Help @ 40 yards

[broken line]

I need some advice. Just bought bow about a month ago, and have been shooting quite a lot. At twenty yards, my targets have been pretty good...so, I shot outdoors today at 30 and 40....30 was fair and 40 was terrible. My arrows were all over the target. Any suggestions what I may have been doing wrong...can wearing gloves make a difference.

[Roamer]

Gloves, wind, coat, cold muscles etc... they will all make a difference. Remember a good pattern at 20 yards will more than likely be better at 10 yards and will certainly be a little worse at 30 yards and even farther off at 40 yards. The name of the game is practice, practice, practice. Make sure you are practicing wearing the clothing you likely would be wearing when hunting, it will make a difference in your accurace over shooting indoors in just a shirt.

[delmuts]

roamer is right! any error in shooting form,concentration, or equipment, will get worse as the yardage increases.so far it sounds like you are doing great! just have patience, and keep practicing!

[Deitz Dittrich]

Roamer is right on... Archery is a tough game. 40 yards is a long shot. The longer the shot the higher the bow arm has to be, and will tweak your form out of wack a bit.

advice on longer shots...

-make sure your preshot set up is the same as your 20 yard preshot set up.

-be sure your anchor point hasn't changed.

*---Lastly... my guess is you have a bit of target panic at longer distances... your pin covers up more of the target so its easy to think you are aiming at the middle of the target. Hold steady, make sure your pin is in the middle of that target before your release that arrrow! Dont flinch the arrow to the center.. Follow through!!!

[metrojoe]

Since you’re a new shooter you need to build up your muscles. You may just be experiencing fatigue from shooting too much. Try shooting a couple rounds and taking a short rest.

[mnfishman]

When you say your targets are good at 20 yards are you able to place all your arrows right on top of each other? You should be able to group them super tight at 20 yards. If they are not grouping tight at 20 then they surely won't group tight at 30 or 40.

Have you ever paper tuned your bow to make sure the arrows are flying straight? Also it could be your form it has to be spot on at 40 to get tight groupings. If I were you I would work on shooting at 20 yards till you can group your arrows in a very tight group (fletch wrecking group). Then I would step back to 30 and do the same thing but make sure your form doesn't change just the distance.

Good luck!!

[Meat-Run]

Brokenline,

One thing that nobody thinks about is your breathing. Just like you are working out or weight lifting. You want to exhale when you release thats when your muscles are relaxed the most. You should then start to see a consistant pattern to your arrows even out to 40 yards...good luck!!

mr

[BLACKJACK]

I have three pins on my bow, set for 20, 30, and 40 yards. When I practice, I shoot three arrows from 20 yards, three from 30 yards, three from 40 yards, three from 30, and finally three from 20 yards. As I move farther away, my groups get worse, as you'd expect, but it seems that shooting a few arrows at 40 helps me when I get back to 30 and 20 yards, by the time I do the last three at 20 yards, I'm drilling the 5 inch circles that I use.

Since my groups at 40 are poor, I would never even consider shooting at a deer at that range. Even 30 yards, to me, is a long shot. I want my shots at deer to be less than 25 yards, because thats what my target practice shows me is my accurate range. Trailing and not finding a deer after a poor shot is also a great motivator NOT to take bad shots.

Keep practicing, watch your form, eventually you'll get better. Get some advice from a pro shop on form, have them watch you also. Do you use a release? That also helped me get better, consistant groups. Good luck!

[broken line]

Wow...thanks all....great advice. I will certainly practice as stated, and I hate to say, but I think I may need to get over some of the "target panic" that was mentioned above.

[Deitz Dittrich]

your not alone.. when I have given archery lessons.. many people suffer from it and dont even know how bad they got it.. here is a little drill I used to do.. I just cut and paste from out tip of the week section.

Many people suffer from target panic without even knowing it. Target panic is one of the main evils in archery. It causes you to flinch and take a shot before you are fully ready. To test if you have TP.. Pull your bow back and keep your finger as far away from the trigger as you can. Put your pin on the target, you should not feel the need to pull the trigger the second your pin reaches the middle of the target. Some of you will flinch as soon as your pin hits the target or the pin will not stop on the target at all, it will just pass on though the target.

A good drill to help cure some target panic is this. Draw your bow back, and let your pin sit on the target for 5 seconds, then let your bow down without shooting the arrow. Do this 5 times in a row. On the 6 draw, allow yourself to shoot the arrow, but again, only after the pin has been on the bull for a full 5 seconds.(keeping in mind you do not have to pull th trigger exactly at 5 seconds, that is only when you can start your shot sequence.)

[charliepete2]

If you have problems at 40 yards, start shooting at a 100 yards for a while. Distance just magnifies poor form. If you want to improve your shooting get some lessons from somebody who knows the game. John Shaefer at Schaefer Archery in Burnville is one of the best shots in the state. If I was just starting out I'd hire him for a few pointers.

[Powerstroke]

I see you're in COlogne so I would recommend heading into Cabin Fever Sports. They are in Victoria which is much closer to you. Jeff is the owner, an archery and a great guy to work with. I had him tweak a few things for me mid-season and he had me shooting 1" groups at 20yds with my hunting setup in about 10 mins. He helped me correct my grip and my shooting form. He would be the guy I went to see.

Something I would try is called a walkback tune. You can google it for moe info.

The basic idea is you have a target at 40yds. Then if you can safely do it, stand 5 yds away. Shoot 2 arrows at the bullseye with your top pin. WALKBACK 5 yds, shoot an arrow, walk back 5 yds shoot an arrow. Go back as far as you feel comfortable. Every time you shoot continue to use your top pin.

When you stop or runout of arrows you should have a vertical line of arrows. The top arrows should've been your first with the lowest arrow your last. If the line is straight up and down then your rest is tuned and there is no right to left adjustment needed. If it drifts to one side then you need to make a rest change. If its all over the place than you may have bow torque or inconsistant form problems.

I had both. No matter how I changed my site my shots went left. Turned out I was torqueing the bow with my grip. Next was just having a consistant form. That comes with practice.

Now my 40yd groups are almost as good as my 20's. I practice mostly at the 40-60yd distance. 20yds is really easy when you're good at 50. Anything that seems minute at 20 will be huge at 50. Its easier to find your mistakes that way.

To be clear I passed on a 42 yd shot on a doe this fall cause I still didn't feel comfortable about my shooting to that distance yet, but maybe next year if things keep going the way they are. Who knows. I may never take a 40yd shot, but at least I can look good at the range.

[broken line]

Powerstroke...thanks for the reply....I spend ample time at Cabin Fever already...bought the bow from Jeff and Neil set it up for me. They are truly a great source of help and info.