Shooting Tip

Have you ever noticed that it doesn’t take much sight adjustment up and down to make a big difference in where your arrows are hitting down at the target?   And the further away from the target you are, the adjustment is less and less to make a bigger and bigger difference?  

Well, the same thing applies to your rear sight too!   What? You say you don’t have a rear sight? Of course you do, it’s your full draw position or what we used to call the anchor point.   Where you place your drawing hand on your face is just as important as where you set you sight that’s attached to your bow.   Think of your sighting system as being identical to a rifle’s sights, BECAUSE THEY ARE!

If you vary the placement of your drawing hand by just a sixteenth of an inch, it’s just like moving your front sight a sixteenth of an inch.   At seventy meters, an adjustment of a sixteenth of an inch on your front sight will move your arrow impact at least two scoring rings!   The same thing will happen if you vary the drawing hand position on your face.   That’s why it is critical to find a spot that you can draw to every time.... EXACTLY!

On a rifle, you line up the front and rear sight exactly the same way for each shot to have a consistent group.   You must do the same in archery.   Some years back, I was having problems with high and low shots.   I thought the problem was a lazy bow arm and I worked very hard to correct the problem, but to no improvement.   I asked a friend who was a qualified coach to check me out and he saw the problem right away.   On some shots I had my mouth completely closed and on occasion I had my mouth slightly open.   He suggested I add an item to shot routine checklist...check to be sure my teeth were touching top and bottom, on every shot.   Voila! The problem disappeared.   I was adjusting my rear sight about a quarter inch every time I opened my mouth.   Every since then, my checklist includes a “shut it, stupid” reminder!

You can also have left and right misses because you don’t come to the same position on your face each time.   Check the string alignment on each shot and that will help eliminate that problem. When you get to full draw, check to make sure you can see the string and where it lines up on the bow handle.   Just make sure its there every time.

Consistency is the key to good scores.   Quality practice (not just flinging arrows!) is   the key to consistency.   Now go do some good practice!

Good Shooting,

Jim White