Excellent advise davidmil. One thing I might add is, when you start shooting blind bails go to a triggerless back tension release like a " Stan" . I pretty much cured my target panic the same way. Blind bails work great. The whole process took me about a month to work out. One major problem I had was the farther the distance the worse the " target panic" was. After I got all of the kinks worked out and all of the fuzz out of my head that was causing the problems, and once my sight was set I never practiced under 40 yds. It was kinda like my way of saying " take that!"

thanks everyone for the advice, it looks like I have alot of work to do before next season hopefully I can get a handle on it.

Hunt4hobbie, a lot of good advice here. Besides back tension, I found that another thing that has helped me was I noticed I was dropping my bow arm. My consistencey greatly improved when I made it a habbit not to release and hurry up and look where the arrow went. Now when I release, I keep my bow hand pointing at the target. I have made an effort to always do the same thing every shot. I feel 100% more confident in my shooting. Everything seems so smooth. I think with me, my flinching came after the arrow was released. Hope this helps. Good luck.

Hunt4Hobbie: This is the perfect time of the year to admit you have a problem and get it corrected. You can' t be out playing golf or any of that stuff. Like I said, I just kept my bow and 2 or 3 arrows in the den. I' d walk out in the garage and shoot a half dozen to a dozen GOOD shots. I could walk out there as many times as I wanted in a night and it cost me nothing. Just stick to it. NO CHEATING. There' s no hurry. Take a couple months and learn what a great shot feels like. Keep doing it until they' re ALL great. It does become fun. You' ll be surprised at how close the arrows hit together even with your eyes closed. Make a VOW to yourself to become a better shooter. It' ll payoff in the woods big time. You' ll be confident of ANY shot and you' ll make them...... but you have to work at it for a couple months. Your problem didn' t happen over night and it takes time to get rid of it.

Davidmil, I do have a target set up in my basement to shoot at. I am going to start practicing with my eyes closed I know it will help it sure cant hurt.

Thanks everyone

THat is the ONLY type of shooting allowed. No targets, no sighting, just tuning the muscles and form. Forget there' s such a thing as a bullseye.

LOL....hunt4hobbie is gonna end up shooting someone through the wall in the next room.[] A word of advise, don' t forget to open your eyes before you walk up to pull your arrows

nodose, just wondering, do you use the Stanislawski for hunting?

Target panic was absolutely killing me so I took the advice of someone on this board (can' t remember who) and bought a true back tension release (Tru-Ball Ultra 4). I shoot this all off season and 3-D season and then switch back to my Scott Little Bitty Goose about 2 weeks before hunting season w/ no problems. It has worked for me. My particular case was freezing below the target....now I can shoot 2" groups all day long at 30 yards. IF you go this route, get a back tension release with a safety on it.....mine doesn' t have one and a couple bloody noses and many lost arrows made me wish it had one.....BUT once you get used to the release it is no problem at all.

BobCo19-65......Lord no I don' t use a Stan for hunting. That would pretty much be impossible. I don' t use a Stan for target shooting either. I just pull it out from time to time when I feel my form slipping. I use a Fail Safe w/a thumb trigger for target and a Fletchmatic for hunting.