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    Instinctive Shooting

    This is not to create argument.
    It is to hopefully help folks to better understand "instinctive shooting".

    Preface:

    You're an instinctive shooter. You don't see the arrow.
    All you see is your sight picture/window, and the spot you are focusing on to hit.

    You make a perfect dead center shot on your spot at 10 yards, then you back up to 30 yards, and again make a perfect dead center shot on the same spot.

    Question:

    What did you do different on the 30 yard shot to gain the trajectory needed to hit the spot the same as you did from 10 yards?

    Rick

    #2
    Rick it's cold out here in Abilene. Is that what has you trapped inside and thinking so much. [emoji38]

    Sent from my SM-J710MN using Tapatalk

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      #3
      Originally posted by DRT View Post
      Rick it's cold out here in Abilene. Is that what has you trapped inside and thinking so much. [emoji38]

      Sent from my SM-J710MN using Tapatalk
      Cold, and even had a little freezing drizzle. Wouldn't ya know it. First chance I've had to go after a gobbler, and this weather has them shut down hard.
      Went out this morning, and even saw several birds within 50 to 100 yards.
      They weren't paying any attention to anything except trying to stay warm. LOL

      Now to the thinking: I'm not. Already done it. I'm just trying to get those good instinctive shooters out there to explain it so others can work on it.

      Rick

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        #4
        I didn't even bring my bow. Hanging sheet rock inside today.
        After a few shots it a like the hand eye brain just does it. I don't aim different to throw a ball 10 yards or 30 either.

        Sent from my SM-J710MN using Tapatalk

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          #5
          That said with lower poundage bows it seems I can't make it work past 20 or so. Higher 25 and 30 just happens. I'm usually okay elevation wise. Windage is sometimes an issue.

          Sent from my SM-J710MN using Tapatalk

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            #6
            I can’t describe it. It’ s done by the subconscious part of the brain while the conscious focuses on the shot process. I feel like your brain programs the trajectory of the arrow and takes care of bow hand position. Not that much difference in the distance that trad shooters normally shoot as far as elevation. I tried very hard to gap as I feel that would result in increased accuracy, but I can’t do it. I feel that’s because I’m trying to consciously focus on two things at ounce, which your brain can’t do. This results in my not doing either the shot process or aiming very well. That’s why I shoot “instinctively “. This is just what goes on in my old brain, I wouldn’t take it too seriously.

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              #7
              Well I know you've heard it before but I personally do it just like throwing a baseball. if its 10 I throw it 10 if its 30 I throw it 30. For me to do that I roll my grip on my bow hand (which I think is way more important than the anchor hand/point for instinctive shooters) down until I feel pressure about 1inch lower down my palm, then shoot exactly the same way as I did at 10.

              Multiple things have worked for me in the past..... Like straightening up my stance, straightening my front leg, bending my rear leg, but the grip adjustment is more accommodating to any shooting position that I usually find myself in.

              All that said I have to be really in the zone to consistently put 10 inch groups together at 30+ yds.

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                #8
                My attempt to describe it: Moving back from 10 to 30 you are obviously increasing your gap for the higher trajectory. With the (poorly named, IMO) “instinctive” method you are adjusting your gap subconsciously until it (again, for the lack of a better term) “feels right”. That comes from repetition and being able to visualize the trajectory from a given distance. That feel and ability to visualize tends to comes and go. That is why gap shooting is considered to be more consistent. (I shoot instinctive, btw - have never really tried true gap shooting)

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                  #9
                  Rick, I started out the "instinctive" route, and truly did as you posted. Clear sight window with no notion of the arrow. I tried that for a few years, and the results were junk. Some days I could hit anything I focused on, others..... Well the other end of that spectrum.
                  I never could figure out what the situation was that caused this. on days I had it together from 10-30 spot on, days I was not, 10 yards was like a shotgun blast pattern.

                  Move onto a year ago. Rick and a few others sent me enough good information that I really tuned in a gap style sequence. The results for me was more consistent consistency. Some of us just need that point and alignment other can really do it like throwing a ball.
                  The brain is amazing and can compensate subconsciously for many variables if allowed to. Most of the time we get into our own way, and over think the situation.

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                    #10
                    I got all that down, except the part where I back up to thirty and center punch the target. More like, whereinhelldidthatarrowgo ? But I'm an amateur...

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                      #11
                      I don't know!

                      I can make the shot at 10



                      But can't make it past 15.


                      This is exactly what I'm trying to learn!


                      Thanks Rick!!!!

                      Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

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                        #12
                        Well, I’m not a good instinctive shooter but I do try. I don’t know how my brain makes the compensation for trajectory but it does. when I hit full draw, it’s already done. I do hold a little to regain focus and have, during that time, noticed my bow arm making a deliberate motion, then off it goes. I think your brain, through thousands of shots, will take mental pictures when the arrow goes where it’s supposed too. Then it try’s to duplicate those pics. As far as working on it? Flinging arrows, a bunch of arrows.

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                          #13
                          I'll throw a little of my thinking on the matter in here. Just a little.

                          I think we all do pretty much the same thing, and we all "see" the same things. The difference is only in how consciously, (or not) we perceive those things we are seeing.

                          I was a very good ball player. Football, Basketball, and Baseball. I could throw catch & hit with the best of them, but I don't totally relate to the ball throwing analogy. That's just not entirely how it works for me. I had to learn how to throw catch & hit.

                          A more simple comparison is to that of learning to drive.
                          At first when learning to drive, you are consciously adjusting/correcting the vehicle to keep it going the way you want it to. There's nothing subconscious about it for quite a while, but after a while you start making those adjustments automatically without thinking about them, therefore they have become an instinctive action, yet they are still an action/adjustment all the same.

                          You could say the same things about learning to walk, and then run.

                          So, ((("in my opinion"))) - In order to learn instinctive shooting to any degree of accuracy, you must first learn to shoot using a more mechanical methodical aiming system, and repeat that learned/honed system so much, that it eventually becomes an instinctive action/adjustment to what you are looking at to shoot.

                          Of course, it goes without saying, that some pick it up quicker than others. That's just a fact of life.

                          Rick

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                            #14
                            Rick, if you said that on LW, the thread would be gone!

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                              #15
                              Originally posted by KenWood View Post
                              Rick, if you said that on LW, the thread would be gone!
                              Naa, and I did.

                              Rick

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