gap shooting at night or low light?

[gettin closer]

I thought I read on here how some one had used glow in the dark paint on the end of their arrow shafts so that they could still shoot at night or low light situations.

If you gap shoot and are able to shoot at night, please let me know your trick. I tend to get home late and don't get to shoot as much as I would like. At the same time, I don't want to reinvent the wheel if you have a good system.

Let the ideas roll!

[Draco]

Just wondering, how long have you been shooting gap?

[gettin closer]

Not very... I was shooting instinctive but I could not maintain any consistancy. Some days I could not miss and other days it felt like I was doing good to keep everything in a 12" pattern. It is taking some getting used to but now my bad groups are 6" to 8".

Why do you ask? Have any pointers?

[killerbee]

I shoot gap and use a sniper hoglight.....it lights up my broadhead perfect....if the moon is out you don't need the light


It works well for me.

[MEsquivel]

Im not a gap shooter. But I can imagine white paint doing the trick.

[SwampRabbit]

Not sure if you are remembering my post, but I thought up the idea of using glow in the dark paint at the tip of the shaft. Ended up using glow in the dark tape instead.

My experience shooting in the back yard was similar between using the glowing tip vs just using the bow light. So I reasoned (without being able to actually try on game yet) that if I can make out the target without the bow light, then I'd be good to go using just the glow in the dark indicator... however, from experience shooting a compound at night, I've needed the light to make out the spot on a particularly dark hog when the ambient light hasn't been enough.

http://discussions.texasbowhunter.com/forums/showthread.php?t=520316&highlight=glow

[SwampRabbit]

Which reminds me... I need to make a decision soon on whether or not to have BW put a stabilizer insert on the my new bow.

[Draco]

Not very... I was shooting instinctive but I could not maintain any consistancy. Some days I could not miss and other days it felt like I was doing good to keep everything in a 12" pattern. It is taking some getting used to but now my bad groups are 6" to 8".

Why do you ask? Have any pointers?

If you keep shooting gap long enough the gap will become automatic with out actually thinking about where to gap. It actually becomes very fast and works in the dark with out actually gapping but just holding the bow where it needs to be to hit what you are looking at. I shoot my tightest groups in the dark.

[RickBarbee]

I find, that if there is enough light for me to see the animal well enough to shoot it, then I can still see the arrow well enough to gap. In very low light, or moonlight all I see is basically a dark shadow of the arrow, but that's pretty much all I ever see anyway since I am not ever concentrating directly on it.

If I can't see the arrow, then it's to dark to really see the animal well enough to place the arrow. In that case I use a light.

When using artificial light like a bow light I have no problem seeing & setting the gap with the arrow.

Rick

[Draco]

I notice you say "see the arrow" Rick and not the point. That is kind of what I try to tell people that want to shoot gap. After you find your gaps and practice until you know them then you kind of quit using them and just let it come naturally where the point is in relation to the target. You eventually don't need to see the point so much as just the arrow, you will tend to put it in the right place even though you don't see it clearly. What do you think about it Rick?

[RickBarbee]

Exactly Bob.

The best way for me to explain how I see the arrow is like this - "It's like pointing your finger from the hip. You see you finger. You know where it's point, but you aren't looking directly at it."

This is how I interpreted Howard Hills description of his indirect aiming system, and set out long ago to try to make it my way.

Rick

[gettin closer]

Thanks for the input everyone! I have used the bow lights when I shoot my compound. I will try one of those traditional adaptor mounts to use it on the longbow. If nothing else, I could always use the bungee cord method to get it to stay!

I hope to get out this weekend provided I can get caught up on work.

[eaglegolfj]

I got one of those apache stabilizers for my rig this thing is pretty dang bright.

[eaglegolfj]

One of these

[gettin closer]

That is neat! I had not seen that setup before.