PLEASE HELP!!! I can't kill anything!!!!

[Arkansas Osage]

So I'm just gonna come right out and be honest, I'm a bow hunting virgin, I've never killed anything. I've been shooting a trad bow off and on a little bit for quite a few years, never anything serious. I've had a 35lb red oak longbow since I was 16 and always enjoyed shooting it. But this past year 2012, I decided to really get into traditional archery and hunting. I've never liked compounds, even when I wasn't an avid archer I just looked at compounds and said "thats so cheating, its a machine, if I'm gonna use 20th century technology with moving parts that do the work for me, with sights and a trigger I might as well use a gun." So I started deer hunting with an osage selfbow nearly halfway through deer season, had to do all my hunter education stuff online and get licensed and all that good stuff. So long story short, I'm accurate at target shooting out to 20 yards for deer kill zone sized targets and rabbit sized targets at around 12 yards. When I'm out roving I can smash cans and plastic soda bottles on the side of the road 4 out of 5 times at 5 to 12 yrds. Problem is, I missed 2 deer this season, dozens of rabbits, plus a couple squirrels, and a raccoon all between 5 & 20 yrds. And just today I had a shot, an easy shot, on a quail, not 2 yards away, it was seriously about 5', 6' at the most from the end of my arrow, and I missed over its back by less than half an inch, their were feathers on the arrow head. But it flew away unscathed. I don't know if its target panic or what because it only happens on live targets. It can't just be bad luck because in all that bad luck I would've had to get lucky at least once. So it must be some subconscious or unconscious "thing" messing me up. Its infuriating because I know I can make the shots that I've missed, but when its a live animal I blow it. Any help, suggestions, things I can do to fix this would be appreciated, turkey seasons is around the corner and right now I'm sticking 4 out of 5 arrows into the kill zone of a turkey at 15 yrds, and when the moment of truth comes I don't want to miss because of this "kill fever" I have. Thanks -Matt.

[LKH]

Have you tried talking yourself through the shooting sequence?

Make it a habit in practice, then try and get yourself to do it on game.

[Looper]

Well, for us to be helpful, you'll need to provide some more information. Specifically, describe your typical miss. Is your form breaking down somehow, or are you just shooting at the wrong time?

If your form is breaking down, post some videos of yourself in the Shooter's Forum, and you'll get better advice.

If the critters are dodging your arrows, well, that's pretty common, especially for new hunters.  A good rule of thumb, is that on any game animal, don't shoot at them while they are looking at you, or are alert. Don't beat yourself up, to bad, especially on small game.

[Stone Knife]

Your most likely looking at the whole animal instead of picking a small spot, we have all done it one time or another. You need to focus on a very tiny spot on the animal.

[ishoot4thrills]

Originally posted by Stone Knife:
Your most likely looking at the whole animal instead of picking a small spot, we have all done it one time or another. You need to focus on a very tiny spot on the animal.

Good advice right there as well as what others are saying.

Also, please check your state regulations on shooting quail this time of year. Most small game and upland gamebird seasons are closed in my neck of the woods.      

[tracker12]

+1 on Stone Knife

 Picking the spot and staying with it until the arrow makes contact is one of the nost important things that lead to success. Thar's considering you are making a complete draw and hitting your anchor point.  Buck fever takes on many styles so it's had to say exactly what it is without watching you shoot.

[swampthing]

Just shoot!  Let your body and mind do what it needs to do to make it happen without thinking about it. Try it sometime.....

[Manitoba Stickflinger]

Yep....sounds like you're not picking a spot. Pick a hair or feather or blemish, or some other little spot to hit and I bet you kill the next one!

[tuscarawasbowman]

Originally posted by Arkansas Osage:
 I don't know if its target panic or what because it only happens on live targets.  

I believe this is more common than people think. I get it. I was shooting this summer at 40 yards with pretty good accuracy bare bow. I missed a doe that fall at 10 feet. Only happens on animals. I have a friend that had the same problem and so I am trying his fix, I put a sight on my recurve. There are more than likely other ways to fix this problem shooting barebow but I am done messing around. Sights are still traditional. Hope you find something that works for you.

[nineworlds9]

Picking a spot and locking your dominant eye on the spot you want to hit have really helped me get better.  Also, try a mantra to focus yourself during the shot.  This sounds very silly but when I'm shooting at my 3D deer and I quietly repeat 'kill the deer" as a mantra through my shot sequence I almost always nail where I want to.  The meaning of the words is not the point, more of a murmured phrase that keeps you focused and prevents your thoughts from wandering.  When I'm shooting and my thoughts wander/ I daydream I always miss or get a flier.

[SELFBOW19953]

On small game-birds, rabbit, squirrel, etc, concentrate on hitting the eye.  On other game as noted pick a single hair or feather.  2 years ago, I missed a doe at less than 10' hunting from the ground.  My arrow hit under her belly without touching a hair-I had her cut up, wrapped, and in the freezer before the shot, I forgot to pick a spot.  We've all been there done that!!

[Knawbone]

All good advice above. As your hunting, think and picture in your mind various hunting scenarios. Like a rabbit sitting along a hedge row, and you coolly and calmly pull up and draw and shoot the rabbit. Go threw your shooting process in your mind,over and over. Be confident in your abilities and relax. Don't dwell on past mistakes or think about them. It's a new day and a new you, and your a cool, calm, collected bow hunter. Put that confident squint in your eye like a unnerved old western gun fighter. Then when the opportunity arises, pick a spot and follow threw. It's all in the mind set!

[old_goat2]

it'll happen, just keep trying and don't give up or stop having fun, I missed a relaxed broadside elk 2 seasons ago at 7 paces, killed a wary late season white tail doe on heavily hunted public land this last season. Keep trying and you'll get your ice breaker and then start stacking them up. Getting to shoot is the fun part anyways, then it's just work if you connect!

[ranger 3]

Like on Big Jim's bows (PICK A SPOT)

[ThePushArchery]

Join the club buddy! I struggled with this my first couple years a field. I could shoot lights out on targets all day long. But when the time came to shoot an animal, all bets were off. Between my first two seasons a field, I missed 11 deer, all of them were perfect left to right, but every single miss went barely high over the back. Shots ranged anywhere from 8 to 20 yards...

I threw my bows out of trees, got up from my ground blind and walked out with hours of huntable light left, cursed myself to sleep, you name it... I was fed up. I couldn't understand it.

Then the light bulb went off in my second season when I put my first deer on the ground. I picked that tuft of hair out, and my arrow hit right where I was looking. I've had some random misses since, but my accuracy on game animals is very close to my target shooting now because I've gotten in the habit to shoot at live game just like I shoot at targets. Pick That Spot!

Fred Asbell made sense of my syndrom when he said, "the human eye is attracted to defined lines and edges. If you don't conciously pick a spot in the vitals, and you are simply staring at the animal as a whole, you will miss high. The reason you will miss high most times is that the most defined line on a game animal is their back line."

With the minor dropping motion of a game animal as your arrow is in flight, accompanied by the fact that your subconcious has just picked, aimed, and shot at the back line will equal a shot missing high most times.

It took me some crushing misses on still to this day would be my best bucks yet, and countless doe from the ground with no blind which would have made for some great hunting success stories around the camp fire, but it can be overcome with a little bit of composure in the woods. The tough part, is that with every miss, the anxiety of the next shot gets more intense and the desire to make the shot grows more each time. This just adds more pressure to the situation that further inhibits our shooting ability in the field.

Step one getting over this, is to forget about all your previous misses. Just like any sport, if you dwell on your poor performances of the past, it will directly affect your performance today. Put them behind you, and make the next one count. Stop thinking, pick the spot on the game animal the minute it comes into the hunting scenario, do not take your eyes off the spot no matter how long it takes for the animal to present a shot, then make the shot. After you do this on a couple game animals, it will become natural to find that spot right when you are ready to shoot.

Stick with it. It's a journey, and I wouldn't trade any clean miss I've had with my recurve for a kill with another more advanced weapon.

Good luck.

[jonsimoneau]

It's just buck fever. Just keep at it and it will happen. The first year I hunted with my recurve I missed 6 yes 6 deer under twenty yards!  I still struggle with buck fever. Ya just gotta stay calm. Pick a spot. And it will happen.

[twitchstick]

Bow hunting can be such a mental game to me. After the machanics of shooting a bow have been learned its about 80% mental after that IMO. I find most people put to much pressure on themselfs to make a kill. Once your first kill has happen and with that monkey off your back it will become much easier. I think you are already ahead of the game by getting shot opportunitys, thats the hard part. Maybe try letting some animals feed around you and try not to kill them right off. Let yourself relax while they hang around you. Maybe even draw on them without letting the string loose. Just have confindence in yourself and your equipment and it will happen.

[BUFF]

95% in your head.
you have to expect to kill everything you shoot at.
go some where and kill some hogs and get the monkey off your back

[Sharpster]

Pick your spot BEFORE you bring up the bow, and never take your focus off that spot till the arrow hits it. Been there and done that myself.

Ron

[stringstretcher]

When I started years ago, it seemed that I was having the same problem.  What I finally figured out was I was concentrating way to much on "a kill" instead of "the shot".  It will come, just learn as all have said to pick a spot, and not focus on having to make a kill.