c903

Trying to find the cause of a shooting problem can be frustrating, time consuming, and can cause you to want to wrap the bow around a tree. Further frustrating is that often, one problem might have several causes, and some problems are intermittent...the worse kind.

Tell your story about your shooting problem, what you did to try and determine what was causing the problem, and what turned out to be the cause or causes. Major or minor.

I once spent 4-5 weeks trying to determine why I could not shoot a consistent tight group with a new bow. I tried different shaft sizes and setups, and totally dismantled the bow and my accessories looking for flaws. I must have done a hundred tweaks on my gear and my form, with no success.

I was close to taking the bow back but decided to pick apart all the basics of setup, form, and release; one more time. As I was going through the drill, I was also paying attention to what felt different about my new bow in comparison with my prior shooter. All of sudden it hit me. Something in the feeling of my grip was different. The problem turned out to be the position of my wrist.

The " Pro Series" grip on my prior bow was customized and had a " hand swell" built into the grip. The grip automatically positioned my wrist to a " medium wrist" position. I was used to feeling the heel of my hand just touching the " swell."

The grip on my new bow was a straight grip with a very slight " swell" at a lower position on the grip. Unconsciously, I was over-dropping my wrist to a " low wrist" position as I (unconciously) felt for the new grip to touch the heel of my hand. When I lit the wick, I was lifting my wrist and throwing my bow hand forward. Hence, poor accuracy and inconsistent groups. Once I reprogrammed myself not to drop my wrist, I have since shot very tight and consistent groups with my bow.

It' s all part of the sport....I guess

Trebark

I' ve found that the more frustrated that you get, the worst the shooting gets. I put it away for a while, so that I don' t ingrain bad habits into my form. Most of the time it will be something in your form that is slightly off, maybe from being tired or something, and time away rom shooting is exactly what you need.
Charlie

Arthur P

Coming back to compounds after about 10 years of solid longbow shooting, my biggest shooting problem was not being able to see more than a blur where my pins were supposed to be. It kept getting worse so, rather than try to learn to shoot with reading glasses, I took the sights off. I used to shoot barebow compound in competition some, back in the 80' s (NFAA Competitive Bowhunter class). Now I do it full time. Still pretty decent at it too.

Cougar Mag

Target panic! to be more specific, in my case I started anticipating the shot. After many yrs. of weekly 3D shoots, I started getting in the habit of anticipating my shot before I was ready to release the arrow. I would be shooting 1/2way through the course and bam! Next target my arrow might end up in a tree. To compensate I started to release the arrow quicker, I was not ready! My shooting got worse, and I fought it.

The best thing I did was to read a portion of Len Cardinale' s book(s) on target panic.......understanding why and how I developed this after so many years of regular shooting. For some reason I started to think of too many things at once while in full draw! The human mind cannot do that! I had lost the feel and the more I fought it the more I struggled.

I had to go out in the dark, get back at 5-10 yds and close my eyes to shoot! This became my daily routine at dusk or dark. I envisioned only where I wanted to aim, not thinking of my anchor or release. I did this without worrying about my groups. Its all mental preparation. Eventually I was able to move back after a few close range shots, then open my eyes, graduating back to daylight shooting and still warming up at very close ranges while shooting with my eyes closed. I still have the problem at times, but now I know what I need to do to prepare myself. Funny thing is, it never happens until I shoot several arrows. It doesn' t influence my hunting at all!

jerseyhunter

I got my hunter safety education course from Len and his instructors. I learned alot from him and his staff. That was about 25 years ago. I knew he wrote for magazines but didn' t know he put out a book. Thanks on the info. I know he moved his shop about 5 years ago and never visited the new one. maybe I should. They were the ones who turned me on to Bob Kirchners deer Lure back then and I' ve been using it ever since. Alooong time and usually with great results. If that stuff doesn' t work they can' t be tempted in.

xibowhunter

i took my hunters ed from len too, back in 79 ,i used to live in jersey, when i moved out here a few years ago i had a serious case of target panic , to cure the problem i got another release , caliper style , and that solved the problem![:-]

plaid dad

I have to tell myself to let the pin" float" . On league night I would punch the trigger,shooting much too fast. I rarely do that on deer, and even more rarely in my backyard, but in front of people, I guess I feel the pressure more.

davidmil

I too went through the dreaded " Target Panic" a couple years ago. I followed a path similar to Cougar. I can' t say I didn' t worry about the anchor though. That' s all a part of the shot sequence... so I drew, anchored, took up the slack on the trigger and squeezed off the shot with back tension. If the shot didn' t go off in 8 seconds from the drawing step I let down and started all over. In the beginning I let down a lot. Now if I start to have a problem I just shoot a few blind bales and all is well again. The " CURE" was given to me by an old Pro who knew his stuff.

Problem # 2: In my early years of hunting I had an occasional bad hit(although I recovered most) or worse yet... a miss that was unexplainable. Somewhere probably 20 years ago I was reading something by someone(who knows at this point) that most people don' t pick that spot and really concentrate on it. I call myself doing that.... but the author went on to say... " Just before you release that arrow ask yourself if what you' re looking at is what you want" . I' ve done that for the past 20 years or so religiously... at least 99 % of the time. When the sight picture is right, the animal is in the right position, I' m at full draw and on target... it just pops into my mind now after 20 years or so. My mind says, " HOLD ON THERE, is this the sight picture and the spot you want" ? It takes a fraction of a second but it has caused me to regroup and realign on more than one occasion. When I do it I can usually see the hole appear where I was looking. It has a side effect after 20 years of really calming any nervousness at the time of the shot resulting in a relaxed well placed arrow and follow through.