Anybody think that we tend to over think?

[buckeyebowhunter]

My shooting has pretty much come full circle. I've basically been through every style of shooting you could imagine, instinctive, gapping, fixed crawl, string walking, even a sight this year. And while I've had success and failure with them all I felt like I was getting away from the reason i liked traditional bows in the first place and that's simplicity.

I feel like picking your spot and shooting instinctively letting your muscle memory take over is about as full proof of a shooting system as you can get for hunting ranges. My max is about 20 yards.

And while I liked some of the other styles for a bit I felt like ultimately I was getting in my own way on poor shooting days and in hunting situations i was overthinking everything with the elaborate shot process.
Anybody else with me?

[McDave]

I enjoy reading about and trying different things.  That’s just my personality.

However, I agree with your comment, although perhaps not in the way you intended.  No matter how much I may think about things in between shots, I have found that if I think about anything at all from the time I start to draw the bow until the arrow is on its way, it’s not going to be a good shot.  It’s fine if I focus on back tension, aim, feel the string on my string fingers and the bow in my bow hand, etc., which is a form of thinking, I guess, but all without words.  Once words enter my head, my concentration is gone.

[David Phillips]

You just described 99.999% of shooting problems root cause ...dabbling. If someone picked a shooting style one shooting style and stuck to it you wouldn’t have so many people shooting poorly. Unless your using a bow mounted site all the time your causing your on problems switching bows, arrow weight, broadhead weight or shooting style.Without a bow mounted site your using hand eye coordination and muscle memory to repeatedly hit what your aiming at. Continuing to change bows, and arrow weights and shooting styles only restarts the brains attempt to make the calculations. I’m pretty certain professional baseball players spend zero time throwing ping pong balls and I doubt Tom Brady has much of a curveball. If you really like variety keep changing things and you’ll have all kinds of variety in where your arrows land.

You’ve obviously put in some time trying to get it together. What’s one more year? Pick A bow, pick A shooting style shoot that and nothing else for 1 year, if that don’t work you can always jump right back on the merry go round of bow shooting.

I shoot using the swing draw style as taught by John Schulz. No holding at full draw, no time to think or second guess your shot or time to go over a checklist before the shot. It has worked for a lot of years but took quite a bit of practice.

[Roy from Pa]

The best way to shoot is leave your subconscious mind at home and only take your conscious mind with you.

That subconscious mind has caused me a few bad shots.

[Gordon Jabben]

David Phillips, you just described me.  I tend to think about my shooting form on almost every shot and for the last several years, I have been changing bows, gloves, etc. almost daily in the hopes that my accuracy will some how improve. Still my shooting keeps on deteriorating as my instincts have no place to land.  Throw in string plucking and having to shoot lighter weight bows as I grow older, I'm almost embarrassed to shoot around anyone.  I have too many bows and I'm just going to have to pick one and stick with it and I have to get back to the days of just looking at a target and shooting. 

[Cool Springer]

I'm not one who likes to change things when it comes to shooting.  I started by reading, and re-reading Instinctive Shooting, by Fred Asbell.  That was a little over 30 years ago.  Others will say my form is a bit different than most (I come to about 2/3 draw, hold for a few seconds to get the feel for my shot, then finish my draw.  The time between anchor and release is about 1/2 second.)
I usually kill 2-3 deer per year with my longbow.  Following each kill, I try to recall my shot process.  I can honestly say that I never recall anything after the point when I start my draw.  I attribute that to 30+ years of shooting the same way (muscle memory).

[Sam McMichael]

Yes, I think we tend to over think this game way too much.  People often mountain climb over mole hills when we ought to concentrate more on basic shooting. The problem is that all this tinkering is for a lot of shooters a major part of the fun. All of us do it at one time or another. Many would be better off taking a simpler approach.

[Possum Head]

Yep!

[reddogge]

I guess I'm unusual to have stayed the same since picking up a longbow in 1955 as a kid shooting split finger. I have changed a few thing a little switching to a recurve in 1967, raising my anchor one finger, and shooting gap instead of relying on my Zen powers to guide the unseen arrow immediately below my eye into the target.

[Roy from Pa]

I've been shooting three under for 40 years, using the tip of the arrow for my aiming pin. I can shoot all my bows with decent accuracy. Each bow gets tuned to the arrow and things are good to go.

Sometimes its just fun to play around with different shooting methods, but always take the best method to the woods...

[buckeyebowhunter]

I actually agree that tinkering and trying things is fun. But for me ultimately that either end up giving me the same accuracy as i had at the beginning shooting instinctive or in some instances my shooting actually regressed. For example I really really enjoyed the fixed crawl when I first tried it. And it was deadly but for some reason over time I started getting really antsy when my arrow point was close to the intended target. Call it what you want but the aiming style actually caused me to have target panic, I'm the same way with a compound and a sight pin.
Never experienced it with shooting instinctively. Pick a spot and shoot.

[buckeyebowhunter]

Now I do believe that an aiming system is beneficial for long distances. But for normal hunting ranges I don't think you can beat instinctive.
I've come to terms with the fact that I'll never be able to effectively harvest game at 30 to 40 yards with my trad bows. I do not have the confidence or skill.

[Cory Mattson]

Yes

[YosemiteSam]

So what happens when your instincts are off?  I was always so-so with baseball.  Under pressure, I could throw well but in practice I was fair at best.  Mostly, I kept the bench warm.

I use a bow-mounted sight.  It attaches to the string just below my nock-set & extends past the riser.  My instincts come through repetition & meticulous attention to form & where I'm holding tension.  As long as I practice all that, I can develop a kind of instinct for the shot.  But if I don't practice for a few weeks, those instincts have a higher margin of error.  I can point to at least a couple of hunting shots and a bunch of practice ones where I really can't say what I was doing but the shot landed well.  Was it instinctive?  Sort of.  But only because I've been practicing with a lot of conscious focus in the weeks leading up to those shots.

I figure it's like anything, some people have a natural gift for it.  Others (like me) have to work harder at it.

[Cyclic-Rivers]

I personally feel like most people accuracy issues are due to form issues. I dont feel personally switching bows and arrows have much impact on accuracy provided they are properly tuned.

I do think people tend to overthink stuff. Constantly changing aspects of form can be detrimental to efficiency. 

[HOOSIERGRIZZ]

I agree.  I don't know how many times I've gotten frustrated trying to "fix" something, then decided to just relax and let a few fly for fun before stopping.  The fun ones are always more accurate.  Now with that being said...I am not a great shooter by any means.  However committing to instinctive shooting helps motivate me to shoot more and make practice more fun, just like when I was a kid.  My max at a live target is 20 yds, but that's ok.  I also like that aspect of it--needing to get close.

[Trenton G.]

I agree completely! I did my best shooting after only a year or two shooting trad. Then I started reading around and seeing all of the things that I "need" to do. I started thinking about it and trying to do what was said and my shooting absolutely tanked. I'm still not as good as I was those first few years, but I'm slowly getting back to it by forgetting a lot of the stuff I read and just shooting

[Jon Stewart]

"over thing" not until I read that a guy was worried the  glue he used to attach his points to his arrows was too heavy.

Grab your bow and  arrows and go have some fun.   

[kennym]

Less thinking makes for better shootin for me . I guess I shoot instinctive , but I’m sure my unconscious mind sees the arrow .
If the grip fits you and you get full draw, the onboard computer should take care of it.

Disclaimer: I don’t take long shots on game.

[Alexander Traditional]

Less thinking makes for better shootin for me . I guess I shoot instinctive , but I’m sure my unconscious mind sees the arrow .
If the grip fits you and you get full draw, the onboard computer should take care of it.

Disclaimer: I don’t take long shots on game.

I didn't really know how to comment,but Kenny put my thoughts so well.

I will say I think people way overthink arrow spine. I bought some 340 shafts from a guy that said he was shooting a 47 pound bow.