20 yards is killing me

[Muttly]

If you're not yet, started stumpin..

[AZ_Longbow]

If you can pick a spot the size of a poker chip it can help you hit it at any range. It's when you aim at the entire target that the problems seems to start for me. The farther back I go the harder it gets for me to pick it.

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Originally posted by BWallace10327:
Quit ranging your shots and the mental block goes away.

Exactly what i was gonna say.

Not that I am great at 30-40 but I know when I can hit or not on a live animal.

Originally posted by forestdweller:
 

Originally posted by txcookie:
I have no ego lol. I'm at 45 pounds now and I honestly don't feel it. I can hold draw for about 10 seconds before I need to let down.im not ashamed to buy some 35 limbs to train with. May do just that

My friend, you are over bowed. I can hold for 90 seconds straight before letting down and still consider myself slightly over bowed.

My personal benchmark for not being over bowed is being able to hold at full draw for 2 minutes straight with no shaking.

I want to be in complete control over that bow during every point of the shot cycle.

Going down to 35# would be a really good idea. Plus since the limbs are a lower poundage they will force you to clean up your release.

Worst come to worse you could still hunt with 35# limbs and just opt for a heavier arrow weight to make up for the loss in draw weight.

Sorry if I mentioned ego or anything but a lot of people shoot 55-60 and some even 70# draw weights and with no doubt in my mind they are over bowed.

Shooting those heavy draw weights is fine within 15 yards which is a very close range and most form issues will not show up but if you want to be able to back up to 20, 30, 40, and even 50 yards and beyond you're going to have to be in complete control over the bow even when fatigued.

The most elite Oly archers in the world are not even shooting higher than 50# so it does not surprise me when I hear about people limiting their shots to within 15 yards or so with a 55 to 70# draw weight.

Chances are they are only hunting within 15 yards because they are way over bowed. [/b]

Are you serious???? The guy has been shooting for one month. Overbowed or not, I would not expect him to be shooting well at 20yds one month into his trad journey.

Bisch

Originally posted by txcookie:
Wow.   I can't hunt yet. I know I don't have the discipline to let a good deer walk at 20

If this is true, then you are correct, and you should not be hunting yet. You have to know your effective range, and stay within it, or you are aking for less than stellar outcomes!

FWIW, I shoot almost all my critters under 15yds. A few at farther distance, but most under 15. I guess I'm overbowed too?                      

Bisch

[Archie]

[Joeabowhunter]

If you are shooting well at 15 yards then you should setup and hunt within that zone.  Hunt but with the discipline and respect to pass on animals outside of YOUR effective range.

[Tajue17]

Like its been said above for those of you trying to become proficient at a certain yardage,, I regretfully avoided deer hunting for 2 years because I felt I wasn't good enough,,,,,, shooting 3D's that had targets set up by compound shooters (work details) that where too far I judged myself on those distances..

never again,,,,,,, listen if you are only good at 10yds or maybe 15yds then you go and set up your ground spot or even treestand so you only have a 10 or 15yd shot,,,, find the spot in the field that caters to your comfort distance or learn self discipline..

keep in mind every traditional bowhunter needs to have discipline where we ALL should know our max distance and we ALL have to just watch game out of range( a good time to practice with a grunt turning them back to you)  

so shooting 10 or 15yds and not allowing yourself to shoot any further is just something you will need to learn to do anyway,,,,,a person who takes Hale Mary shots at animals too far beyond their comfort zone is called a slob hunter.

my max shot is 25yds but I watch the animals actions and will only take that if they are not coming closer,, I prefer and will wait out the deer for a 10 or 15yd shot...

for practice I highly recommend adding another 5yds of practice distance to your distance goal so if you want to be able to shoot 20,, ((some quota hunts require a 20yd proficiency test here we even need to use broadheads))

so practice shooting  25yds for a comfort zone of 20 and so on,, always add 5yds.

[Friend]

A library of books, articles and shooting DVD's will likely fall short in replacing excellent one on one training that may have one on track in short order.

[Terry Green]

Yep....Shadowhunters comment...

Forget 20 and go straight to 25 or 30.


Your problem is NOT ego for God sakes... I'm not sure why people feel the need to label others as such unless they have an inferiority complex of their own and we do not tolerate lashing out and labeling people as egotistical for no reason at all. It serves no purpose but to make you look sissy.  So leave your smart a.s.s remarks for some other Forum because we are not going to put up with it here.

I applaud you for wanting to improve learning to shoot at 30 will make you better at 20. I don't understand the argument for not practicing at longer distances then you would hunt ....that makes no sense either.

I'm moving this to the shooters Forum because that is the proper place for this thread best of luck to the original topic starter stay with it and have fun and ignore the jerks.

[ChuckC]

"My friend, you are over bowed. I can hold for 90 seconds straight before letting down and still consider myself slightly over bowed.

My personal benchmark for not being over bowed is being able to hold at full draw for 2 minutes straight with no shaking. "

Frankly, I can't hold my arms up for two minutes without shaking.  

Sounds a lot like G Fred's statement that if you can't bend over and around and shoot between your legs at an animal behind and below you coming from the South while you are facing West, you might be overbowed.

I think very few people hold their draw for five, much less ten seconds while in hunting mode/

There is another consideration here, and that is that maybe you ( Forest Dweller) are UNDERbowed.  

Just give it time and practice.  Go hunt, learn about bowhunting.  Keep it close and forget about the need to shoot way out there while you learn, or buy a compound with sights and release.
ChuckC

[FullQuiver]

I found single arrow practice to be extremely beneficial. Put your full concentration into the shot, walk to get the arrow. You'll be well rested between shots and won't develop bad habits.

[Terry Green]

Or you could just buy a gun and forget the whole thing...


And that sounds ridiculous don't it???...     :rolleyes:        :rolleyes:        :rolleyes:  

Don't let anyone hold you down....  

[forestdweller]

Originally posted by Terry Green:
Or you could just buy a gun and forget the whole thing...


And that sounds ridiculous don't it???...      :rolleyes:          :rolleyes:          :rolleyes:  

Don't let anyone hold you down....    

I know right Terry, people should only give solid advice and not be a.s.s's.

Right on brother!

I know when I started was egotistical and wanted to be macho shooting the heaviest bow possible. Thank God I didn't or else my form would be worse than it already is.

[Terry Green]

Yeah....I don't shoot my 80# bows too often when hunting goffers out west....I like to shoot them with my 70#ers cause I can shoot them all day.

[charles m]

Looks like some new folks don't know how we play in this sandbox.  what's that?

 "tick-tock"

[Terry Green]

Oh....and btw...he's asking a shooting question.....not a hunting or ethical question.....let's please stay with the original question and intent and not go off on irrelevant tangents.

thx....

[trasher]

As a member of the German Bow Association I shoot 3-D tournaments in the Bow Hunter Recurve class.
The max. distance for BHR is 55 yards.
To be safe and familiar to shoot 55 yards, it really helped to train 65 and 70 yard.
After I was reasonably familiar with 65 and 70 yards, the 50 yard were no problem at least.
This works with any range also on your desired distance.
Shoot longer distances to get stabil with closer distances.

[flyguysc]

Its all about forum it shows up @ longer yardage. Do not get discouraged just stick with it.Its forum,forum and then some. Trust me it does not happen over night.  

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[KeganM]

Learning to shoot on your own, without guidance, can take a lot more time.

The big things about improving your shot are consistent form and a consistent shot sequence.

There are lots of great references out there. I'm a big fan of Masters of the Barebow vol. 3 and 4. They offer some valuable tools for improving, but obviously it takes time and dedication to get really good. There are lots of things that can "speed up" the process, like shooting a reasonable weight (45# is definitely a reasonable draw weight for your average adult male), shooting 3 under, and using a higher anchor. They're just tools though, and nothing takes the place of hard work.

Don't worry too much about distance. Shoot as far as you can while practicing, and just keep the shots closer in the woods. I've been shooting for years and I still don't shoot past 20 yards. If 15 was all I could handle, so be it. Going out again the next day is part of the enjoyment to me.