SwampCollie

Something doesn't feel right to me all of a sudden. I feel like I am doing everything right, but I'm getting crooked results. I'm shooting "decent" at best out to about 20-25 yards, and then once I pass 30 its like I'm shooting a shotgun.... just spraying the target with arrows.

A month ago I was putting three out of three shots inside my bullseye the size of a CD at 50 yards, now I can't hit it consistantly at 40.

I personally don't think its the bow, I think its me.. anyone ever had this happen? This is my ninth season now... I've never had anything happen like this before? Help?....

brucelanthier

I found I was getting "anxious" and what I was doing was trying to move the bow out of the way(unbeknownst to me at the time)to see the arrow hit the bull. Of course, the arrow was hitting everything but the bull. Make yourself be still and watch the arrow "through your peep". I am betting you are not holding still at the shot. Another thing I found was I was not concentrating on the target, the "spot" I wanted to shoot. My mind had 100 thoughts running through it about making the shot and what I needed was to empty my mind and just "see the target".

Hold your body and your mind still until you hear the arrow hit the target. Once you do that you'll see what I am talking about.

Rick James

Just an FYI.......

I document all specs on a bow once I put a final tune on it. ATA, brace height, peep height, nock height, centershot, and DL. I will mark an arrow (or have someone else that trusts me do it) where the arrows contacts the rest so it can be checked later. If something is wrong, and I check and specs are good........then I will spend a few days doing nothing but aiming exercises (setup and anchor.....then aim, aim, aim, aim, letdown...don't shoot), and a few days of blank bale, and I'm back to where I need to be. If you know it's you, its important to seperate the aiming and execution for a few days and usually things come back together for me.

pizzitem

I had this problem not too long ago. It seems really hard to deal with so close to hunting season. I totally agree with both the pervious post. I found myself at the end of the shot moving my bow so I could see the arrow.

My advice is make sure your not dropping your bow arm. Relax.Also maybe if try putting a smaller dot on so you would concentrate harder on a specific spot that would help.

Jeff

kwilson16

I would recommend putting the bow away for a few days. Sometimes a short break will reset you. A few days 'off' will not hurt your conditioning too much. VA season doesn't open until Oct, right?

SwampCollie

You are correct, early October. But there are some other more important things (dove, teal and early goose) going on in september that keep me from practicing too terribly much. I'm trying to get everything down and set now, so that I don't have a major issue the third week of September. I hadn't shot the thing in two weeks until the day before yesterday acctually. Not because I didn't want to, becasue had a long stretch on the road at work. For a while yesterday I thought that might be the case, because it had been awhile.

I actually took out my backup bow yesterday and shot a while though. My shooting was much stronger with it. It makes me think that 1) the draw length, 2) the grip and 3) a bit of peep rotation on my main hunting bow are the cause of my concerns. I measured the draw on the bow yesterday, and using the ATA method (low of grip plus 1.75") it came out to 30.25"... when it is supposed to be 29.5". Thats a big deal... and thats why I feel a bit stretched out.

The grip, I just cannot find a consistant, repeatable, comfortable way to hold the bow in my left hand. Its got me moving around a bit, and everytime I change it, my point of impact changes with it. The peep rotation is an easy fix.

Those issues, coupled with the fact that I'm now worried about it when I shoot, seem to be the source of my woes here. I'm working on it!!!! I'll have it right here soon.

Mikey S.

the peep not rotating consistently will give you fits and you won't even realize it till you miss the X. It'll turn in crooked, basically giviing you a distorted window, and your eye will naturally try to center that in the sight housing and throw you off. You may even actually move the string closer or farther from your face with your release hand(left and right, not back and forth)to compensate for the distorted peep window and not even be realizing it.

Check your basic stuff: fall away rest adjustment, cam timing etc.

davepjr71

Swamp,

I'd bet the draw length issue is causing all the other issues. If your DL is way off you will have to stretch out your arm and hand to fit the bow and it will screw you all up. How old is the string/cables on that bow? You may want to replace them or put some turns in the string/cables and get everything back in spec and do what Matt has suggested with the blank bale practice. I'll do what he has listed over and over and just let the brain stop trying to make you do things.

Last year I went from shooting great groups to missing the whole target at 20 yds because of target panic. I did what Matt has listed only what I'd do is draw and aim 3 times in a row for 30 secondsand then draw a 4th time and shoot on the 4thdraw without shooting at a target. It's amazing how difficult it is to let down a bow when all you've done for months is draw and shoot, draw and shoot, over and over. You have to retrain the brain.

SwampCollie

Dave the string is a winner's choice (if that matters) and came on the bow which I bought new in April of 2007, so its basically 16 months old. Has probably somewhere between 2000 and 2500 shots on her.

What exactly is "blank bale" practice anyway? I know the gist of it, but not really the full execution of it?


I got a hold of my buddy, who was a HCA dealer and the guy I bought the bow new from. He has a set of short draw mod's that he is going to give me, and I'll see if that makes me any more comfortable.

I've been taking my sweet time shooting off and on all day, and for whatever reason, whatever it was that was making me shoot all over the place has kinda fixed itself... bow still feels a touch long, and my peep is still moving on me... but I've focused on my grip and found something that I think I can replicate every time... we shall see I guess!