Tips on holding steady
 

Well today was the first day shooting my new bow any real distance. What a ton of fun, I went to this walking course where you step up to a shooting area and theres a target to shoot at say 30 yards, a big stack of hay bails with alarge poster target of say a whitetail, bear, wolf etc.. everyone shoots then walk down to collect arrows and step on to the next area 10 or 15 yards away. You work your way through a really cool canyon with 20-25 targets up to 80 yards.

My question is what are some tips for holding steady up and down? I don't seem to have as much of a problem right to left, yes there work there too but up and down is where the pin is moving mostly.

Metro

RE: Tips on holding steady
 

You don't want to hold completely steady. It isn't natural.

You've got something called a natural 'arc of movement' when aiming with a bow, pistol, rifle, etc. With some people it is an up and down type motion, with others it's a left and right motion. Either way, it's what you want.

Many people believe that in order to be accurate you have to hold completely steady on target, so when you wavier a bit your initial reaction is to jerk the bow back into place causing extra stress on muscles that are already being stressed from holding the weight of your bow at full draw.

In any case, this isn't a 'problem' you should worry about correcting. Only a small percentage of archers can actually hold completely steady on a target. A very small portion.

RE: Tips on holding steady
 

lower your draw.,,...

RE: Tips on holding steady
 

80 yards. What kind of course was this?That isa pretty good distance to shoot. What kind of animal was it? How did you do on it?

RE: Tips on holding steady
 

I am not so sure I agree with the movement being "natural". Seems to me, that the more steady you are, and the more smooth you are, the bow shouldn't jump and you shouldn't have to jerk the bow back on target, causing the arrow to go who knows where. I know that when I am shooting my bow, I am rock steady on the target with a smooth release. Now, not saying I hit the "x" everytime, I just ain't that good, but I do get 2" groups at 25 yards, so I shoot well enough to kill any deer I shoot at, barring any "brain farts", which in my world are all too common. Also, when I shoot my rifle off a bench I am more accurate than freehand. Why? Because the crosshairs are rock steady on the target.
There are several things I think that affect this. Draw length, poundage, muscle fatigue, and target panic. Target panic being the most difficult of the three to overcome, but not impossible.
Hey, not trying to argue, just stating my humble opinion.

RE: Tips on holding steady
 

The best bang for your buck to help steady your bow arm is a quailty, 9" to 12" solid stabilizer.

RE: Tips on holding steady
 

Every time I post this, I wind up ruffling some feathers among the 'crank it down and leave it' crowd, but ignorance deserves to have ruffled feathers.;)

The biggest thing most folks can do to help them take out most of that up/down movement is to fine tune their tiller to their own shooting style. Just setting tiller to zero on each end with the bow at brace height (static tiller) rarely gets the job done. Your grip might put more pressure high up in the handle, the next guy's grip might put pressure lower on the handle Or vice versa. How/where pressure is applied in the handle can change the relative strength of each limb during the draw/aim/shot sequence (dynmanic tiller).

In an attempt to forestall the inevitable argument....While the actual strength of the limbs don't change, the balance of strength does. Imagine the bow is a seesaw with 35 pounds of weight on each end, and your hand is the pivot. As long as your pivot is exactly centered between the weights, the seesaw stays balanced. Change the location of the pivot and you have to adjust the weight on each end of the seesaw to keep it balanced. When the pressure is off center in your bow's grip, then the weights at the end of the bow/seesaw must be adjusted to balance.

When one limb is stronger than the other, the bow will try to pull up or down while you're trying to hold on the target. To adjust, hold your sight pin on a target, then slowly begin to draw. Watch the pin.

If it wants to pull UP, off the target, then the top limb is stronger in relation to the bottom limb. Back off the top limb bolt , add too the bottom limb bolt, or both.

If it wants to pull DOWN, then the bottom limb is stronger in relation to the top limb. Take off on the bottom limb bolt, add too the top limb bolt, or both.

Keep adjusting until that pin stays stable all the way through the draw cycle. What a bow does during the draw is exactly what it will do during the shot, just backwards and slower. If the bow wants to pull up during the draw, it's going to KICK down during the shot. Any movement from the bow during the shot will be transferred to the arrow, which will affect speed, accuracy and tune-ability.

Fine tune the bow's tiller to fit your grip style, and you'll have a lot easier time controlling that up/down movement at full draw. And your bow will be easier to tune; it will shoot smoother with less recoil; it will be quieter, more accurate and maybe even faster.

RE: Tips on holding steady
 

great info arthurp, thanks.

another tip i got from arthur was to do my vertical aiming with my hips, like i would do from a tree stand. works wonders.

RE: Tips on holding steady
 

Interesting reply Arthur.Makes sense to me. It would seem wierd having the top limb at 70# and the bottom at65# butyour argument makes alot of sense. I,m going to try it, I can alwaysput it back.

RE: Tips on holding steady
 

Wow, I don't think it should get that serious for a guy just learning how to shoot. One thing you can try is gaining strength. Be able to handle the weight of your bow and even the draw weight. Another thing that helps me is holding my breath when I am locked in and ready to realease. This steadies you a lot. Practice and practice til you figure it out.

RE: Tips on holding steady
 

The explanation is serious, camo, but the actual tuning is very simple. It's been part of my basic bow tuning regimen for the past 25 years.

RE: Tips on holding steady
 

Great info again Arthur and stuff alot of guys just flat don't know about.

One other thing to concentrate on that will lower the amount of sway in your aiming is to learn proper body position and form through the shot.
There are very specific planes that your body should be in as you go from draw to release that allows your muscles the most mechanical advantage as well as the least amount of effort to keep them in that position......everything from hand, to elbow, to shoulder, to foot position all play a very vital role in how steady we can hold on target.
NOBODY can hold absolutely rock steady, but addressing form and proper bow balance will reduce the motion at full draw. Each doing it's own small part to create a whole.

Oh and Camo12......if you research shot breathing, I think you will find that a shooter is most "steady" at the point where you have just about exhaled the last of a full breath. Don't hold it........that causes TENSION, and tension is bad. I follow this breathing pattern........
Blow out a full breath as I draw hitting full exhale at anchor/ Take another full breath as I settle fully into the anchor and begin aiming / Start releasing that breath as the aiming process finally hits the point of release. The shot for meshould go off somewhere just beyond the middle of exhale to the last bit of air left.
If you run out of air before the release goes off, let down regroup and start over.
Or if you run out of air just do what the majority of hunters do and mash the release!:DBut that's a whole other problem and topic for another time.

Aiming is only a portion of what can go wrong when you are after your true accuracy potential.;)

Oh and skip the Mt. Dew and Coffee.:D

RE: Tips on holding steady
 

DOPVFT,

That was where I broke my first arrow, honestly though I would have done better had I known it was 80. When we stepped up to it one of the guys said it was 70 yards, the gal that was with us who was far to my left corrected him and said it was 80, I did not hear that. I sighted my 40 yard pin over the targetto what I thought would be 70 yards and I hit the bottom of the angle iron frame that holds the hay bails. TINK!! And the arrow bounces back 8 feet. When I got to it it looked like there had beena small firecarcker in the tip and the field tip was long gone.

RE: Tips on holding steady
 

There are some good tips here about this. Here's my tip. I find it almost impossible to hold steady on target, expecially at longer ranges. When competing in High Power, my sights usually swing left to right with my breathing. For my bow, I can almost eliminate the left-right movement but then I get up and down. I set my pins under the bullseye and then as I let my breath out, I slowly raise my sights. When I have let out about 90% of my breath, the pin is on the bull and I release. I find it easier to slowly move my sights onto the bull than to try to hold them on it. I know no one that can hold any weapon rock steady from the offhand position. With practice you can be more steady but more importantly, your brain gets conditioned when to release the arrow/pull the trigger in relation to the small movements of the sight.

Arthur P, that is pretty interesting information. I have always been told that you want the tiller measurement to be equal. I'm guessing since you have been doing this for 25 years that this causes ill-affects? Just curious before I try it out. Thanks.

RE: Tips on holding steady
 

holding steady isn't something you do, it's something that happens when you get the bow to fit you. you get the right combination of axel to axel, braceheight, draw weight and length and you to will hold steady. :eek:

RE: Tips on holding steady
 

arthur, you're a genius and thanks for the tip. my pins were going up when i drew, and when i began back tension that's the direction they wanted to go sometimes. i took 1/8 turn out of the top and bingo presto it was steady as a rock. i took out 1/8 more and it started wanting to go down a bit so i put the 1/8 back in. i really appreciate the pearls my man, i really do. the draw seems much smoother also. amazing what 1/8 of a turn will do.