vairing yardage?

[kolt]

Lately I have been practicing at 15 and becoming fairly consistant. But I notice that when I change yardage it takes a few arrows to adjust. Do you move yardage frequently when you practice or just work at one set yardage? Also It been hot here in Texas so I will go out and shoot 12 or so arrows and maybe 20-30 mins later I'll go shoot another dozen and I do it several times a day. Id it ok to leave the bow strung throught the day or best to unstring it every time?

[billy shipp]

Kolt

I rarely shoot 2 arrows from the same yardage. I like a couple of arrows with Judo points and a tennis ball. I throw the tennis ball out a distance, shoot at it, go fetch the arrow and throw the ball to a different spot, and shoot again.
I leave my glass bows strung If I'm shooting them every week or so, but I don't leave them in the hot sun, strung or unstrung. If I'm shooting a selfbow, I unstring It when I'm finished shooting it.

Billy

[Can Hahaka]

I start at 20 yards and move on in to about 8 yards - then it varies from 15-20 yards for the next 50 or so arrows. I am getting tighter groups this way.

[Bowspirit]

I start with 3 or 6 (depending on my stamina for the day) arrows at 20 yards, then move back @ 5 yards increments until I hit 40 yards. Then, I do the same thing, but make my way down to 5 yards.
I feel this kind of consistant shooting is important to get a "feel for my arrow", so to speak. Don't get me wrong, I throw in plenty of stumping and backyard roving with a tennis ball. But I always make sure to come back to my set yardage practice, which I feel is just as nessecary...

[celticknot]

my friend shane makes bows he has left his strung for 3 years and hasn,t had a problem. Most modern bows can withstand this because of modern materials. just make sure not to leave it sitting in a corner for to long because that can cause twisted limbs. try to hang them up when your not going to be using them for a long period of time

[Tater John]

cool,commerical breaks

Rusty

[madness522]

I like to shoot a few from 18 yards or so to get the feel for how I'm shooting then start walking away from the target. When I get an arrow nocked I turned and shoot and I try my best not to count the steps.  Then I start walking and nocking a few steps turn and fire. If that arrow isn't where I want it or close I'll fire another one.  Then I repeat until I'm out of arrows.  I usually carry 5 or 6 arrows and have gotten as far back as 40 yards.  Those are the shots where I wish I had another arrow or two.  This will get you used to seeing the target at different distances and help you get the mental picture of what your sight picture should look like.

[Bjorn]

I shoot single arrows from varying distances and pull after each one. I don't unstring glass bows; but don't leave them in the hot sun either.

[Deadsmple]

I'm like Bjorn, I shoot a single arrow from varying distances and pull after each shot. Added benefit is you save a lot of nocks that way.

As far as stringing and unstringing, my lam bows usually stay strung if I'm shooting regularly but get unstrung if I know I won't be shooting for more than a week.

[Widowbender]

I pretty much do the same routine as madness552.

David

[NDTerminator]

I don't think in terms of yardage, but distance/sight picture. I shoot from varying distances, mostly from around 25 yards or closer.  I also shoot more judo points at clumps of grass & such, than I do target points at a fixed target butt...

[ewilson]

I try to not shoot from the same place or distance twice while practicing, seems to make me a better shot in the woods.

[Daddy Bear]

I hunt and practice with heavy hunting arrows that result in a fair amount of arc at moderate distances. The majority of my shooting involves shooting small and big game hunting heads. This forces me to shoot one arrow at a time. I do beleive that mixing up the distances by shooting at random yardage distributed across a normal hunting range as well as pushing beyond max distances is beneficial. I find it good for developing and maintaining motor memory skill sets needed to judge distance and accurately shoot at unknown varied distances afield. This is assuming you have form down and are capable of shooting well over the same range of distances.

I break it down into a structured practice where I'm shooting on 3D targets at known distances where I'll shoot from around 10 yards out to about 40yards by mixing it up such as one shot each at 35, 10, 30, 20, 15, 25, 40, 13, 33, 23,  38, 18, 28. I may shoot one such mixed round robin for each of my hunting/shooting positions. I then like to build on this structured practice with informal stump shooting at random unknown distances. I'll also include some movers and aerials to keep things fresh.

Such practice and lots of small game hunting helps me out a bunch so that I give little thought to yardage other than is it close enough.

later,
Daddy Bear

[kolt]

Had the inlaws over last night and me and my brother-in-law hung a tennis ball from the swing set with a target behind it as a backstop. Made practice alot of fun. The wind was blowing prety hard and made for some hard shots. The funny thing is when pulling the arrows we noticed our groups were much better than when just shooting at a regular target.