Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting Group size?

I am practicing with my bow alot, am not as accurate is i would like to be, but can keep 5 arros in the black of "the block" at 20 yards, at 30 i can usually keep 2-3 in, and at 40 about the same, usually 2 in the black. all close enough to take out the heart/lungs of any deer.

When I was shooting 60 to 70 shafts a day, I considered hitting a snuff can at 40 yards everytime pretty fair....

a snuff can is about the size of my black dots on my block. thas pretty good. hope to be able to do that. i think part of my problem is my eyes. im only 21 but dont have the best eye sight, i need to go get more contacts and i think id be better. can shoot a rifle with a good scope real well.

Practice makes perfect and good eyes are a must....

I'll bet I haven't shot 60 arrows in the last four years...and 40 yards is now out of the realm of reality.

Just haven't been into it lately......

see, another thing is i am just getting back into it. i got my bow in december ( a Mathews Q2) it could have a 30" draw lenght instead of a 29 but i still think i do pretty well for the amount of practice. i am confident i can kill out to 40, but thats as far as i will push it.

Most of my bow kills have been nearly straight down......

Funny how that works.

i always considered that putting your shots in a coffee cup diameter every time is a good indicator for hunting. after all, these are not target bows we're talking about. at whatever distance i can accomplish this, i will feel comfortable to shoot in the woods.

-ken

Once shooting form is consistent, I think single-arrow "groups" within an area the size of the lungs of your hunted animal at constantly changing unknown distances are the only "groups" that matter. And the FIRST shot is the most important.

Just my $.02 from the way I was taught.

I love to go out in the woods and shoot 100 arrows at a target but hunting is usually a one-arrow/one-shot deal and it's good for me to occasionally practice like that.

It takes a lot of shots to refine form and work the bugs out of the system.

Pretty much the only way to achieve that is to shoot consistantly small groups at a known yardage...as that's the most convenient measure for most to go by.

I do agree with the one shot group after form is mastered, but it takes a long time to get there. Hand in hand with one shot groups is mastering range estimation...all is for naught without that.

When I shot more than 100 arrows a day in my youth(working at a sporting goods store with a range) I could hold minute of coke can to about 70-80 yards reliably. IF the distance was known. Those were the days of guessing or the old dial rangefinders...

I'd never think thats good for hunting though. The arrow being so much slower than speed of sound, the noise gets to them 4 times faster than the arrow, which means, around here, they almost always have moved by the time the arrow hits. Which means my max range is 20 yards and I hate those logn shots. I strive for 10 and under.

Accuracy up close? 20 yards I could touch your arrow every time I shot. At least with fletching. We plaid tag at 20 yards all the time. And you had to have nerves of iron to stick the arrow an inch or less from a steel corner AND have iron to chase it in there to tag it.

Those were the old aluminum days. hard to split an arrow but I managed one only. But blew plenty of knocks off and dented many an end. These days with hollow small carbon shafts, I'd think that splitting arrows would be so easy it would be costly.

Good luck, Jeff

I practice for hunting, not target shooting... so a 3D or like target with vital (heart/lung) markings is what I prefer. I don't like shooting at anything other than what I need to focus on... ie Deer, Bear, Elk, Moose and bison.

I may set up two or three differant targets and shoot just one arrow at each, after all in the woods, your only going to get one shot.

JB

I"ll add though-- one arrow is great to replicate the chances you get in the field, BUT practice is paramount to get the skill level and to retain that skill level.

Hence the use of both multiple arrows at a known point(target shooting) and the single arrow at the 3D target.

Both are needed and both compliment each other.

Casey, at some point you have to know if your bow is the problem of if you are the problem. Bows are much more individual than a rilfe. So getting another driver to test it is tough and not rerpresentative either. YOu need a good coach or shooter to watch form, check tuning etc.... 40 yards you should be able to touch fletchings every shot. You should be able to drop them all in a 3 inch group easily, save the 'bad' shots on your part. IE call them off and then hit off its as good as an X.

Jeff

I am hunting with the Metro Bowhunters Resource Base and they require us to take a shooting test before hunting. We need to hit a 6" target at 20 yards with 5 out of 7 arrows to hunt.
They consider it most important that you only take standing shots at broadside deer and double lung them or hold your fire.
Most deer won't hang around while you shoot groups at them.
If you can put your arrows in a 4" target you are considered you are a sharpshooter and are selected for high profile hunts in downtown areas, etc.
Somebody has to do it.

whelennut

I like to shoot paper to get form and tuning down. Once that's done most is 3D and stumps. Another fun thing is take a golf ball and shoot at it around the yard with blunts or judos. My 7 yr old son shoots with me, its a blast. Rodents are another target of opportunity.

aim small, miss small.

what i have noticed about me is when i am shooting at just a plain ole target ie the block.. groups seem to be OK- a lil big. however, when i am at home shooting at my dads 3D target, groups are tighter. the best group i shot at 40 yards was a "bag_ target that had the heart/lung area outlined. i put 5 arrows in the heart and have never shot a group like that since.

Practice and concentrate on a small spot not an area,on live game pic a hair to shoot at.

I think there is a bit of misunderstanding here...

One shot groups for "hunting" vs. multiple shot groups being considered target shooting and thus not applicable to "hunting".

A true bow hunter can judge an unknown distance to a "target" and place an arrow in the spot at which he is looking. "Missing small" as Scott says...

To get to that point it takes a lot of shooting and refining of form. To get that, one needs to know; if his POA is correct, his pins are correct...if there are any glitches in form.

All that can be determined by shooting multiple arrows into a target at a known distance to see if all is consistant. "Measured" by the size of the group that was shot.

Personally I never was a fan of wrecking arrows into other arrows to see if I was a good shot or not. So I took to shooting one arrow at each spot on a practice bag. By studying the 5 arrows' impact point it was easy to see a "group". I've also stuck white cleaning patches into arrow holes in my 3D target, doing the same thing, shooting one arrow at each tiny spot of white, that is how I still practice with broadheads. It doesn't take long to narrow the factors that affect shooting ability.

And, ironically it became easy to find differences in impact point with different arrows. Albeit I only saw very small differences but by keeping track of which arrow was shot at which spot it was funny to see that same arrow hit or very narrowly miss where it had hit the last shot, with the next arrow in the next spot being consistantly high, low, left or right...right where it had impacted previously. I used that little bit of trivial results to pick which arrows needed a better tune and also which arrow was first out of the bow when taking a shot at a deer.

wildswalker

I agree, and well said....

dvdegeorge

Very nice indeed on your insert there.

Absolutely! Unknown distances are the hardest! As far as target practice Aim small miss small. I color in black dots about the size of a quarter and shoot out to 50 yds with my switchback XT. The best thing you can do is move the target around and shoot from every angle. One more thing, put the range finder up during practice!