3 under woes

[Pat B.]

I don't care about long range anyway.. My bowhunting is a 20 yard and under game. I can stretch it to 30 if I feel so inclined but to me bowhunting is about how close not how far I can shoot. I realize others needs are different due to areas hunted..

I've never been able to get my bows as quiet shooting 3 under but I've been hunting that was for lots of years and have enjoyed a bit of success..

[toolmaker]

More brace height, more quiet, all else being equal.

[graysquirrel]

shooting 3 under on PSAX and 3 piece longbow my bows are as quite as any other bow.  I use home made yarn muffs that are not any bigger than the store bought ones.  I DO use a somewhat higher brace height.  Both widows and longbow have about 8 to 8 3/4 inch brace height.

Playing with the brace height to get the quietest result is necessary whether you shoot split or three under.

And accuracy,,, well I and several others in our club that shoot three under can consistantly hit the kill zone of deer, bear, and coyotes 3d out to 40 yds,  Group sizes at 40 yds is about 6-8 inches.  Accuracy with three under is NOT a problem.

[30coupe]

I've bounced back and forth between split and 3 under. Accuracy may be slightly better shooting 3 under, but I just don't feel that I have control of the arrow as well, especially for hunting conditions. I know it's all mental, but that is mostly what archery is. I also find that 3 under is louder TO ME. I don't know that it makes a lick of difference to game animals.

I feel confident shooting split, so I think I'll stay that way.

BTW: If you are raising your brace height an inch or so higher to shoot three under, you are reducing the performance of your bow about as much as you would by adding cat whiskers or another silencer. Again, though, I don't think the deer will notice the difference.

Some people just do better when they can sight down the arrow.  It lessens the gap without changing the anchor point.  I used to shoot three under with a short recurve many years ago and I went back to split with the middle finger lined up at the corner of the mouth and tilting the head a bit more. My point on is still over sixty yards, but on deer the point is around their feet for most yardages that are reasonable to shoot. To get back on topic.. At times I shoot with a with under shooter, his bow is tillered for it.  At times he gets louder than normal shots. The cause for it was that sometimes he pulls harder with his ring finger and that throws the bow out of tiller a bit. When I shot three under, I had to constantly remind myself to pull mostly with the index finger, instead of pulling with all the fingers in an equal block with my standard tillered short recurve. The other thing that helped for me was to put an elevated rest on the bow.  That way I was pulling from a closer to normal tiller position on the string.