Are we really Instinctive....or good learners?

[Jesse Peltan]

"I think that everyone sees and uses the arrow to aim with to some degree. Take a handful of arrows,choose one and either bend it or put the tip on so that it's fairly crooked,drop it in your quiver with the others so not to know when you will be shooting that particular arrow,then start shooting.I'll bet that when you get to that arrow, you will be able to see in your peripheral vision that that arrow is not exactly straight. " I shoot with a thumbring so I can't even see the last few inches of the arrow. I couldn't see the arrow but my accuracy would be affected because the arrow would plane.

[dragon rider]

Ultimately we're good learners.  Once you get beyond things like breathing, and startle reflexes, that you can't stop even if you want to, very little that we do is truly instinctive.  However, we do learn to do a lot of things, generally by repeating them until we're consistently successful without consciously thinking about them.  When you get to archery, we tend to call that learned behavior instinctive shooting because it no longer requires conscious analysis.  

McDave's first post on the subject is right on.
 
If we had historically relied only on our instincts, we'd have been extinct long ago.  We're slow and have no natural weapons - no claws, teeth too short, etc., so our ancestors would all have been eaten eons ago.

[Terry Green]

Originally posted by stiknstringer:
I think that everyone sees and uses the arrow to aim with to some degree. Take a handful of arrows,choose one and either bend it or put the tip on so that it's fairly crooked,drop it in your quiver with the others so not to know when you will be shooting that particular arrow,then start shooting.I'll bet that when you get to that arrow, you will be able to see in your peripheral vision that that arrow is not exactly straight.  

 

anything worth doing is worth doing well. [/b]

I have to disagree as well with noticing those things as well as whether a certain point is on the arrow or not......way too many deer and elk have been shot with blunts by mistake by hunters over the years.  Luckily I haven't done it yet.     Depends on how you are wired.....some are flying rockets to the moon, and some are better at figuring the trajectory....and it wouldn't be good to switch the two.

Not only do I not 'consciously' see the arrow, I've had times that don't even remember drawing the bow.  Interestingly enough, those were some of the best shots I've ever made on game.

Sure, the subconscious can slap the conscious into reality at times....but not always.

[Divinecedar]

Originally posted by razorsharptokill:
After I switched to trad only, it took me a couple years to stop counting my steps from the target back to where I was going to shoot from.

Now I don't even consider it. I just shoot.

Ditto here. Thought doesn't enter the picture, just an innate kinesthetic reflex to a visual stimuli. If I think about yardage at all I usually wind up missing!

[Don Stokes]

My ex made a perfect shot on a cow elk with a blunt.

I am aware of the arrow shaft while shooting- one evening I was shooting judos in the back yard with two arrows. One had a light colored shaft, and the other was stained dark. As the light failed, I noticed that my accuracy became better with the lighter shaft. I wasn't aware of seeing the shaft until then. Now all of my hunting arrows are unstained.

[kenn1320]

I believe we learn a site picture from a given distance. I was shooting great, then put on a broad head and on my first draw I froze. my first thought was what am I looking at. No I dont conciously gap shoot, but subconciously I must be doing that with a site picture. I shot so bad with the few broad head tipped arrows I shot, I put the bow up and went back to my wheels. That was last year, havent put a broad head on yet this year. I hope it all goes well, will know in a few days...... I dont think about yardage at all, but my mind must calculate it and associate it with the site picture/arm. Ive heard of guys talking about shooting in the dark. How can your mind instinctively place the shot, if its depth perception info from your eyes is poor?
Ken