nralover

Folks, I am pretty new to archery, and although my practices have been mostly positive lately, I'd rather nip glaring problems in the bud now, rather than risk a bad hit on an animal for it to suffer because of my ignorance. I pride myself on never having lost a deer with a rifle, and never needing a followup shot. I believe I have accomplished this through lots of practice, and not taking irresponsible shots. I would like to do the same with my bow. So here is a pic- please be honest and let me know what is right and wrong with my form. Thanks, NRA

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v647/keljayem/Form.jpg

OHbowhntr

Suck your gut in a little, it looks like you've enjoyed one too many Budweisers, the tatoos are a little over the top, but nothing worse than my sister has, and the hat appears to be a touch crooked.....

Actually, the form (archery wise) looks pretty good. Somebody is going to say you look like your leaning forward, or your bow arm is too straight, but it really don't look too bad. The forward lean may be because of the way you're engaging the target, and the bow arm is not that much of an issue as long as you're staying clear of string slap, keeping a consistent anchor, and not torquing the bow. Grip looks good, and DL looks right to me.

Now I could be wrong on this, but I'm willing to bet that your rest needs raised just a tiny amount. How does it group BH's compared to FP's??? If the BH's are LOW, I'm right.

nralover

Sorry about the gut- the old lady makes some fantastic biscuits and gravy, and some of the best deer roast in the world. And for the record- I prefer Busch or Michelob Actually I was trying to aim down a little because the neighbors are right across the way, and if my release would fail, I'd rather bury my arrow in the ground than in the neighbors house.

I am not sure about the rest, but I can say that my Rage practice head groups tightly with my field tips... Any other suggestions? Thanks again, NRA

OHbowhntr

Buy some cheap Eastman Titanium Sabre 100's, screw them on, make sure they spin well, nice and true, no wobble, and shoot a couple of them and see how they shoot in comparison with your FP's and Rages, I'm betting they'll be low. Fine-tuning your rest will actually get you a little better accuracy even with FP's, I'm not saying you need to shoot Fixed or Expandables WON'T work, because I have both in my quiver, but if you can get your FIXED BH's to hit very near your FP's, it will help your accuracy OVERALL, not just with the FBH's.

But again, like I said, the form looks pretty good. Michelob, maybe, but never BUSCH!!!!! And for the gut, mine's mostly compliments of the Miller Brewing Company.

ijimmy

Your shooting form does look fairly good , the one flaw I see is your release arm is at an angle , it should be straight back , in line with your arrow . If you post another picture shoot at a target at shoulder height , that gives a better picture of your form .

BGfisher

The bow's drawlength doesn't look too bad at this point, but the elbow of the right arm bothers me. As jimmy said, ideally it should higher and the drawing hand lower, forming a stright line with the arrow. What's causing this is an extremely high anchor. If you could lower your anchor to where the string touches your nose instead of being beside it. Of course this will mean raising the peep sight and maybe even getting one with a larger hole so you see your sight the same as you are now. When you get closer to better form the knuckle where your index finger attaches to the hand should be tucked right in under the earlobe behind the jawbone. Can't tell if you're using a loop, but if you are you might shorten it as much as possible without the release jaws hitting the nock. This will help shorten you up some.

The other thing causing the elbow to be low is that your release is WAY too long, making you stretch out too far. Notice that your trigger finger is stright out. It should be wrapped right around the trigger, with the trigger located at least back to the first joint of the finger. Ideally it should be between the first and second joint so that when you execute the shot you are pulling straight back on the trigger.

Now let's work on the other hand. For starters loosen the wrist strap. It lloks tight at the wrist and this can cause torque. It should be worn loose. Now the hand itself. It should be rotated outward at about a 45 degree angle with no part of the palm touching the bow. The bow's grip should push on the meaty part of the thumb. Loosen up the fingers. In other words don't hold them out stiff like you are now. Let the whole hand just relax and you'll find that the fingers just naturally curl partly around the the grip, or at least the index and middle finger.

This is a lot of typing to explain just a couple little things that may help. Maybe not. But it's attention to all the little details that altimately can make huge differences.

drockw

^Very good. imo the bow arm and the high anchor point are your biggest probs. and imo the arent major as long as your consistent. the thing about changing anchor is it could result in tuning and resighting the bow. you might want to wait until season is over bfore you dicide to change everything jmo. but if the high anchor works well and you think that you are getting good results than by all means stick with it. it doesnt have to be a certain way, but changing some little stuff might make you better.
btw, its great you strive to be ethical and one shot one kill oriented. that is all of our goals, as im sure you know but i would like to say, bow hunting is a totally different world. there is so much more to it than hitting them with a bullet projected at thousands of fps. even the best of us lose deer and understand it can and probably will happen again. if it does happen to you, just try to not get too down on yourself. dont let it ruin your season. you obviously strive to be the best you can and at least you will know that you did everythhing in your power to be ethical. that beingsaid i know you know this and im not tryin to preachbut sometimes its good to hear stuff from others.
good luck
Derek