Had a bit of an epiphany

[Hoosierarcher88]

Tonight I finished work on the other half dozen of my new woodies and got my quiver finished and I just couldn't stand the itch to go shooting any more. So I gathered all my stuff together and grabbed my flashlight and headed outside. I set my flashlight up to illuminate my target and upon drawing I quickly realized that I couldn't see my arrow. Now I have always shot with a high anchor 3 under and gap shot or string walked. I was about to let down when for some strange reason I dropped my anchor down  to my index finger instead of middle and looked dead at the lit up dot and let the arrow loose. Imagine my surprise when I saw a shadow appear in the dot.

 Now at first I thought it was complete dumb luck till I repeated it with the next 5 shots. I always heard of people saying it shoots right where they were looking but just couldn't see how being I have always shot with some sort of an aiming system based off the point of my arrow. I continued to shoot for about the next hour shooting 6 shot groups at varying distances from 10 to just under 30 yards and the results were great. All shots stayed in a nice tight group in the spray painted spot on my target. Most groups would have 3 or 4 arrows actually slid together shafts to shafts. If I wasn't hooked on the hill style before I am completely hooked now.

[Charlie Lamb]

A great bowhunter who left us too soon called it "getting your confidence". Don't question it , just go with it and enjoy yourself.

[fnshtr]

I've had similar experiences shooting at a laser pointer dot at night.

Recently I was cleaning out my outbuilding and found an old "ladder" game. The one that has red rubber balls attached to the ends of a short rope, and blue ones one the other half. The "ladder" was made of 1/2" diameter pvc with fittings to make the "ladder". The idea of the game is to set the two "ladders" several yards apart and compete by tossing the ball/ropes and getting them to wrap up around one of three rungs with different point values.

Anyway... the ropes were chewed up by mice and the pvc parts were cracked and broken. I threw it all away except the rubber balls. Then I attached each rubber ball to a length of hay baling twine and hung them in trees growing against a bank along the back yard. These make great targets. I've shot at them for a couple of weeks now. From 15 to 30 yards it usually takes me 2 or 3 arrows to make a solid hit... sometimes I just "tig" them or hit the baling twine.

I went out the other evening after dark. I turned on a back porch light that only shed a little light near one of the trees with 3 balls hanging from it. I had to position myself where the balls were between me and the bank of the hill behind the balls. Basically I was shooting at silhouettes of the balls against the lighted bank behind them. To my surprise I was hitting the balls more often than during the day. I could not see my arrows or any appreciable "sight picture". I noticed that I was paying more attention to form than doing any "sighting".

I hit the balls almost every shot. It was great!

It seems to me that sometimes I pay too much attention to sighting... or getting the right "sight picture" rather than just trusting my bow arm and form (like Charlie said above).

Cool post.

[durp]

shooting at night is the best way i know of to learn "instinctive" shooting...its all about CONCENTRATION !!!

[Don Stokes]

I've told this before... One day while practicing on a 20 yard target inside the big steel building where we made arrow shafts, the power went off. Pitch black in there. On impulse (and knowing where everybody was) I continued to shoot based on the lingering image in my mind, and grouped the rest of the arrows with the first shots. I was totally concentrating on "feeling" my form and the memory of my hold on that target, which I shot a hundred times a day. Shooting in the dark was illuminating. I think shooting form and consistency rely very deeply on "muscle memory". It changed the way I practice, striving now for the most realistic and varied shots as I rove, giving my muscles as much memory as I can, I suppose.

[fnshtr]

Not to beat a dead horse  but I’m pretty sure my problem in daylight is simply concentration. Today I was shooting and not shooting well. I finally started focusing more on a specific spot (pick a spot stupid  and put my next group right where I was focusing.

The night shooting must have forced me to focus on the target as everything else between me and the target couldn’t be seen.

I just share this in case it might help someone else.

Good shooting and God bless!

[beemann]

i love shooting in the dark . 

[Trenton G.]

I shoot in the dark a lot during the summer since it's too miserable to shoot during the day. It always surprises me how well I can shoot when I can just barely make out a spot lit up from the porch light. Another thing that I've noticed in the dark is that when I shoot, even if I miss, I can usually guess within a few inches of where that arrow is on the target. 

[mahantango]

Justin, I'd be willing to bet if you hadn't spent all that time ingraining your shot by gapping and string walking you wouldn't have had the same results. " Instinctive" is a misnomer.

[KSdan]

Just telling a friend this week how amazed I am with our abilities to shoot these things. Been shooting the same bow 25+ years. I shoot 20-30 arrows 5-7 times per week. Some is target, but 70% is using judos around my country home and especially off my deck. I typically shoot at orange golf balls laying around my property. (I then transpose an "orange dot" on everything I shoot including game.) I'm also left eye dominant but shoot right handed. I have never used a sighting or aiming system. 

I shoot out to 30 yds but love that 25 on in. Truly. It amazes me that I touch or hit within an 1-2" of the golf ball and 10-20% of the time I actually hit the ball- with some days even better.

It works. We have been created with an amazing mind and ability when we learn to hone it and trust it. It just amazes me I can regularly hit that ball.

[Hoosierarcher88]

I know in the past as shooting gap or string walking I could always remember that I aimed during the shot sequence but to actually recall the sight picture when I shot or the actual release of the string was always a blur. I'd say I'd call it a semi split vision shot sequence. I would always be aware of the arrow as I was looking down it but as far as the aim itself it just happened

[Hoosierarcher88]

Here I am shooting barebow recurve and i can see I'm aiming down the arrow with my higher anchor. Now with the lower anchor my "aiming" system is essentially the same minus having the view of the arrow, I'm more trusting that the arrow is where it should be while subconsciously aiming at just the spot I want to hit. It's strange how the mind can just take over and do what needs done

[Roy from Pa]

You need to bring your drawing arm elbow down to a level plane with your bow arm.

Ya see how high it is?

[KSdan]

Hoosier. Just think about a baseball batter! The 3" dia. ball comes at him in .5 seconds! Its curving, diving, dancing. . . His eye picks it up in less than .25 seconds, calculates, and he executes a swing.. . Hitting the ball. ALL WITHOUT an aiming system.  Call it what you want. . Its amazing our mind/body can do it.

Just get a form/style down that is comfortable and consistent for you. Then master it. (All pro athletes have a foundation, but then develop their own style). Then learn to trust it.

Dan in KS

[Hoosierarcher88]

You need to bring your drawing arm elbow down to a level plane with your bow arm.

Ya see how high it is?

that's something I can't really help. I don't have full range of motion in that shoulder from a fracture when I was little that wasn't treated correctly by the hospital. Never hurt my shooting though, 6 state records and ibo world first place back in youth class lol

[Roy from Pa]

LOL..

I need to hurt my shoulder then..

 

 

[fnshtr]

LOL..

I need to hurt my shoulder then..

 

 

  me too!

[Hoosierarcher88]

I don't recommend it lol. 16' falls hurt. It broke right at the joint and the Dr didn't reset the break so it healed kinda zigzagged. Kept me from going into the military. Even with being physically fit I couldn't pass the physicals. It doesn't affect my shooting any other than I can't anchor back as deep as other string walkers I've shot with. Most I've seen have to tape their nose due to string contact, my string never gets that far back.

[burg]

well now thats what I call style right there good stuff