Paul L Mohr

You have target panic my friend. Straightarrow and Tfox have it correct.

Get a multiple spot target. Lift your bow and look at the spot you want and draw your bow aiming at the target. Don't take your eye off the spot. DO NOT put your finger on the trigger! Look at the spot until you can get the pin on it, then hold it for a few seconds. Now let down and relax for a minute or two. Now do it again, but aim at a different spot. Do this for a while, as long as you comfortably can. Letting a bow down is harder than drawing one, so you will get tired faster. After a few tries you will calm down and it will get easier to get on the target and hold steady. Once your brain figures out you are not going to release an arrow it will calm down.

This combined with blind and blank bale shooting should help you out quite a bit. Like said though, it takes time, don't rush it. This is not something you will fix in a few hours, more like day or weeks[&o]. It may never actually go away. You might have to work at it constantly in order to keep it under control. Target panic is sort of like herpes, it never really goes away[:@].

Another thing that might help is switching to a different type of sight. Try and find one that instead of having a pin you put on the target has a circle you look through at the target. This works very well for target shooting, never tried it on deer though. And you won't find a multiple pin target like this. I it will have to be some sort scope type sight or something with an aperture on the end of a rod.

I have this form of target panic and it SUCKS!!!!!!!!.

Good luck,
Paul

AllenRead

Since this is target panic, you won't get too much out of blank bale work. You need a target so that you can desensitize yourself to shooting at it.

Start with aiming without shooting. The main thing to work on is to get your pin on the target as quickly as possible. Drawing and then coming down on the target is not the way to avoid freezing. You need to get your pin on the target as soon as possible. Hold it fora couple of seconds and then let down.

After you have done that several hundred times and are getting on target quickly and subconsciously, then get close enough to the target that you know that you won't miss. If that's 3 yards, that's no problem.Continue close to the target until you are sure you are not freezing. Then gradually move back in two or three yard increments. If the freezing shows up at any point, immediately go back to the close target and start over.
Mix in aiming and let down, it will help.

The key is to train yourself to get on target as soon as you reach full draw.

Also, be sure to rehearse your shot sequence on every shot. There is the theory that target panic is caused by shooting your shot sequence out of order. Either a premature hold or a premature release. I don't know enough psycology to confirm this, but I know from personal experience that shooting close to the target and working on shot sequence works.

Good luck,
Allen

MdDave

thanks for all the advice fellas.....will it hurt to try the tiller thing to make sure thats not it.or am i jus gonna get my self into more trouble?

Arthur P

Won't hurt a thing. In fact, I don't even consider a bow properly prepared for tuning until I've got the tiller set. Get that taken care of and the bow tuned to a fine edge. Knowing your equipment is right just might give you enough confidence that your 'problem' will go away by itself.

Paul L Mohr

It won't hurt, but my only concern is that if your having trouble getting the pin on target you will have a hard time trying to tune this way.

You should really be aiming before you even draw the bow. You draw the bow on the target, not draw the bow and then start looking for the target. This is why it's important to have a bow you can draw smoothly. When you see people struggle to draw the bow back either pointed up or down this is incorrect and they are shooting too much bow. You should be able to hold your bow level, point it at the target and draw it back to your anchor points while still aiming. The pins should be pretty much on target when you settle in, not at the top or bottom of the target, or not even on it.

Once you get used to doing this you will like it. Makes it much easier to hunt this way. You can look at the deer, decide where you will shoot it, then draw, come to anchor and release all subconsciously in a matter of seconds. This is how most traditional shooters release an arrow. They don't have time to hold all that weight at full draw looking for the target and aiming.

My opinions anyway.

If you have any problems let us know.
Paul

TFOX

Paul mention the circle for aiming.I have taught both of my kids with a circle because it is MUCH easier to circle what you want to hit rather than cover it.


There is a reason long distance shooters and spotties(not all)use round sights to circle their spot rather than trying to cover it.

Heck,Bullseye has a scope glass that has noaiming referenceand is only magnified in the area that will be on the spot.


This method is very relaxing and I use it while hunting,at times,BUT I am not using a round sight but rather pins that I just put on top and bottom of the kill zone.Basically just circling the kill zone.Vital Bow gear makes a pin sight that will circle the zone.My pins are set at 20 and 30 and that is perfect for me to "gap" the kill zone.


My theory on tp is more along the lines that people don't learn how to aim properly and then they don't learn how to execute a shot properly and then they get serious about getting better but their innabilities to do things right inhibit their advacement.At that point frustration takes over and they are no longer in controll.

MdDave

"people don't learn how to aim properly and then they don't learn how to execute a shot properly and then they get serious about getting better but their innabilities to do things right inhibit their advacement.At that point frustration takes over and they are no longer in controll. "


i like that..makes alot of sense... jus gonna have to keep on tryin.. i havent had much time to jus stop an have nothing to do but owrk on this issue.. hopefully this week ill have some time.. thanks alot

MdDave

well i took a lil bit of everyones advice an put it all together n my own lil way an made a BIG improvment.... i started at 3-5 yards jus drawing an holdin the pin on target an not shootin... then after couple times i actually shot...then backed up to about 10..... did the same thing...still goin pretty good.... went back up to 3 yards an repeated then 10 then finally made it back to 20... an after about an hour of that,at 20 yards i wasnt "locked up" when tryin to bring the pin up.... soo ill do this same thing next time i shoot to jus for good measure... thanks for all the advice...hopefully ive takin care of it

TFOX

You would be surprised at how many will just turn their nose up at the aiming drills and never even try it.

Glad to hear you gave it a shot[8D]or not.



Heck,I still do it from time to time now to get over some of the freezing.You will probably find yourself needing to do it quite abit in the near future and a little less as time goes on but I will bet it never leaves your practice completely.

Straightarrow

Like Arthur says, it won't hurt a thing. In fact, it's the easiest way to pinpoint your nocking point position without having to move it. Do what Arthur described to get your aiming point easier to hold and then use finer tiller adjustments to fine tune your nock point after you get it close by moving it.

I'm guessing that adjusting tiller is the most under used tuning technique out there that actually gives great benefits. It seems like most think tiller has to be even. Don't go wild with it, because it can adversely affect nock travel after release. On the other hand, it can also be used to improve nock travel on some bows.