Hi atlasman, hope you had a good weekend!
Good subject. I just read a article on this. I was with my wife at her doctor apointment when I read the article. I honestly don't remember if it was Outdoor Life or Field and Stream, it was one of them though. The subject asked what made people a better shot. It was refering to wing shooting, but the article stated that people who are good with a shotgun tend to be good at shooting rifles, archery, basket ball, throwing, catching, at hitting a baseball, golf, and flying airplanes (fighter pilots), etc. The common denominator that the article stated was excellent eye sight, super crisp and clear, and the ability to see and concentrate on several high speed objects at the same time. In combination with with with excellent eye hand coordination. It stated examples like Jerry Rice and his ability to run down a football field catch a speeding football and duck out of the way of a oncomming defensemen, all at the same time. It stated that it is true that some are just more gifted and talented when it comes to hand eye coordination but in shooting and a lot of sports that can be inproved with practice. But with eye sight either you have it or you don't. It talked about a prouduct (again don't remember the name) that gave you a clearer focus on a object in motion. It did state that a person needed to have good to excellent eye sight already for the product to work. I my self have 20/15 eye sight. I honestly believe that this article is correct. Now I'm not saying that equipment doesn't help. Bows today are much better than even 5 years ago. But if you gave 100 people, equal top of the line archery equipment and had them fitted for it, there will still be first place, second, third, fourth, ect, in a contest. Now everyone out of the 100 could be, and should be good enough, with an up to date hunting bow, to be accurate enough to harvest game. That is where the good equipment comes into play.
It makes the average people more equal in their shooting abilities, and the great shooters even greater. It sounds like you (atlasman) have some of that natural ability that makes you a great shot. I am a good shot my self even with traditional archery equipment. I just know how to aim like shooting a basketball. My father tauht me a lot about hunting elk, mule deer, and duck hunting with guns. I was a lucky teenager and harvested 5 elk with a rifle. But I taught my self how to archery hunt. My dad always spent September scouting for rifle season. I went with him from the time I was born. Before I was 12 I always asked my dad why we weren't packing bows. After all it was archery season. My third year of hunting was my first year of bowhunting. I have never looked back, I love archery.