Arthur P

Ya know, Heckler, these days I'm just about the same way. I'd rather get my practice by going out and stump shooting instead of pumping arrow after arrow into a target. Or at least trying to. I've got a roaring case of target panic that only hits me when I'm shooting at targets.

Shooting at a leaf blowing across the grass or maybe a fungus on a rotting log, I can shoot like a world champion. Put me in front of a target though and I turn into a complete wreck in short order.

Stumping is a whole lot more fun anyway.

TGF

In 1972 it took me two months to go hunting and a nother two months totake mt frist doe with a bow.. I was9 at the time. My dadsaid tome i would never kill anything with a bow. Thats all it took....I never looked back...

GMMAT

What heads for stump shooting?

bigcountry

So people on here are advocating stump shooting without practicing a good release, or learning some instintive shooting skills by shooting an arrow and adjusting and making that mental note it takes to make an instintive shot? Guys, you can't just learn to drive by putting a car in drive and heading out on the interstate. You might make it home and learn to navaigate eventually, but you have to learn the basics.

I bet you everybody on here learned to shoot by group shooting at first. And if they say they didn't, they are telling a fib.

Arthur P

No I didn't. I learned basically by what we nowadays call stump shooting (just out playing Indians to a small boy though, while under grampa's watchful eye), and by killing small varmints and stuff around the barn, chicken coop and garden. Every time I missed, I learned to do it better. I'd killed truckloads of game by the time I ever shot my first arrow at a genuine target in an archery class in college.

The style I used up until that college class was like the Comanches and Apaches shot, and radically different from white man archery. I didn't have an anchor. Instead, I drew back almost to the point of my chin and eyeballed down the arrow shaft to aim. (Whoever said Indians only shot instinctive doesn't know diddly.) I held the bow nearly horizontal. My arrows had a raised knob for a nock which I pinched between my thumb and middle knuckle on my forefinger to draw the bow. Didn't even use a nockset.

And that's no fib.

I got into target archery after that, so I've shot plenty of groups. I've got plenty of very good reasons to prefer stump shooting over group shooting now. After 52 years of shooting bows and arrows, all different kinds of bows and with very different shooting styles, I'm not too worried about my shooting form. I'm more into enjoyment at this point of my archery career.

HAVING FUN shooting arrows is a good thing. However you find that fun is good because you will be shooting arrows. You learn to improve by shooting arrows and benefitting from your mistakes. Some things can best be learned from shooting groups. But learning how to shoot in the woods can only be done by shooting in the woods.

Point is, you need BOTH types of practice to be well rounded.

bigcountry

Well, everyone on here played around when kids like that. I am talking serious archery. I knowI had plenty of those kids bow's too, shootin birds and whatever moved. But thats kids play. Thats what kids do. I learned to hone that stuff later. My whole child hood playing around with bows, didn't add up to diddly on what i learned with serious archery later.

To each his own.

I am just curious Arthur, not knocking you,as I hear this constantly in this world. Why do people bring up indians all the time. One could argue, they were far from top archers in history. Lots of other cultures killed lot more than they did on 2 legsand four.

I was in a bow shop yesterday and a guy told me he knew what he was talkin about cause an indian friend told him so. I kinda looked at him like "oh yea".

Heckler

bigcountry, I am glad you take your archery so seriously. Me personally I am past that point and to me its fun. Its a hobby a passion, it keeps me grounded and my mind off thestresses of life. Bills and debts are serious. As far as most people starting shooting groups I agree with most folks do, I did until I learned good form then it just didn't seem to matter. I don't compete, I hunt one shot just like STUMP SHOOTING, heck I feel that 3d shoots are better hunting practice than shooting groups. GMMATs question isdo we think its possible for someone to hunt after only 100 arrows which is a question only he can answer. But looking at his form photos and his group photos doesn't say anything other than he is shooting at his target very well for a trad beginner. But like I said in my other post shooting groups at a target in your backyard in your shorts and sandels doesn't give me an ounce of confidence when it comes to hunting. everytime I go and shooting gophers/rabbits or stumping I find/putmyself in different shooting positions that I may encounter in the field. 99.9% of the time you will only get one shot at your game and I guess I am just not lucky enough to have a gimmie shot like I would in my back yard. What makes you think that just because I stump shoot(practice hunting shots) I don'tuse good form for me I don't feel the need to practice my form everytime I shoot by that I mean after learning good form and shooting lots its burned into me and natural and if I do have a bad release my bow tells me so to say. Remeber when I talk about this as I said in my other post I am speaking as a hunter not a target shooter, I have no desire to be a target shooter or I would do nothing but shoot groups in a controlled situation.

PS bigcountry could you please define serious archer for me please?

Bigcountry, please don't take any offence I don't know you or dicredit you I am sure you are a knowledgeable person and obviously been here a long time, I am just giving you my opinions and defending your reply to mine.

bigcountry

I have a sneakin suspicion you know better than that. Goodness, I hope you can figure it out at least.

Are you really serious? You really can't understand? One, is little bobby running around the table with a feather in his hat, calling himself tonto, with a fiberglass bow and some wood arrows, firing off at everything. Little bobby does not have a care in the world. He doesn't know if he is doing it right, or wrong. Probably at that point causing more bad habits he will have to unlearn later. But its fun, and we all did it.

The other is where you really want to make sure you don't wound a deer or boar. You want to improve, and start really taking patience in your shots. Really feeling your release, knowing it feels good. You study it, you think about it, you love it. You strive to do well.

One might take the time to haybale shoot, or to rove around his yard taking random shots.

Heckler

I see where you are coming from and I agree with you to a point, but I feel that the first year I shot all I did was work and perfect my form to the best of my ability. now for me it should be natural I shouldn't have to think about it, I don't want to think about it. When I am hunting the last thing I want to do is wound an animal and if I take it to serious and think about it to much that is exactly what will happen. If I am shooting and I tell myself I am going to miss or feel a shot is to tricky and I psych myself out I am going to miss, that what I mean by not taking it to seriously and just have fun with it. I guess I see trad achery as a more natural thing and if I take it to serious I lose focus and not hit my entended target.

bigcountry

I think we are saying the same thing heckler. One has to start out somewhere. You have figure out your form. Go out on a few 3d shoots. I agree best thing one can do for deer hunting. But at the same time, gauge your process. Its all about confidense.

When I started traditional, I heard over and over people not wanting someone to shoot groups. Not work out their method for aiming or deciding to let go of that string. Then I come to find out a guy who was a big rover I knew, actually started out just like anyone in his yard shootin groups.