I've been hunting with a compound now going on 6 years. 25 yards and in I've always been deadly. Much past that I rarely ever could get a good grouping. Here is what I would do at 25. I would aim at the 1" black dot in the middle of my target. Spot on. I'd slowly start moving back and my groupings would get larger and larger. I was so frustrated. I tried everything every one told me. Nothing worked. Yesterday, when I was shooting I tried something new. Instead of trying to be so precise and hit the black dot I aimed at the 4" circle around the black dot. I shot 4 groups of 4 from longer range and it was amazing what happened. I think I was trying to be too fine. I went back to aiming at the dot and I was sporadic again. Aimed at the bigger circle and my group was spot on so I know it was not a fluke. Has anyone ever tried this if you shot longer distances and it wasn't going well. I know it may not work for others but now I feel confident if I had to take a longer shot I will be fine. Up to this point my longest shot was 33 yards. Now I'm feeling confident out to 50.
I'm opposite. Like the saying goes aim small miss small has worked the best for my grouping. I'm glad you found out what works best for you! Sent from my iPad using Bowhunting.com Forums
That's what was always engrained in me as well. I just felt pressured to hit the bullseye everytime. Now shooting at the outer circle I'm more relaxed and everything just seems to flow smoothly. Weird how such a simple adjustment has changed everything.
I'm curious what the distance between arrows in your large groupings was? What was it when you saw improvement?
I'm a lot less panicky out at 50 and 60 and it's bc I can't really see the dot behind my pins. At 20 yard I fight the bow, but at 60 I'm a lot more relaxed and just let er fly. I understand where you're coming from.
That's just it my grouping really weren't groupings at all. Sometimes they'd be ok and others it was like what the heck are you shooting at? When I tried my new trick , everytime they were inside of a 2 1/2" circle.
Congrats on the improvement! It sounds to me like a case of target panic. You were anticipating the shot trying to keep the pin inside the circle. The day I figured out the "surprise release" forever changed my results. Since we are so close to season, I probably wouldn't go changing your shot routine anymore if its working, but I'd be willing to bet your accuracy would improve more if you worked on a surprise release. Google curing target panic and surprise release. There is a wealth of knowledge out there. Work on it after this year and I will guarantee you accuracy will improve even more.
I wouldn't get too confident out to 50 yards on a live whitetail. It's a recipe for disappointment. I love to shoot long distance and will shoot out to 80 yards. I like to shoot one arrow from 20, then one from 30 and walk my way back shooting an arrow every 10 yards until I get to 80 yards. I like to see if I can consistently hit in the same spot from each distance. Then I bring it back in and practice from 40, 30, and 20. I won't shoot a live target must past 30 yards and most of my kills have been sub 20 yards. I missed several long shots when I was first learning how to bowhunt. Lessons have been learned and I don't take those same shots today.
You don't have to worry about that. Most of my stands I'd be lucky to get an arrow past 40. I've been hunting awhile too, crossbow for several years then switched to compound. Before that I only gun hunted which I don't do anymore, lol.
