rustynobles

So I bought a recurve, thought there'd be no real difference, and I found out I suck something awful. I can get my arrow on the target (somewhere, not where I want it, but at least it's not flying off in the cow pasture) but that's about it. Is there any way to aim the freakin thing to make it more consistent? I like shooting it, but there's just no way for me to know right now where the thing's going to hit.

bigcountry

Practice, practice practice. It took me a good two years to hit things consistently up to 25yards.

Start with the basics. The release is beginners worse issue. Don't try to start shooting at 20 yards. You will struggle quite a bit for years to come.

I read a book by Brian Sorrells I think the name is, and I believe his regemen he has listed would get a new shooter up to speed faster than any other. Problem is its boring.

You start at 3 yards. And you shoot and shoot until you can hit 1.5" circle consistently 10 arrows. You move back another 2 yards and do the same. Each day practicing moving back and forth between 3 and 5 yards. keep doing this all the way to 20 yards. Each day for warmup do some blank bale shooting. Closing your eyes, watching your form, concentrating on keeping that bow arm from not moving, bow hand loose, concentrating on your release and follow thru. Concentrating, that all the wieght at full draw is completely on your back. Keep pulling that elbow back until that string is gone.

If you hand is right beside your face afte the shot, you plucking. If your bow arm moves at the shot, its bad, or you may be overbowed.

I suggest staying away from anything written by Fred Asbell. His technique about injured me.

Another book to study is become the arrow by Bryon Fergonson.

BobCo19-65

Welcome!

I think Big hit upon some very good points.

Work on form before accuracy. Aiming is really the easy part. Getting the arrow to fly stright is the hard part and it has to do with form more then anything else.

Just a couple things that I would consider important to a beginner:

Keep an open stance.
Bring the arrow to the anchor, never bring the face to the arrow.
Don't think about the release, think about never letting up the tensionon the string. The anchor is just a slowing down place.
A rigid bow arm comes from good alignment.
Release tension from both hands before pulling back.
Keep a deep grip.
Try not to pluck the string (hand comes away from face upon release, it's ok to come straight back but not away).
There should be a straight line as looking from above from the tip of the arrow nock and back of elbow.
There should also be a straight line (from above) from the grip point and both shoulders.

Bailsuk

This is sound advice , i just started myself with a longbow . Practice form before aiming , try a blank bale or big target and stand 2 arrow lengths away from it , close your eyes and draw and shoot . You will find your form eventually , i have been shooting Trad for 4 weeks and love it . I'm getting good groups at 10yds and even 15-20yds on the right day , its not like shooting a compound , but it is more fun . Practice Practice Practice

kevin1

Like they said, it's all in the practice and form. I shot at targets of varying sizes and ranges from as many angles as possible for a full year before I even thought of going hunting, having a sinkhole in your front yard comes in handy for that. One thing that helped me once I got my form clean enough was to use focus targets, I use Daisy Shatter Blast™ targets stuck to the heart zone of my 3-D. They're bright orange discs about 2" in diameter made from clay(or possibly plastic), they're made for airgun shooters. Those orange spots naturally draw your eye toa very small area and help you lock on, then form and release take over. When you can shatter them at will from one range you just step back a pace or two and start over until you can do it again consistantly. The difference a simple step back made surprised me, you wouldn't think it would have much effect.

SteveBNy

What draw legth, lbs and arrow are you shooting.
Type of info needed before any advice can be offered.

stealthycat II

welcome to the difference in bowhunting and compound shooting !

LBR

Although it has nearly nothing on "aiming", I suggest getting the DVD "Masters of the Barebow, Volume III". It features two world champion archers, and they show their shooting technique.

Consistency is the key. Even if you hit high and right, if you do that every single shot, you can adjust from there. If you are all over the place, you can't adjust.

I havn't read it (yet), but "The Simple Art of Winning" by Rick McKinney (Olympic champion) gets great reviews.

There's lots of entertaining books and videos on the market, but IMO some can do you a lot more harm than good. Some are a mixture of accurate information and complete bull.

Chad

Geronimo

I would love to get some personal lessons here in Central Florida.....anyone know someone?[/align]

Tom_L

I just started shooting a recurve myself (just over a month now).

I bought instinctive shooting by G. Fred Asbell, the book has been very valuable to me.

I started practicing at 5 feet. When I could hit the bulls eye (a 2 inch circle on my target) I moved back 2 steps, repeat, repeat.

Right now I have good accuracy out to 11 yards. I generally shoot 50-100 arrows a day, about 5 days a week.

Getting accurate at 5 yards took about a week. Getting to 8 yards took another week. Each successive week I have added another yard in terms of accurate shooting.

As I am a beginner myself the only tip I have to add is to keep practicing.