First time gap shooting

[nightowl1]

I attempted to learn gap shooting today after watching an embarrassing amount of youtube videos on it last night. I have gone through periods of shooting squirrels out of the tops of trees and lighting doves to not being able to hit my target at 12 yards. Horribly inconsistent. Never have a been able to comfortably shoot and know that I was going to hit my target at 35 to 40 yards.

In 20 arrows I was walking back to 40 yards. I'm sold!

Couple of questions though...
I didn't want to start bad form while trying to learn a new style so I didn't try it yet but does the degree of cant change impact when gap shooting?

How do you judge your gap for animals low to the ground like rabbits, squirrel and small hogs?

[reddogge]

You may want to reprogram your brain to see the gaps at the BACK of the bow instead of at the target. So the gaps will be 1", 3/4", 1/2" 1/4", etc. instead of 20", 18", 14", 10" or whatever your gaps work out to. It's all in how you visualize the gap.

[Doods70]

Reddogge...that sounds interesting. What part of the bow do you look at? Riser? Rest?

My riser has a notch and I raise it first at the target. Once the "notch" is on target, I look down at the rest and that is my usual gap to within 30 meters.

Is that similar to what you are doing?

Thank you
Doods

[cloudbaseracer]

This back of the bow gap is interesting to me as well.  I have been thinking of switching to gap after 20 years of only shooting instinctive.  

Reddogge   --- Do you think there is more margin for error with back of the bow technique?  To me on first thought it seems that it may be tougher.  Just that the difference between 1'4" and 1/2" could be too close to judge.

Is there any way you could give some pictures to accurately describe your technique?

Thanks,
James

[nightowl1]

back up for some more advice

[McDave]

Nightowl, I think there are two kinds of people in the world: those who like the toilet paper roll facing out, and those who like it facing in.  Neither group understands how the other group could possibly function with toilet paper rolls facing in the wrong direction.

Such it is with gap shooting. There are those who measure the gap in feet or yards at the target, and those who measure it in inches or fractions of inches at the bow.  I personally could never measure the gap at the bow, while someone I shoot with can't even seem to understand the concept of how I measure it at the target.  There you go.  From my experience, once you start shooting gap, it will probably be pretty obvious which works best for you, and you'll wonder how anyone could do it any other way.

[Scott E]

I'm glad you found an aiming technique that works well for you.

My gaps are right around 8" at 20 yards so judging the gap isn't too hard when my point is in the leaves.

I think after a while your gaps will be subconscious and you won't need to judge the gap. Just remember don't aim too hard it leads to bad things.

[Al Dean]

My gap picture is basically the same at all distances out to point on.  Although the picture looks the same the measure may be 4" at 15 yds to 20" at 40 yds.

[nightowl1]

Scott E,
What do you mean don't aim too hard? I'm not an "instinctive" shooter. Tried that and it doesnt work for me.

I read a post about visualizing the angle and spot on the ground before even drawing. I like that idea and will try that.

[gonefishing600]

Originally posted by McDave:
Nightowl, I think there are two kinds of people in the world: those who like the toilet paper roll facing out, and those who like it facing in.  Neither group understands how the other group could possibly function with toilet paper rolls facing in the wrong direction.

Such it is with gap shooting. There are those who measure the gap in feet or yards at the target, and those who measure it in inches or fractions of inches at the bow.  I personally could never measure the gap at the bow, while someone I shoot with can't even seem to understand the concept of how I measure it at the target.  There you go.  From my experience, once you start shooting gap, it will probably be pretty obvious which works best for you, and you'll wonder how anyone could do it any other way.

McDave nailed it!

[gonefishing600]

Practice, practice, practice. And then come back and re-read what Mcdave said. and then go Practice, practice, practice.

[gonefishing600]

I for one, measure at the arrow, while my instructor was trying to teach me to measure at the target.

[nightowl1]

So ontop of gaping I changed from split to three under and my consistency improved. Was happy with it. Went to anchoring middle finger instead of index and found I have two reference anchors now and it cost me 15$ in arrows from me robin hooding. Haha

Wow, I don't know why I was so stuck on trying to shoot one way. Never shot this way before and it feels natural already. I'm trying to sell my heavier bows and get a good light weight recurve to start over with. I'm tired of being an ok shot. I want to be good. I'm committing to it now!

[2bird]

Looks like you are on the right path to getting to the next level... Good luck