hey Cohunter14.

elky McElkerson

New member
Mar 13, 2014
2,038
congrats on the new bow. to say i\'m excited for you is an understatement.

i dont usually give unsolicited advice, but here goes. i wish someone explained this to me in 2007 and not 2014.

bow shooting is a perishable skill. you need to practice. but if you really distill it down, if each archer had to guess..one particular thing in the shot sequence suffers more than some. i have a friend that gets weak and cannot aim. another guy that forgets his grip.

me: EASY - trigger pull.

when i bought a new bow, the shop owner said i get 5 free shooting lessons with the purchase. i shrugged it off as odd and i was \"beyond\" it. i got this. i had to get a cable changed and ended up back at the shop. the coach peeks in and said..\"my student cancelled..i have a free couple of hours, you want them?\". i took it.

as a die hard rifle and pistol shooter, i treated the trigger the same way. i pulled it. no matter how smooth i tried..no denying it. it was a pulled trigger. he showed me how to shoot my bow with back tension. he made me stiff finger my trigger..then he used his hand (and pulled the release forward) and said. \"let\'s hold the trigger finger pefectly solid, and let the release flex forward into it and \"fire itself\". my first arrow almost went into the ceiling.

it got better. i was not accurate, but i went home and played with it. i would go to full draw..lock my finger on the trigger..second joint down..aim. pull back slightly harder which made the release stretch forward..pushing the trigger into the finger. PHOOSH! it was always kind of a surprise when the bow went off.

the reasoning behind it. (i looked it up and he was right). the human brain does a single activity really well. if we do a second activity concurrently, the brain bleeds off some energy to the new activity. holding the pin steady is on activity. consciously pulling the trigger is the second..which distracts from the aiming activity. you are already pulling back the string. pulling back some more is not so distracting.

that single 2-hour coaching session changed my bowhunting life. i shoot a few arrows everyday now. 25 yards. i havent missed in five days. my cold shot is a perfect bulleye. i get there and that trigger pull, which was my weak link is very consistent. i dont even remember the trigger pull anymore.

(second important lesson - he taught me to exaggerate my bow hold after the shot. keep aiming until the arrow hits. cleans up the follow thru. all my low hits from anticipating and dropping the bow arm to see the arrow fly away..gone)

i think since you are starting now..get that trigger pull down like a pro-shooter. warning..it will eff with your rifle shooting..yuck.
 
5aa074d7d881114461b3f37ec4933c89.jpg


Cold shot a few minutes ago.


Sent via Jedi mind trick.
 
Cliff, I really appreciate the advice! I think I\'ve mentioned this already, but the guy who has helped my dad and I get in to all of this shot competitively for a number of years and he recommends the same thing. I have gone back and forth with trying it out...sometimes it\'s good, sometimes not so much. My one concern is that he mentioned that doing this doesn\'t work very well if you are trying to time a shot, like trying to put one through an opening when an animal walks through it. He said those times, you have to squeeze the trigger. So, in my mind, I thought \'then why not just practice like that all the time?\'

I\'ll continue to work on it and see how it goes. I actually feel pretty good with the trigger squeeze since I have practiced doing that for so long with a rifle. By far, my best shots are when the bow surprises me and goes off with a gentle squeeeeeeze. But trying to do that every single time isn\'t that easy either :D

Again, appreciate the input!
 
Cool!

Mine goes off in milliseconds. Met be I\'m moving my finger tad. I don\'t know. I just know I\'m not thinking about it.

Good luck.


Sent via Jedi mind trick.
 
Cliff, I think I will be taking a private lesson or two at my local shop. I\'ve been shooting a bow for almost 20years, but have never had any instruction. I\'m sure there are some things I am doing that can be made better by a different set of knowledgeable eyes - and maybe some things I am doing very wrong. Hopefully it will be $ well spent. I plan to shoot a bit more once I get my arrows built, so that I have a bit of a consistency base before I get the lessons.
 

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