Hitting Game

[woodsman3]

Does anyone else shoot poorly while shooting at targets but is deadly when shooting at an animal. For instance you could put me in front of a 3d target and i will probably miss, but put me in the woods with a squirrel hoppin' around out to around 30 yards and i'll hit it more times than not. Does this occur with anyone else?

[Guru]

In 23yrs of trad shooting,I've heard it a million times.....I don't buy that for a minute!

[Swamp Pygmy]

no offense but if I knew I couldn't hit a 3d I wouldn't even be trying at live game. Even a squirrel. It's alive like a deer is alive.

work on 1 thing at a time. I shot for 6 months before I could competently hunt game.

[Ybuck]

Originally posted by Swamp Pygmy:
no offense but if I knew I couldn't hit a 3d I wouldn't even be trying at live game. Even a squirrel. It's alive like a deer is alive.

work on 1 thing at a time. I shot for 6 months before I could competently hunt game.

Now thats a bullseye. I agree.

[Soilarch]

Not with archery.


I can give you the benefit of a doubt though because I do know that (for me) there is some psychological voodoo about having only one chance.  My auto .22 is every bit as accurate as my bolt .22 but I'll hit more with the bolt.  I think it's because I know I only have one chance.  Being a lefty using a right handed bolt gun essentially makes it a single shot when there's a scope on it.

But I've never seen a guy who could pick doves out of the sky or nail squirrels with a .22 that couldn't wear a target out all day long.

 EDIT: Are we talking about missing the 12 ring or missing the target altogether? What I wrote above was assuming you would miss the 12 ring every time.

[Don Batten]

I may be the exact opposite. I shoot ok on 3ds, but seem to rush too much when the deer or hog is in front of me. I've killed a bunch, but have missed more than my share of what would have been a 12 every time at a 3d shoot. It makes me made for a minute or two and then I just have to laugh. Mostly to keep from crying. Don

[Scott Gray]

Do you think it might be that you are concentrating more on the smaller target? Or that the pressure felt at a tournement shooting in front of others is alot different than shooting at game.

Guru I don't belive he is trying to sell anyone anything. Not trying to start an argument but He just asked if anyone else had  the same problem. I have shot Trad for 31 years and can place at just about most every shoot I attend. I have no problem shooting in front of a crowd but I do get shook up shooting a live game. I have friends that I can outshoot on a regular basis that are killing machines in the woods. Different people handle the pressure of each situation differently I guess.

[SteveB]

Could be possible I suppose, but it defies all logic that one could not hit a 3d target with no adrenaline but be deadly in the woods. I just can't imagine hitting a squirrel at 30 and missing a 3d deer.

Steve

[Mike Bolin]

Some folks cop out by saying..."I ain't much on targets, but put some fur in front of me and...." In the book, "Bowhunting's Whitetail Masters" there is a chapter dedicated to a gentleman from Indiana named John Hale. John has killed a truckload of "record class" whitetails as well as caribou, elk, black bear. If you were to shoot with John on a one one one basis at the back yard range or stumpin', you'd better be on your game if you intend to keep up. Go to a bow shoot with him and there a times you would think he was shooting for the first time. A cop out for some....most likely, but I can't say always. Mike

[Adirondackman]

In my years of archery experiance I have actually seen this with a fiend of mine. He could not shoot targets well,I think that it was a combination of "target Panic" and "stage fright" but he made excellent shots on deer every year. He told me that he just could not get serious about shooting at inanimate objects because it was meaningless to him. I still believe that when he shot targets alone he shot well. He just could not shoot well in front of people. I cannot recall him missing a shot at a deer.

[Don Batten]

In the Wensel brother's dvd, Spirit of the bow, Barry says the same thing. He don't shoot well in front of people, but when on stand and not thinking about who's gonna see him shoot, he usally gets eer done. Great DVD by the way. DB

[Gehrke145]

I can see shooting bad in front of people maybe but not just on targets to animals

[Apex Predator]

Many guys flubbing 25-35 yard shots on the 3-D course kill tons of critters.  Many of them only shoot inside 20 yards at live critters.

[Curveman]

When I shoot in front of certain friends I can choke and shoot poorly but I am generally dead on when by myself and when shooting live game. If I was by myself and couldn't get most of them "in the money" on foam; I wouldn't hunt with a bow.

[vermonster13]

Do they miss the targets when shooting alone? Some folks don't do well in crowds and I get that, but if you can shoot at live alone you best be able to hit foam alone.

[the not so straight arrow]

sometimes when im shooting with a group of people around me i get nervouse and tense up. but when im in a blind or in the deer woods everything is so free and peaceful i dont worry as much, i feel more confident in my shooting ability simply because i am enjoying myself so much because im in the woods and hunting. that being siad, i can hit a target just fine when im alone, i just get stage fright or frustrate or distracted by things that dont have any meaning to me when in my treestand. good hunting brother.

[John3]

Shooting poorly when in front of people is not much different that the excitement, nerves you face when a buck is standing at 10 steps... Practice until you can hit the 3D target consistently... Anything less is just not ethical.

[amar911]

I have seen it said here a bunch of times, and it has happened to me too, we all tend to shoot better when we pick a spot rather than shooting at a big bulk. Woodsman3 compared his shooting at 3D targets with shooting at squirrels. The 3D targets are often big animals like deer, elk, hogs and bears where people just shoot at a large bulk. Squirrels are small targets that make you choose a spot, because they are only the size of a spot. I nailed a rat though its tiny shoulders at 15 yards in my back yard a few weeks ago while I was target shooting. My shot at the rat was far better than my average shot at the 2x2 foot target! I think it was because I was concentrating on that little spot. It takes me effort on every shot to do that on the big target, and sometimes my concentration is off which causes my shot to be off too. I don't know if that is a good explanation, but I doubt Woodsman3 is just making up that story to sound like an idiot.

Allan

[limbow]

Allan,

Just curious as to which bow in your stable took out the rat ???  

[MI_Bowhunter]

If I can't hit a 3d or paper target, I won't set foot in the woods with my bow.  The animals I hunt deserve at least that level of respect.