Hey everyone, I am COMPLETELY new to bow hunting so I apologize for the ignorance in advance. My bow is approximately 3 weeks new, and my questions are: 1. The last time I went to the range I noticed my strings were more in towards my sight than before at full draw. I saw another thread here where another guy had the same problem but no one really was commenting on the cause of it. Could this be because my strings are a bit more relaxed and "broken in"? It doesn't affect my shooting, and it is not within my peep, but close and definitely annoying. 2. I am guessing being a novice and the lack of experience has to do a lot with this question. My 20/30 yd. pins are pretty tightly grouped, but once I jump on the 40 my arrows are spreading out as far as the diameter of a paper plate. Reality is, the distance is far enough to where I know I have my pin over my target but not necessarily an "exact" location on it. At 50yds, forget about it! So the questions is, can I sight a 40yd pin at 30yds and a 50yd pin as well or even 40yds or MUST it be according to the pin, always? 3. At times, I feel like (especially at bigger distances) my hand, at full draw, moves a little more than I would like. My guess would be that I may need a heavier Stabilizer. If this IS the problem I am also guessing this is probably why my groups are looser at bigger distances (i.e., 40+yds). Do I need a heavier Stabilizer? ! Thank you ALL for your time and help ! ! Can't wait for the feedback !
1. What bow do you have. If you are shooting a dual cam you might be getting cam lean or you might be torquing your bow. I like this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzGAqdbl7EM 2. Always sight your pins according to distance 20 at 20, 30 at 30..... If your pins are really tight from 20 to 30 the skip the 30 and go to 40 or sight your first pin at 25 and the second at 35 or 40 then go every 10 yards. 3. Not sure if you need a bigger Stab but you do need more practice. If you want better groups at 40 shoot there first before your shoulder gets tired. Then go down in yardage.
You can make any pin sighted in for any distance. Your groups will probably be a little larger at greater distances, that's not uncommon. I would recommend just practicing and trying to shoot tighter groups. Work on "following through" on all your shots, and anchoring in the same spot every time. This should help you be more consistent. A new stabilizer could help, it just depends on the balance of your bow. Ideally your bow should have more weight going forward.
Torquing your bow comes from bad anchoring and/or your grip hand squeezing the grip and causing the bow to move. I got this from a bowhunting article. "Another problem a lot of people have when shooting is bow torque. Bow torque is simply a sideways force exerted on the bow when drawing. Bow torque is correctable once the bow is drawn as long as you don't grip your bow. David says you should never grip your bow and the only job of your bow hand is to keep the bow from coming back at you. Just think of your bow arm as a forked stick holding the bow. David says the fewer muscles you use when shooting a bow the better, and he shoots a low wrist. He lets the bow rest against the butt of his palm rather than shoot a high wrist where the bow rests between the thumb and index finger. As long as your hand is relaxed and in a comfortable position, it doesn't matter which way you hold your wrist as long as you hold it the same way every time and don't torque the bow. Bow torque is a major cause of poor shots when shooting from a stand. Some sights and devices are designed to help reduce bow torque, like the EZ-Sight from Scrape Juice and the No-Peep I mentioned previously. When they are used correctly, they all but eliminate bow torque."
Headstrong: Thanks a lot for your input, I really appreciate your help. I have a stock Bowtech Assassin 2011 currently set at 60#. I do have good news. Today, I gave my 50 pin a go right from the start. (I had only previously shot my 50 once before just to see where I would be but left it alone as I felt I wasn't ready for it). It was a bit high, so after chasing my arrow just once, I was nailing my target which was an 8" paper plate. I was expecting to chase my arrow a couple if not a few times, but after my first adjustment, I was on center and groups were within 2-3 of inches from eachother. I would say "not bad". I can honeslty say after a few weeks of having my bow and succeeding at 50yds today, for the first time I was having fun! That 50 gave me a lil boost of confidence. I am still practicing and will continue to do so with the help of all here. Thanks!
If you're just starting out, I wouldn't worry about 50 yards and beyond yet. I'd stay within 40 or even 30 yards for your first year. Get comfortable at shorter distances, work on your form, your bow grip, your release. Then as time goes by, begin increasing your distance. After you've gotten really comfortable at shorter distances and the shot is automatic, you can apply those same principles to longer range shooting and be much more confident and accurate. You'll also build your shooting muscles up, which IMO, is very overlooked, even for seasoned archers. This might be some of your issue with not holding steady. On the subject of not holding on target. Keep in mind at longer distances, your pin covers more of your target and it will be impossible to hold dead center on something that is probably smaller than what your pin appears like. The idea here is to pick the spot you want to hit, move the pin to it and then forget about the pin. Your sub conscious mind should then take over and keep the pin relative to that intended point. Let the pin float around, don't force it as that is what gets you in trouble, especially at long range. Just let it float around that point you want to hit, all while concentrating on that point. Again, don't force the pin to it Then, slowly squeeze your shot off as normal. This applies to all distances, not just long distances. Its just easier to keep your pin in the bullseye at shorter distances because you're not covering up the target with as much pin. Hope that helps.
1 other thing. Aim small miss small. If your using a paper plate make a 1 or 2 inch circle in the middle and aim at that. Give your brain a spot to shoot.
Good point! I remember learning this a long time ago. I was at the shop shooting, pretty well mind you, and a regular there noticed and said, "OK hot shot, try this". He had in his case, a couple of ping pong balls on fishing string. He hung one up on the target face and I proceeded by sending 3 arrows through it. Things like that really force you to focus on a small spot.
