Hitting Game

[amar911]

Kevin,

Phenolic Morrison Shawnee "A" low wrist riser with full pinecone carving (used to be Bob Morrison's personal riser) and foam/carbon Dakota "D" limbs with Copperhead skins (used to be your limbs!!!). Great combination and shoots lights out both on targets and little rodents.      Now if I can just get a deer in range ....

Did you just have a feeling about the good mojo in those limbs you sent my way? Do you think they can handle something bigger than a rat?

Hope your season is going well Kevin.

Take care.
Allan

[tarponnut]

I HATE shooting in front of people but do well on game(Like everyone I do miss on game).

I have a friend that is pretty good on targets but GREAT on samll game.He shot five squirrels with his recurve one day and three another time.
He also has missed 100 lb hogs at 15 yards, go figure?

I've been shooting traditional archery for 300 years so I know what I'm talking about.
Ha Ha!
That kills me when people throw that in. I work with teachers that have taught for 30 plus years and are still terrible.
I find 3-D shoots the most unnatural thing in the world. Walking a 3-D course by myself is much better practice.Bowhunting and solitude just go together.

I'll take woodsmanship skills over shooting ability any day!

[Roy from Pa]

I don't shoot well in competition, but shoot very well alone and when hunting.

[BLACK WOLF]

It's totally possible...because the one thing I've learned about people is that we are wired similarly...yet diffently.

Just because a person hasn't personally experienced it themselves...doesn't mean that it doesn't exist or that someone else hasn't experienced it.

The ability to focus and concentrate can be affected by the enviroment and situation.

Target Panic and Buck Fever also exist. It's a state of mind that effects a person's ability to perform and can affect people differently under different circumstances.

The other thing that also applies to the human condition...is that people will often make up excuses for their poor performance. Sometimes it's real and others it's not.

Ray  

[Broken Arrow 1]

Originally posted by 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.

[Guru]

Originally posted by tarponnut:

I've been shooting traditional archery for 300 years so I know what I'm talking about.
Ha Ha!
That kills me when people throw that in. I work with teachers that have taught for 30 plus years and are still terrible.
 

Tarponnut, I hope that wasn't directed toward me.....I guarantee you don't want to go there!


I still don't buy the original example of a guy that will most likely miss a 3D target, but can go out and hit squirrels with regularity....com'on

[Dozer]

I can certainly see how someone can take shooting at a live animal WAY more serious than a piece of foam. That being said I'm a little bit with Guru on this one. If you can hit a squirrel at 30yrds than a hunk of foam with a dot should not be a problem.

[tarponnut]

Well said Ray (Black Wolf).

Curt, no offense meant in any way.
There is no greater teacher than experience.

I just think that the original posting is entirely possible.

Semper Fi

[Shawn Leonard]

I will say this, I am a decent shot and I cannot hit squirrels on a regular basis at 30 yards and no one I know can. Curt can flat out shoot and he cannot do it. I have to agree with Curt on this one, but I do better on game than targets most of the time. Just not yesterday. Shawn

[fowlarcher]

I've seen the same thing with my shotgun for many years. I shoot better than 50% on clay target practice, but when I have to walk 3 miles to find a covey of quail I hit better than 75%. The shot at a quail means more and I want it. Hit clay? pphhh... who cares.

Something similar I've noticed about archery practice is just practicing I usually shoot pretty good. Close to deer season my practice shots get much better because there is a real purpose to it.

Apparently some people don't experience this, but that doesn't make it not so for other people. Think I'll quit hunting because of it? Not a chance.
Other people experience what they call "buck fever" and/or "target panic". I don't suffer from either, but I won't insist it can't happen to you.
I think the buck/panic is far more likely to make a bad hole in something.

[The Vanilla Gorilla]

I think your mind is your own worst enemy when shooting/hunting.

I'll be the first person to admit it. My breath gets short, wrist and fingers get twitchy and my knees get a bit shakey.  But...when I start to draw my bow and pick a spot on the animal, I tune everything out. Its hard to explain, but my mind blanks out and for a few seconds, I can't remember anything. I don't even concentrate that hard on my midterms!  (but nothing dies during a midterm, except maybe my grades..)

But during a 3D shoot...anything goes. If I'm keeping my own score, I generally fall apart. If I make it to a shootout and have 1000 people watching me, I fall apart.  But, if one of the other guys in the group is keeping score, and we are heckling each other, and all is good, there's a chance I could win something.

On a side note, if I'm stalking an animal, I don't feel the least bit of "buck fever". But if the animal is coming towards me while I'm in a blind or in a stand, I get as jittery as anything.

Its interesting how diffrent situations have their own type of stressors.

[riot1013]

After reading some of these threads I am kind of surprised at the responses and then again not.  What the OP is experiencing is very similar to what some high-level golfers experience.  In a practice situation the shooter/golfer will tend to analyze every movement.  "Oh I missed left, I must be torquing the bow."  So the next shot they concentrate on not torquing the bow and pluck the string instead. Obviously this leads to a confidence issue which further complicates things. On the contrary, when it is "game time"  the shooting movement is more reactionary (in other words "instinctive")and focused and less muddled by over analyzing.  That situation is far more common than some of you think. If he knows he shoots well at game, it is not unethical to hunt.

[trashwood]

I have nit seen that exactlybut I hunted 10yrs with a guy that I could out shoot by a fair margin.  the thin was he brought home twice the deer I did.

he was not a bad shot though but I could pen his yrs back.

rusty

[loco_cacahuate]

years ago there was an old man that was a member of our archery club, one of the worst shots but every year he was the one of the first to get a deer. found out that he limited his shots to 10 yards or less.

[Whip]

I'm another that struggles with shooting with groups of people.  Generally, when shooting on my own I do OK.  But I rarely seem to shoot well when with a group.  
Glad I don't hunt with spectators!

[vermonster13]

Simple question if a person can't hit a target, how do they tune their equipment to the degree they can hit squirrels or any other game? Does one go out and hope for the best? I don't get it.

[Ia Hawkeye]

Guru,
Sorry, but I don't agree with you. I've known several guys throughout my 50 years of bowhunting that were not very good on targets but always seemed to get their deer, and small game too.Just because you hav'nt seen it done or known somebody that could do it, doesn't mean it can't happen.

Never saw anyone shoot and kill squirrels consistently at 3o yards though, althougth Hill and Ferguson could and probably did.

[TradPaul]

It could also be a TP situation, i have struggled with it some and in my early shooting days i definetly had that issue. One the target i wasnt holding my anchor long enough, but on a live animal that is moving, you often have to wait for the good shot, so i would hold longer and take my time "picking my spot" my .02 anyway.

P.

[Tom Mussatto]

Although I suspect the "can hit game but not targets" is probably used as an excuse too often, I do think there is something to it. I've known too many archers over the years that could consistently take game without wounding and then consistently do very poorly on a structured target course.

I can't hit targets very well. I can't hit game very well. At least I'm consistent. Thank God archery seasons are long and I'm persistent (translation - hardheaded) and patient (translation - old) .  

[Ben Woodring]

absolutely completely possible, some folks excel under stress..others don't.  For those that shoot better "in the moment" learn how too focus like that on the 3d course.  For those that fall apart a bit shoot so many arrows it's so natural of a process you can still perform.  For those that completely loose their ability to function, take up photography