In this article, I go over my top three archery aiming drills.
Offseason shooting is amazing. We find any excuse to stretch those strings and grab it with both hands. It’s a great way to prepare for the upcoming deer season. But is there a better way to do this than spending a day during your precious weekend at your local 3-D course?
Yes, drills! As archers, there are many archery aiming drills we can use. Obviously, you can also do some 3-D shooting. However, these drills will have you driving tacks and send your confidence soaring. In this post, we outline three simple archery aiming drills that we have incorporated into our archery training sessions.
Blind Baling
The foundation of any good archery shot is good shooting form. However, this is something that only a few bowhunters will work on. Blind-baling is essentially shooting at your target, but with no actual target on it, and with your eyes shut. This way, you have to focus on keeping your feet shoulder-width apart.
You will adopt the correct and relaxed hand placement on your bow handle, on drawing smoothly, locating the same anchor point each time and lastly achieving a sleek, twitch-free release. So, during a blind bale practice, your full focus is on perfecting your form. It’s natural to feel the need to control everything. This archery aiming drill will help you with your control.
If you only shoot at those targets, all you’re going to want to control is your sight pin. That’s not very helpful and will lead to you either punching the trigger, some target panic, hand torque or a multitude of many other problems.
Blind Bail Archery Aiming Drill
In detail, to blind bale, stand quite close to a target with no butt. Shoot with your eyes shut and focus on nothing but your form. Standing close to the target means that you will not miss it. Drawback the bowstring, shut your eyes, consider your form, and release your arrow.
When you do this archery aiming drill enough times, you will improve muscle memory. What we mean by this is that your body will learn what a good shot feels like, making aiming in the future easier.
Good shooting form will eventually become second nature to you. You won’t have to think about it at all when aiming at a bullseye. You will also find that you will cut more 10-rings by adopting a good shooting stance than you will by only trying to control that sight pin.
Long-Distance Shooting
It is a totally natural response to torque your bow a little when you release an arrow. Consider this situation. You shoot a target 20 yards away from you, with a bow that slings arrows at a speed of over 300 feet/second. Are you honestly going to be able to detect that tiny twitch?
Now back up to 50 yards, and every mistake you make is significantly magnified. Shooting at longer ranges will work to magnify any issues you have. So, if you are used to shooting at 20 or 30 yards, move back to 50 or 60 yards during a practice. You will soon discover if something is going wrong.
There is a simple maths element to all this. Think about it this way. If you pull your arrow one inch to the left at the 20-yard line, any drift away from your bullseye will grow. Practicing long-distance shooting will help tighten your form and secure that shot. You will find that you can get away with stuff at 20 yards.
Improve Your Consistency
However, to consistently hit your target at 60 yards means you need to be pretty tight. Once you become proficient at hitting that bullseye at 60 yards, the 20-yard shot will become more of a given. You will gain a lot of confidence on those shorter ranges. Additionally, practicing at different ranges is more like real-life hunting practice as your targets are not always going to be 20 yards away. So the next time you need to take a long-distance shot, maybe a follow-up shot at a deer, you’ll be totally prepared for it.
It’s never a good idea to take your first shot at a deer that is over 40 yards away. There will be too much air and a lot of time between the release of the string to impact for something to go awry. However, once the deer has been hit, all that will matter is finishing the job in hand. You could hit a deer at 15 yards, who then runs out to 60 and stops. Now you have a clear shooting line, so you can fire another arrow at him. So, if you regularly practice shooting at 60 yards, you’ll have confidence in making that much needed long shot.
Aim Small, Miss Small
Using some pie plates, draw circles of different sizes in the center, ranging from one the size of a 50-cent coin to one as big around as a soda can top. You will eventually become proficient at shooting at the larger circles. When you do, switch plates to even smaller ones, which will tighten your grouping. To increase the difficulty, step back from the 20-yard spot to 30, then to 40 yards and keep going.
Later mix into your practice, something known as “shooting around the clock.” Basically, this involves putting a paper plate on a backstop. Then you try to shoot it, as close as possible, at to the 3, 6 9 and 12 o’clock positions at the outside edge of the plate. This is not somewhere you are used to aiming, which is where the improvement comes in.
Feeling confident is Key
You feeling confident when you draw your bow in is a valuable skill. By only shooting at bullseyes, you might develop target panic, or you could become dependent on there being a circle-shaped aiming point. With a live deer, you may have to aim at a shadow line, or perhaps something that has no actual shape at all, which is why all these archery aiming drills are important.
Over the next few months, work these training drills into all your practice sessions. If you do this religiously, you will gain the confidence and skills in time for the next seasons’ hunt.