sky_guy_61

Last year I almost gave up on archery because I couldnt get consistent enough.
This year I thought I would just keep shootin and see if I could figure out what I was doing wrong. I figured it was something I was doing with my bow arm. Then last week I hit dead center and realized that my shoulder was locked way back with my shoulderblade sticking out. That was it!
I already knew about lowering your shoulder into a locked position.. but I guess I was not locking it back far enough.
So anyway, now I am hitting the 2" dots almost half the time at 20 yds.. and my flyers are not as far off either. At least if I have a bad shot I know what I did wrong.

This is the year I am going to get serious about bow hunting. In the past I did not do much serious bowhunting.. and was mostly using a crossbow.. but have not yet nailed a deer with archery equipment. This is pretty exciting.. I will probably even go after hogs when public land opens in August.

Thanks to those who gave me advice in the past too.

sky

dryridge2

Hey, Glad to hear it. Now the key is GOOD practice. If you start getting tired STOP!
When you make a good shot remember how it feels, imprint that on your brain. Believe me when I say you are MUCH better off by shooting 5 good shots a day and putting it up than to let yourself get tired, frustrated or any number of adjectives and mess up your muscle/brain imprinting. Also, instead of a 2" bullseye target tear off the tiniest piece of paper or tiniest square of off colored tape that you can see at 20yds (forget about if the pin makes it disappear) and shoot at that.

Remember the line from the Patriot in which Mel Gibson told his sons "Aim Small, Miss Small".

As a former ProStaff shooter I used to practice by putting a tiny dot on my bales and setting it on top of my pin or scope dot. Then when the pressure was on, I just sat the XRing or a tuft of hair on a critter on top of that pin and it looked huge setting there.

The next thing to concentrate on is Follow-Through. Try to squeeze those shoulder blades together and hold them there until the bow natrually falls in your hand. A wrist strap is IMPERATIVE. It is the most important item on your bow behind an arrow!!! This will give you the confidence to shoot with a relaxed hand and let the bow start to fall. Your shoulders should still be in formation when the arrow hits the target.

One more tip. The number one thing that I found in getting people hooked up form wise was that they wanted to hold their release hand still, where it rests during anchor. WRONG. This hand should fly backward upon release if you are really squeezing those shoulders. Pull hard against the back wall and squeeze the release until it fires. If this is not comfy for you the next best thing....and the way I shot with an index finger triggered wrist strap release.... was to anchor it by extending my thumb out and locking it behind or against my neck and push that thumb in there until it fires.

Good form is what you discovered. Good form is finding what works for you, then do it as a checklist. Mine was as follows.
1. Bow at 8 o'clock position, left arm extended partway, release fasted to string loop and both taught, feet shoulder width apart, slightly quartering to the target, weight mostly on back foot.
2. Draw by pushing forward and pulling with both arms and coming up to shooting postion while taking a deep breath simultaneously.
3. Lock Thumb behind neck, kisser on eye tooth, let breath out slowly as you find your sight picture.
4. Finger on very touchy release trigger. Settle pin on tiny spot, or just under to allow you to see the arrow rise and hit the spot (sight in appropriately)
5. Pull through shoulders while pushing thumb hard into my neck and ..... the magical sight of the arrow rising just above the pin and burying in the spot happend. It should come as a suprise everytime, at least until you do it so much it isn't a suprise but it is CONFIDENTLY EXPECTED...If you do it right you will never have to look for the arrow.

This is why it is important to practice only good shots, you are imprinting a sequence, just like walking or driving. Do it EXACTLY that way repeatedly until you no longer have to think about your checklist. That should only be a few years......And then if you start having problems go back to your checklist and see where your form went sour.

One final thing...... untrained forms will usually shoot left (right handed shooter) when first starting for the day AND/OR when tired. It is the untrained/tired muscles allowing the bow arm to fly out left. Never move your sight when you first start shooting or when you are tired. Most likely it is YOU not the bow. I know if I didn't shoot for a week or so, I could count on the first few going a tad left.

I am sure this is way more than you wanted. I am just an old washed up, now disabled pro trying to give new guys some advice and help born from way too many years and miles traveling and shooting and helping folks all over the east. Bottomline, find what works for you. Above are the common mistakes or things the best shooters do that many never learn. These little things are what makes the differnce between having confidence when the moment of truth comes and knowing you can make the shot and missing. I never missed an animal in my last 14yrs of bowhunting. My last 2yrs with a custom 32# Mathews, then my shoulders gave out completely.

Funny, you are going from a crossbow to "archery" equip. I am going from Archery to crossbow.

There is nothing like that perfect shot sending that perfect arrow to that perfect spot!

GOOD LUCK and feel free to contact me by PM or Email anytime@ [email protected].

Be Glad to help you any way I can.

Dryridge

sky_guy_61

Thanks Dyridge! I can sure use the help. Since I now have more confidence I went ahead and got a set of gold tip arrows from my local archery shop bcause that is what they carry. Some of them were not flying consistent (not sure why), but the ones which are.. are flying great. I did some paper tuning today and the gold tips are pretty dang close to center! The nocks show just a tad low on paper (less than 1/4 inch).. so may need a slight adjustment to the height of my rest.

Anyway.. what you are saying is definitely hitting home. When I am tired things definitely start going wrong. If I have rested a few days that first shot is usually pretty good.
I will start using a wrist strap per your recommendation. Before I didnt want to invest in any more gear bcause I was close to giving up.. but now want to do it properly.

Mid August is when squirrel season opens here in Georgia, and we are allowed to hunt hogs with archery equiptment then.. so plan to give it a try.

Thanks again
Sky