Gap ???

[SAM E. STEPHENS]

 Going to give dedicated aiming a try , have never done it so...

What’s your gap shot sequence...

Also do you focus on the tip or the target ????

,,Sam,,

[McDave]

My sequence might be a little different from yours, as I use the dead release and 3 fingers under.  I'm not starting from the ground up, just those steps that are pertinent to gap aiming.

My feet are aligned and I am in the pre-draw position.

I draw the bow until my back tension is firmly set, touching two of my anchors: the bottom of my cheekbone with my index finger and the bottom of my earlobe with my cocked thumb.  During the draw, while always focusing on the target and not on the tip of the arrow, I’m bringing the tip of the arrow to the approximate position I need it to be in my out of focus peripheral vision.  If I were to release the arrow at this point in the process without any further aiming, I would expect it to hit within an eight inch circle at 20 yards, and most of the time it would.

Next, I touch my other two anchors, which are the back of the cock feather to my nose, and the string to a certain place on my eyebrow, such that I have string blur in my peripheral vision.  At the same time, I’m rotating my shoulders into full alignment with the target, which feels like I’m pushing with my bow arm.

I have to tilt my head a bit to touch my final two anchors (sorry Arne) but this brings my eye closer to the arrow and reduces my point on distance.  I watched Jason Westbrock in MBB 5, and I believe he uses this same style of aiming.

Then I aim for real, which takes about 2 seconds for everything to settle down.  If I forgot to set my back tension solidly in step 1, this is when I start to creep.  If I’ve done everything correctly to this point, I just wait for the arrow to go off.  I'm not aware of the arrow tip actually moving during this stage, but if I do everything right, I should be able to bring my eight inch group at 20 yards down to four inches.

I've tried different kinds of psycho-triggers, but after learning to control my target panic using Jim Casto's method, I find that I prefer the old fashioned subconscious release.

[reddogge]

I've talked about this many times here so I hope I'm not being repetitive. I gap at the riser so at 20 yards I see the radius of the arrow shaft (point) being about 1" below the target. I draw, anchor, wait until the point stops bobbing, release and follow through. I guess I'm focusing first on both to establish the gap but switch at the last second to the target. I'm shooting split finger with middle finger near the corner of mouth. My gap at 25 is 1/2", 30 is 1/4", point on at 35. Hold over past 35. I find it very quick and easy to do this.