You know how everybody always says that if you practice at longer range it’ll make the 20-yarders seem easy?

Not happenin’ for me. Inside of about 20-25, I just can’t stop hitting high. Today I was shooting as well as I ever have between about 25-35 and up... up to the point where everything’s on line but a big chunk low.

Feels great drilling a ten here and a twelve there from 40-45, but not so much hitting over the top of the spine on almost everything I attempted at what I’d consider normal and prudent Bowhunting Range.

Any tips for getting my hunting eye back?

Walk backs and Walk ups.

Yes Sir, Close to hunting season and all during, practice with hunting gear at hunting ranges. A 45 yard 12 won't mean much to a trophy lost. >>>>-----> Ken

Not sure how you're shooting but I had the same issue. I went to gap shooting to tune my eye to the right site picture and now it's almost automatic. Worked for me. It might work for you.

You may also be subconsciously honing in on the top of the whole deer and not on the spot you want to hit.

You might try raising your anchor pt. abit...If my anchor creeps up I seem to shoot lower even at 25yds.

I like to get out in a large field and shoot at Cow piles 100 or so away.

Long range is good to show you form flaws and fun out in a big clearing.

The practical killing range is usually 25 and in but long perfects your line.

I shoot 3 under because of that. Several years ago I always shot high , just could not bring my shots down. So I switch to 3 under and it put me right on. Been shooting 3 under ever since.

im not sure I understand your post...your mad bc you shoot high at 25 yrds...but yet you don't mention any practice shorter than that? maybe that's where you need to go to...if you cant hit 25-30 why are you practicing that? time to move in closer....

Focus on the lower part of your target. You didn't really say whether you are shooting high on paper, 3D's or live deer.

Long range shooting is great. If you are tuning up for a 20 yard indoor shoot, practice that. If you are preparing for a 3D shoot practice that. When hunting time rolls around practice that. Many Many folks even use different bow and arrow combinations for each event. The best, all practice for the next endeavor. Example long heavy arrows for a point on at 20 yards. If winning or killing game is your goal that is what you should practice.>>>>----> Ken

Shooting high on 3Ds.

One thing that seemed to be helping was speeding up my sequence a touch, but I was thinking about experimenting with 3 under. Just ran short of daylight...

Is anybody shooting 3-Under up close and Split farther out?

I always practice hunting ranges and, then adjust from there for longer shots if needed. Don’t adjust from long shots to hunting ranges, that seems backwards to me.

I practice from 5 to 60 yards. I never stay at just one yardage. If you can hit your mark at longer yardages, then you can hit your mark at 5 to 25 yards.

What Jim said. If you "can't" then you need to apply yourself to "can". It's all between your ears...I say that from personal experience as my ear to ear space is like an hours drive. ;)

Most folks enhance their overall accuracy by shooting all distances and that's why I do it. If you can't adjust at close range with your regular anchor, then just raise your anchor for short shots. That's really all you need to do. I use the same anchor at five feet or eighty yards, but then I've been doing that since the 1960's. Like TP, it's a mental thing mostly, but you can fix it easier than you can a cas of TP.

Is not that I can’t do it at all, but I really have to kinda let go of the sight picture that I’m using on the longer shots....

Can’t move my anchor any higher than it is,though; I’m hard up under my cheek bone (zyg arch). That kind of shortens my Point-On, but it’s working at Western bow-Hunting range really well.

It’s like Ranger B’s gap compromise; finding out what works is half of the fun, I guess.

That’s why I’m wondering if it works to toggle between spilt and 3-U; couldn’t get much easier than just shifting up or down a finger, but you never hear about anybody doing it that way.

I like the walk-ups, though. I was thinking about buying nocks in Orange, White, Blue and Green so I have an arrow to shoot from each stake....

Why can't we just learn to shoot where we look and why does it have to be the bow always? Bow shoots high or low or wherever? each bow has certain characteristics do we agree on that or not/ Learn the bows trajectory and learn where to aim.

Maybe you need to force the bow down rather than lift it up to look and break form? Is that a possibility.

You learn to shoot where you’re looking by adjusting your hand to the information provided by the eye.

My problem appears to be that acknowledging the gap has become a habit on the longer targets, and when I notice it up closer it just seems like I’m holding impossibly low.

Just strikes me as weird because I’ve practiced 30-40 yard shots for almost 30 years and have never run into this before...

Maybe it’s time to break out the moving targets...

Matt, sent you a PM. John

Did OK from 18 last Tuesday on the FS thread...

And from about 45 - white stake

And then it got dark! Hard to pick a spot when you can only see a silhouette...

These were 35-40..

There's to many variables in all these comments. An archer has to find their grove don't you think what makes it happen for them.

I don't know about always picking a spot I pick areas at times. Such as I will come up on the chest and move over or come down on the back and over or up leg and over. So picking a spot just isn't always what some of us do.

Now i never been a great shot on targets or do i care to be but I'd say i am a better than average game shot normally.

Now with that said I can make some great shots but not consistent enough to be written in the books of target archery. As long as I can kill the animal i'm shooting at that's enough for me.

Things certainly change day by day in how I feel so that effects shooting as well.

My hand always leads the shot but that don't mean I am looking at the spot correctly but hit where I looked usually. Sometimes we have to change where we look at times.

GF, Correct me if I'm wrong, but if you shoot a gap like Ranger B, 12 inches is 12 inches for X number of yards. Right. Now, tell me what the problem is? Are you have trouble estimating yardage?

If not that could be a tinge of TP nocking. IE can't get on target. We need more info.

I will say this, I wouldn't move anything on the bow or change anything on my form until I figure out the problem.

Bowmania

""I will say this, I wouldn't move anything on the bow or change anything on my form until I figure out the problem."" Bowmania

Yep.

I think I threw out some partial info that went bad...

I’m still shooting Gapstinctive; I don’t try to measure the gap, nor cut my range estimates any finer than about a quarter of a Fetrow. Trying to just keep my distances mixed, though normally that results in a lot of walk-ups at variable increments .

But I’d be delusional if I didn’t recognize that it’s easier to hold to center as the gap gets tighter. We have a guy at the club who just switched over from wheels and is shooting 3-under MUCH better than an awful lot of people I’ve seen. I was amazed at first, but it makes sense. After all, isn’t that kind of the whole basis for string-walking?

My suspicion is that I just grew accustomed to seeing the arrow a lot higher in my “sight picture” and that's what I’m fighting. Just hard to believe how far below the target that point really needs to be at 15 yards or so....

So first thing I think I need to do is to sneak out of the house and shoot the whole course as if it were a competition, but shoot from the closest stake and keep score. I usually feel like those shots are ridiculously close, but to be honest, they’re exactly what I like to see when there are broadheads involved.

If I do that and am still shooting poorly, I’ll check back in with you...

GF, you don't know your "gap compromise" (aka the point where you hold the arrow between X yards and Y yards and still hit the kill zone) for 15 to 25 yards. That's why you shoot above - your intuition is not that good to allow for a smooth transition from medium range to short range. Find that point first before starting to change form, arrows etc.

PS Stop shooting dots and shoot 3D animals you will hunt and learn to place your "gap compromise" on anatomic parts of the animal when you are close to your hunting season.

"hold 13" below point" from 15" to 25" means very little when your mind is occupied with the prey you want to kill.

"hold at half of the femur front leg" from 15" to 25" means a lot since is not disturbing your thought.

15" to 25" to be read as 15 yards to 25 yards.

Jinkster has a point about walk back and walk ups. Vary your shooting distance but only shoot ONE arrow at each distance, long then short, short then medium. I mentioned this on another thread but I am going suggest it differently this time. Take tennis balls and throw them out so they are random distances in front of your targets and maybe slightly different angles. Walk to the first ball pick the target you want to shoot from it (unknown yardage) take the shot (NO SECOND SHOT) and walk to another ball, pick the target (again unknown yardage) take the shot, walk to the next ball and so on. Our brains can get fixated on known distances if we continuously shoot redundant distances especially if it is on a set range (visual cues). If we don't switch up the distances it forgets what the sight picture is supposed to look like (if you are continuously practicing long it forgets short, it goes the other way also) or WE fight it thinking it can't be right. That is the advantage of stump shooting, you walk through the woods see something you want to shoot and do it. You have to exercise your brain at unknown varying distances for adjustment whether Instinctive or Gap shooting. Your in the woods or field and not on your home coarse (no visual cues), animal you are hunting walks out you have no idea the distance. Your brain has to be able estimate the distance to know where to place your bow hand in relationship to that target to make the shot count. If you haven't practiced taking "single shots" varying distances, you are going to have a problem. As a second thought also, set up obstacles to shoot over, around, through, and between as you may encounter in the woods. You more than likely won't have bowling alley lane shots when it presents itself. DANNY

Shoot a bunch of arrows at 15 yards. I guarantee it will fix the problem.

I always advise against using different bows, different arrows,different,anchors,changing from split to 3 under or vice versa, withing a month of hunting season. Pick your combo and stay with it through the season. After the season experiment all you like to pick the next system. I have always put hunting first though. I practice to hunt. Targets and other games through the year,just to keep the old mussels working. >>>>-----> Ken

Lemme get out and shoot the course from that first stake. I’ll let you know how I do...

OK - sneaker out this afternoon and disciplined myself to 1 arrow/target, from the stake, even when it seemed ridiculously close, and I kept score as if it were a competitive shoot - strictly by the rings, whether they helped me or not.

First half of the course I shot 178; second half, which had more really close shots, I actually did worse at 164. Four 5s on the first half and five on the second, and almost every last one of them was just a shade high or low. Worst shot of the bunch was on a giant mule deer target from 15, and I was 2” high of the scoring line, but directly over the 12.

Worst hit of the bunch was on a Jaguar when I picked the wrong spot and missed it by about 2”...

So I don’t think I’ll mess with anything, but MAN.... even when you’re shooting well, it’s that vertical inch here or there that is always costing you 2-3 points/ target....

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