better at stumping than on paper

[trad kid]

when i shoot in my back yard i have problems on paper at around 30 yards. but when i go out stuoing with my dad he shoots a compound so we usually take shots at prickly pears at 40 yards and im dead on. i feel like i cosentrate on my shots more when im out hunting

[Jerry Wald]

I hear you. Paper targets are great for tuning, but I get real bored quickly. Nice to see a father and son team like us. My son loves shooting. I bought him a new 54# A&H TD ACS CX longbow and he loves it. Just looking forward to warmer weather here....minus 42 right now

[reecool]

Trad kid , i'm just like you but not yet with the distances ! i set up in the yard some plastic lids stick 2'of the ground , shoot 1 arrow for each one and hit them very often but in the front of a target it's all over the place , still can't figure out what's my probleme ? i quit shooting what looks like a paper target !
 Eric .

[joe skipp]

I can't concentrate on paper or 3D...thats why I don't shoot either.

When stump shooting or roving, shooting at unknown distances, I find myself concentrating and focusing more. Its more realistic to bowhunting, taking kneeling shots etc...

You can keep paper....stumpin is the way to go.

[J.Nordwell]

I went to the 3d range today and shot well for the frist time this year on the 3d targets. I look at them like hunting shooting them when I felt like a true hunting scenario. Then I went to the paper target range and broke two arrows and was shooting all over the place.

[bowmofo]

I like Shooting it all! If it gives me grief the more I want to overcome it. ~MIKE~  

[GrnMtnTradNut]

My dad who does not shoot trad alot can take one of my bows or myuncles and shoot a 3d target like mad but put a dot on it and look out.?

[crazymoose]

When I'm in front of a paper target I sometimes have issues.
Put me out shooting 3D hunting shots not as much of a problem hitting foam.

[laddy]

I am always confounded how i can take an 80 yard shot at a pheasant across a field and miss by inches, then on the other side shoot a foot over the back at the first foam deer target at fifteen yards at the rondi.

[cvarcher]

Simple. A pheasant at 80 yards looks like a dot that forces you to concetrate on and the deer at 15 yards your looking at the whole thing.If you erased all that foam of the deer target and left a once inch piece of the heart-I bet youd hit it.In the field your more relaxed and focused.

[hawgslayer]

That's my problem also. Can't hit the kill zone on a deer paper target but I break 3/4" balloons with no problem out to 20 yards. Put 3 does in the freezer last season and had no trouble putting my arrow in the "boiler room". Just can't look at that big paper target.  

 

[Three Arrows]

It is all a mental issue, shooting targets of any type.  Stumping allows you to focus on one thing and if you miss slightly, your mind excuses the miss as "close enough".  Same with 3D targets, a vital hit is a vital hit.  With paper targets, your hits show up how far from the bullseye you actually are.  You can group 2 inches all day and go to shoot paper and hit all left of the bull.  Paper serves its purpose by showing you flaws in your form.  But for many, it is a dreaded thing to shoot paper.  I say that if you cannot stand to shoot paper, don't.  If you like a challenge, do it you will only become better.  There... I gave up my 2 cents.

[Mark Hedges]

I was going to say exactly what three arrows said.  I think it is easy to think you are better at stumping than paper because usually a stump does not have something that could be called a bulls eye, so you can be off by several inches and still think you had a perfect shot. Paper doesn't let you get away with stuff like that!  

Just my experience from stumping and shooting at paper.

Mark

[Steve Gabriel]

I concur with Three Arrows and Mark Hedges.

I used to stink on paper! I could take a few empty
containers, the kin you use for kitty litter or laundry detargent and knock them around the range up to 25 yards. Put up a target and sometimes I miss the target completely!

When I joined a club with 3-D targets, I couldn't tell if I was improving or not. Shoot a rubber deer from 40 yards and go over or under. Was that 6" or 1 foot? I'd try something new and miss, but did I miss by less since last week's session? With the arrow in the grass, I didn't know.

So I started shooting the field targets. Accepted the fact that I would be eating a fair amount of humble pie, but my goal was to shoot better.

Then I could concentrate on form issues and begin separating form problems from from lousy aim, and by "keeping score" on the paper, I was able to measure my improvements and see if I was just having a good day or if I was really progressing.
It's a lot like keeping a record of weights used when you go to the gym.

[laddy]

To get back to tradkids post, he is dead on at prickly pear out to 40, that does not tell me as mister hedges says still not shooting dead on because the prickly pear didn't come with a bulls eye. It tells me that things in his aim and possibly his form steps up to the challenge when shooting at small targets in a freer circumstance.
Perhaps I should have noted concerning the pheasant above, he ran towards me and at 55 yards he became supper.  I should have put my fall turkey tag on him.  It was the only feathered thing I shot at last fall.