Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting Another tip for mental strength and practice

Ok this should have been obvious to me of all people but a friend suggested this for adding a lot of concentration to your practice and help with all aspects of your performance.



You must add some element of reactive targets. He shoots ritz crackers pinned to the target, or a fishing line with an apple pinned to it dangling in front of the target to stop the arrows. Even a small (tiny) plastic bottle filled with sand and hung from a string in front of the target. All these interactive targets tend to focus your attention much more then the boring paper punching targets.



For years I have noticed that with a rifle I can shoot a particular rock on a slope 400 yards away but shooting groups in paper is boring and I lose interest quickly.



I hung crackers from a string today and was nailing them at 30 yards so frequenly that I lost all track of time and my shooting never suffered a bit. I only shoot two arrow groups now to reduce fatigue and stress.



I ran out of crackers and used a couple charcoal briquetts and then a small piece of thin wood, and then a small plastic bottle. These reactive targets are way better for the way my brain works then a spot on a sheet of paper. I noticed that my group size was amazing after looking at all the holes in the paper that was behind the dangeling targets I was shooting at. It was a fresh blank sheet when I started and showed an overall series of holes from all the shots I took.



This style of shooting practice works for my mental weakness of boring paper punching. One other thing I noticed was 75% of my shots were to the right of the string holding the target item hung from above. They were equal above and below showing the elevation is good. I moved the sights just a tiny bit to correct the small windage error and now I have about a 50/50 split on both sides of the string.



This is a real good idea to use for practice!

JJ: If you're practice-shooting with a buddy, suspend three crackers ... go to full draw, hold it ... then have the buddy tell you (after 10 seconds) which one to actually shoot at.

When practicing alone, I would go to full draw, acquire a perfect sight picture, ... then do a mental countdown 3... 2 ...1 ... before I would allow myself to release (with fingers). This helped prevent early release ... ie: releasing when the first good sight picture came into view, even if it was only as the pin crossed the aim point.

In the woods, you may have to draw when a bull passes behind some cover and hold full-draw for 10, 20 or even 30 seconds till he comes out into your shooting lane or the shot angle improves.

S.B.

Great ideas! I'll have to give those a try... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />