Aiming

[goodolboy94]

why would the eye dominance make a differnce you shoot with both eyes open any way

[Muskoxman]

Hey Good old boy,

I guess thats really what I was asking. What difference does it make if you're keeping both eyes open anyhow?

John

[BLACK WOLF]

Keeping both eyes open helps in depth perception.

Having your dominant eye directly over the top of the arrow while aiming makes it easier for the brain to see and adjust windage.

Ray  

[stmpthmpr]

Actually doing a simple test to check eye dominance can help with understanding it's importance.

Put your hands out flat with your fingers together and your thumbs out at right angles to your hands. Now slide hands together, fingers over fingers and thumb over thumb until you have a small triangular shaped hole the size of a broadhead. Now pick a tiny spot in the distance as you would for a bow shot and with your arms stretched straight out, QUICKLY raise your "sight window to see the spot through the hole in your hands. Now draw your hands back to your face,keeping the spot in sight until your hands reach an eye. The eye thats looking through the hole is the dominant one.

I dont pretend to know how the brain sends signals to the muscles that cause you to raise your hands to your dominant eye every time, but it does make a whole lot of sense that we wouldnt want to draw a string up to the eye that doesnt have that direct connection to that mechanism.

A friend of mine learned about eye dominance after years of shooting. His brain made the adjustment and he is a decent shot. But starting out, the road to consistantly accurate shooting must be a much shorter one when hand and eye are in sinc.

[Swamp Pygmy]

I personally never bought the idea of instinctive shooting being better.

It doesn't take any longer to gap shoot and its certainly more effective. The only time its not is in very low light situations or on running game.

IMHO there are alot of people who use instinctive shooting as an excuse for poor accuracy.

They say "I don't need to shoot at 20yds. This is better for hunting" and to me that is a lil too much like those guys at the rifle range with gut shots and laugh without being bothered and say "I'm not much on the range but I wear them out on the field!"

yeah I don't think so. If you can drive tacks with both methods at 15 yds but with one method you can do it at 25yds too I think that is a better aiming system personally.

Done correctly gap style shooting is as fast as instinctive shooting. The only advantage I see to instinctive is on running game which you shouldn't be taking shots at unless they are at can't miss distances anyway so I really don't see why so many people are enamored with instinctive shooting.

just my .02

Are there guys that can drive tacks (not literally of course) out to 30yds with instinctive shooting? No doubt. There sure are. But for every one of them I'd say there are 100 that have 6in groups at 15yds and couldn't hit running game anyway. Not every gap shooter is rod jenkins or larry yien but I do think with a visual marker to use 90% if the people can tighten their groups.

[WidowEater]

i used to hunt opposite handed of eye dominance and when I switched over to where i was supposed to be everything just clicked into place.  of course this back in the wheelie days...

[elkbreath]

hmmmm....  Ok, been shooting for 6 years now.  I shoot decent, can generally hit a coke bottle to 30 yards the vast majority of times.   But, I am in no way satisfied with this.  I used to shoot 4" groups with a compound at 40+ yards, with a peep.  I have always wanted my 25 and under shots (like all of us) to be very consistent with the barebow.  But, never have been able to do it.

ANYWAY.  I just held my hands out like it was said.  I focused on a dot in the distance and closed my left eye.  i no longer could see the spot.  I closed my right eye, and there it is in the middle of the sight window.  What the heck?  Does this mean I am left eye dominant, have always been?  Since I am right handed, how should I apply this information to better shooting?  Thanks, Dan

[SteveMcD]

There are many many excellent sources today regarding Instinctive shooting, in book and DVD. For the beginner though.. I would highly recommend Brian Sorrell's, "Beginner's Guide to Traditional Archery". Read it, and follow the practice exercises exactly as written.

[Muskoxman]

Hey Guys, after reading up on gap shooting I realized thats what I'm doing (remember I'm a newbie). I draw back to my anchor point hold for a couple of seconds while my eyes kinda do this split vision thing and then release. Any advice on gap shooting would be appreciated. I wasn't really blessed with excellent hand to eye coordination. I have a simpler test for dominant eye, just hold your fist out at arms length with your thumb up, with both eyes open line your thumb up with an stationary object close one eye after another, the eye your thumb doesn't move for is dominant.

Hey I'm getting better, another crazy thing is I've gotten taller. I've got kind of a crooked back, not like a hunch back but my right shoulder sits lower than my left. My fiend came over the other day who's about my same height and I seemed taller than him. Sure enough I've gained a quarter of an inch ! Pulling this bow is straiting me out, another use for a stick bow, back straightener !

Thanks,  John

[DeerSpotter]

The best thing my wife did for me, I might add without me knowing it, she took photos of me while I was shooting, it showed me the inconsistency on some shots, it was a big help.

Now some on here have said had someone take a video, I think that would be better, although the photos in my case did reveal what I need to do to have better form.

Consistency in your form is the best thing you can do for yourself.

Master of the longbow I , Rick Welsch instructional hunting shooting DVD, is another great one.  Rick Welsch is more back to the fundamentals and the basics, and that's where it's all at, doing the same thing over and over consistently


Carl

[Muskoxman]

Hey Carl,

Ya I really can feel it when my form is right and thats when my shooting gets better. I ordered that DVD and a cricket clicker. I notice when I really flex my back and get to the end of my draw is when I shoot good.

Thanks,
John

[DeerSpotter]

For the longest time I've been telling people I had a 29" draw, but since my wife took the photos, I don't think so, I could very well be at 28" but years ago with wheels I was 29".  I also find that if I relax, and get into concentrating heavily on one-shot it is so much better.  Other than that you're just flinging arrows.

But I do like the simplicity of Rick Welsch, commonsense archery.


Carl

[Swamp Pygmy]

I was personally relieved on the Master of the BB DVD when larry yien who is a champion gap shooter said he shoots opposite hand of his dominant eye just like I do. He said "So I squint". And that made me feel a whole lot better.

I don't see what the big deal is. Granted I don't shoot over my dominant eye so I also don't know what I'm missing by shooting like that.

But by simply squinting I can either see the arrow or "see through" the arrow (its still there, and in focus, but I can see cleanly through it like glass) when I want to shoot at a larger distance. I can stack easily.

Muskox: you asked for tips. I'm new too but some things that helped me are:

1) "keep your shoulder down". If you raise your bow arms shoulder it will change your point of impact but not look different in your vision. They say to practice form for that by pushing against a door frame.

2)"aim with your shoulders in alignment." look at that clock with the archer in it they show around here. Proper form is more important than aiming. I didn't understand what they meant until I really studied that clock and analyzed why my shots were going left or right regardless of how I changed my foot stances from open, closed, or even.

Other than memorizing your gaps and keeping your bow arm stiff, practicing clean release and all the other basics those two tips were what was really giving me inconsistent accuracy. I had a low poundage bow, numerous anchor points coming natural to me. And really good accuracy.

Except for the random shot in perfect alignment just 12 inches low for some unknown reason. (raising shoulder during draw). And the random shot 6 inches left or right of my intended target. (bad form, shoulders out of alignment)

Both of those were very frustrating because I didn't see- or perhaps remember- them in the videos and the arrow looked straight in my view. I had my gap right, Numerous bone oriented anchor points, but the shoots weren't going right. And those were why. Hope it helps.

[hawgslayer]

 

 

[BLACK WOLF]

This is ONLY for communicative purposes so we can all be somewhat on the same page or better understand what is going on while we aim.

Everyone aims a bow and arrow if they are pointing it at something and trying to hit. Look up the word 'aim' and it should explain it and define it.

There's just different ways to do aim...and when an archer aims Instinctively...their not consciously analizing it to the point they exactly know where the arrow point or any other reference they maybe using in relationship to the target needs to be.

The aiming primarily happens within the subconscious.

Ray