"Ingrained" Instinctive AIM....VS "Learned" Instinctive Aim

[Stringwacker]

Those who know me well would most certainly agree that I'm a bit eccentric. I'm a self proclaimed "imperfect perfectionist" which leads to a drill down on almost any subject... that often far exceeds anything reasonable. With that disclaimer out of the way; here's my question.

I'm a fellow that likes to try different combinations and arrow materials. For instance, I usually shoot carbon during the summer and all the tournaments. I'm neither very bad or very good.

The "traditional" feeling usually hits me around hunting season so the wood arrows go into the quiver and the carbons get removed. I make the switch ahead of time so that I can practice a great deal and retrain my instinctive aim to compensate for the initial high-left that is caused by the wood shift. I eventually shoot them very well right down the center.

Here's the issue. I think your mind at some point develops its historical instinctive aim...despite the effort at retraining. I have noticed that I shoot well with the wood when the season starts; but regress back to high and left as the season gets long, the weather cold, and when I don't shoot as often.

The fact that its not a good idea to change your setup without good cause set aside for the moment, do you think there is a ingrained instinctive aim that your brain reverts back to if you haven't shot in a while?

[McDave]

When my arrows aren't hitting where they should, it is more likely that I have gotten lazy from shooting a lot of arrows, and I’m doing one or more sloppy things: not hitting my anchor, not getting my elbow behind the arrow, letting my string elbow droop, my concentration is drifting, not following through, creeping, etc.  After going through my checklist of horrors, I can usually get the arrows back to hitting where they should again.

I think really good shooters find something that works and stick with it.  As soon as I find something that works, I try to make it better, so I’ve probably never really developed an ingrained instinctive aim that I can revert back to.

[Stringwacker]

No doubt the root of all the issues...is me. Either by changing horses midstream or in some cases...merely lacking the confidence to shoot a different setup than the one I trust.

I think you contributed to me 'turkey' thread and I appreciate that. I think I will just shoot everything with the same set up (carbon with a Eskimo/Razorhead or the weight equiv. field point) from 3-D to turkeys. If I find it doesn't meet my expectation on some future hunting endeavor; there is time for reflection then.

[Blacktail42]

I think you nailed it right on the head when you mention confidence. My feeling is that anyone to be consistent has have implicit confident in their entire shot routine and equipment. Hopeful confidence is not good enough.

[Todd Cook]

Stuff like that is why I started gap shooting.

[Larry Dean]

Before deer season I take identical wood arrows that I hunt with out and put the aluminums away. I go someplace peaceful and set up a target and first find my point on. For my form and bows that is from 50 to 56 yards. Point on shooting is secondary no-gap aiming, I try to focus only at the deer target. It a short while that becomes an automatic impulse and I start moving in, but I do not concentrate on my secondary sighting, allowing the shot to become more instinctive. By the time I reach15 yards, it seems to be grooved in and I am at automatic pilot for the hunting season.