stickers on belly of riser as elevation reference?

[ozy clint]

i've been having a lot of trouble with the elevation of my shots, mainly hitting to high.
yesterday i put some sticky tape on the belly side of the riser to use as a reference. in my peripheral vision i would line up the tape level with the target. i must say it helped alot. with a bit more shooting i could set up tape for 10, 15, 20m. my idea is to shoot with this method until i'm confident then start ignoring them and hopefully my brain will take over.

 anyone done a similar thing?
i feel i need to try something because there just is no improvement in my shooting. i can only shoot what i consider good groups for hunting out to 10m. windage is usually okay so i think my alignment is much better.

what i'm getting at is i rarely walk away from a practise session thinking that i've improved. confidence is down.
to make things worse, i'm in canada and possibly going to hunt black bear and elk. as a non resident hunting oppurtunities may be few and far between. i just want maximum confidence going into what is probably 2 shots of a lifetime.

[Bear Heart]

Sounds like a plan.  Do what you have to do to shoot well.  No shame in that.
On a side note: what do you have to do to establish residency up there?  seems like living there for as long as you are would do it.

[ozy clint]

not sure how long we'll be here. probably until november. as for residency i don't know, got t check with the game dept and see what they say.

[sdpeb1]

I think that's a great idea. I've been shooting trad for 2 years and went with the instinctive method. Last season I shot over the back of my first deer. I was shooting good groups out to 35yrds but when the deer came in I lost my confidence in my instincts so to speak. My brother did the same thing but he stuck the deer with a bad shot and didn't recover it. He almost gave up on traditional shooting and is just now considering hunting with one next year. I've tried to talk him into gap shooting, I would think that would be a better method to hunt with. What I do for my instintive shooting is that I try not to shoot the same distance more than once. I shoot 15,20 and 25 yrds and  I mix it up. Then at the end of my practice session I go back to 35yrds and shoot six arrows and then one more time at my  15, 20, and 25 yardages. I've also heard of people attaching a primitive sight system on there bows such as a tooth pick or a piece of antler tip. I bet the Indians did the same thing. Good luck on your hunts.- Steve

[Ssamac]

Target shooter use sight pins on the side of the sight window. Same idea. Only they can be moved. just a little strip of something like cork or leather glued on and marked for calibration and 2 pins. Just good old straight pins will do. You have your high pin for the close shots, low pin for the long shots and you can even add a middle pin for point on. You just see them in the corner of your eye and can concentrate on the target as you should. I learned with these many years ago on a Shakespeare recurve and they were very useful. Eventually, you get that picture ingrained into you sight picture. What's also good is that depending on the arrow you use, you can adjust these. But I agree, if the tape makes you shoot better, use it. Why not?

sam

[BigAl]

I have a small, white crayon mark on the belly of my riser which zeros me at twenty yards. It's probably about three inches or so above the shelf. That's all I need. When I draw, I "guesstimate" the distance, draw with the mark in my peripheral vision then go strictly to focusing on a spot and not using the dot as a sight. Since I cant the bow, I couldn't use it as a true sight anyhow. I envision, in the future, not even needing/using it. I'm getting to the point where, for close shots, I don't use it at all anymore. Using this method has improved my shooting immensely. The good thing about this is that for longer shots, e.g. thirty yards or so, if my elevation is off I know it's due to something other than range estimation error. Of course, in most kinds of formal competition, it would be deemed illegal.