them into a clear troubleshooting path for the most common accuracy killers: drop-away rest timing that’s ripping fletchings, cam timing that’s out of sync, and setups that drift so far off-spec you end up chasing one paper tear...

Your legs are burning, the target is steep downhill, and a line of shooters is waiting while you try to range, dial, and execute a clean shot on uneven rock. Total Archery Challenge doesn’t just test how well you shoot a bow, it tests whether your process holds up when terrain, fatigue, and pressure all hit at once.We walk through the biggest TAC pain points we see every season and the fixes that...

Buying your first hunting compound bow should feel exciting, not confusing and expensive. We see tons of new archers get stuck comparing brands, speed ratings, and “flagship vs budget” arguments, then end up with a bow that never feels right because it was not fitted or tuned correctly. So we go straight at the real problem: how to choose a compound bow you can grow with, and how to make sure it...

A turkey can look huge in the field, right up until you try to thread an arrow into a tiny vital zone on a bird that never stops moving. That’s why broadhead choice matters more for archery turkey hunting than most people want to admit. Zach from Extreme Outfitters sits down with JR Gettler to sort through the real tradeoffs between mechanical broadheads, fixed blade broadheads, and guillotine or...

TAC doesn’t care how confident you feel in the parking lot. Once you’re on a steep hillside, shooting in the rain, trying to range a dark 3D target through brush with a group watching, you find out what’s real about your setup and your shot process. We’re fresh back from Total Archery Challenge in Indiana and Kentucky, and we’re unpacking the stuff you only learn by being there: the terrain that...

Your bow can be perfectly tuned and still throw random arrows if your shot process changes from one rep to the next. We get real about the hardest part of archery: consistency. I walk through the shot sequence I rely on when I’m trying to tighten groups on the range and carry that calm, repeatable execution into bowhunting season. If you’ve ever blamed your gear for a flyer, this conversation is...

Buying a compound bow shouldn’t feel like a guessing game where the only safe answer is “spend more.” I’m Zakk Plocica from Extreme Outfitters, and I walk you through a clear, practical way to pick the right compound bow based on how you actually hunt, how often you shoot, and what you can realistically budget.We break the market into three price tiers: entry level, mid price, and flagship....

Feeling buried under bow specs, tuning hacks, and must-have accessories? We take a hard look at modern archery’s tech surge and make a case for something rarer and far more effective for bowhunters: simplicity with a purpose. Instead of chasing every new sight, rest, and arrow layout, we walk through a clean, goal-driven setup that holds up in the woods and under pressure.We start by drawing a...

Misses that drift left, right, high, or low rarely start at the target—they start in your hands. We dig into the small, overlooked habits that make or break accuracy and share the exact steps we use to tighten groups fast. No gear hype, just clear fixes you can test today.We start with the bow hand, because torque is the first domino. Learn how to set the grip into your lifeline, relax the...