Instinctive archers

Thanks for the links and additional input guys. Feeling a bit crappy today but I will probably make the range tomorrow to check it out.
 
Practice, Practice, Practice. I shoot a 62" Recurve that is 62# at 28" draw. It is a Cari-bow made by Abbe Penner. I shot many years with a compond and I just wasn't having any fun, so I went to the recurve about 10 years ago. Instictive shooting is like throwing a ball at a target. Fred Asbell, Fred Bear and some others write some pretty good books and give some pretty good tips. To be a true instictive shooter you can not use the "gap method" or "string walking". Instictive shooting is like some of you have discribed, fix-ate you eye on a spot on the target, start to draw the bow back, once you have reached tha same anchor point at full draw that arrow is in the air headed for the target. I will have to confess that I went to carbon arrows this year, I have allways shot cedar arrows till now.
 
Just got back from the range. I found one that is basically subsidized by the local government. Its costs me about $2.50 to shoot for an hour or so and 40cents to rent gear (bow, arrows, & Tab)

I can get there in about 20 mins and apparently its a ghost town in the mornings up until noon when the high school kids come in.

I wish they had offered archery at my high school instead of bloody football or cricket:rolleyes:

I plan on going about 4-5x a week for an hour at a time and then after a month or so, think about getting my own stuff so that I am shooting the same thing each time.

I had a look at the Chek-Mate stuff and I think I will go with his stuff as I can get extra limbs made at the same time, thus ensuring a good fit.

:D
 
Temper said:
Just got back from the range. I found one that is basically subsidized by the local government. Its costs me about $2.50 to shoot for an hour or so and 40cents to rent gear (bow, arrows, & Tab)

I can get there in about 20 mins and apparently its a ghost town in the mornings up until noon when the high school kids come in.

I wish they had offered archery at my high school instead of bloody football or cricket:rolleyes:

I plan on going about 4-5x a week for an hour at a time and then after a month or so, think about getting my own stuff so that I am shooting the same thing each time.

I had a look at the Chek-Mate stuff and I think I will go with his stuff as I can get extra limbs made at the same time, thus ensuring a good fit.

:D
Click to expand...
Too late now, you're hooked:D
and it's like knives, can't have just one.:thumbup:
 
Well I have been going for about 10 days now and the old guy that looks after the place called me over and asked if I wanted to try another bow. He produced an absolutely pristine Damon Howatt Monterey #38 @ 28" Superb!

He said I can shoot it all the time if I like instead of the old club Yamaha I was using :D

Man, I am loving this, I should have got into it years ago. :thumbup:
 
Damon-howatt made some very nice bows. Martin archery is basically D-H designed. Still a made for everyone bow though. You'll like the Chek-mate. Compared to what you are used to shooting, it'll seem like it has letoff.:D It will also shoot a faster arrow, just in case you wonder why they are hitting higher.;)
 
FYI, it is probably a good idea to let your muscles rest between shooting sessions. A good rule of thumb is to shoot one day and lay off the next. Also, don't shoot past the point of tired. Once you start feeling fatigued, put your bow down.
 
I've shot instinctive bare bow since the late fifties/early sixties and I can't shoot any other way. I know it sounds nuts, but I can't shoot a compound with sights and all the gadgets worth a durn.

A few years back, my daughter (8YO) and I were fooling around in the front yard shooting at a deer target. I hadn't shot in about four years. Suddenly she says "Dad! There's a squirrel!" Without thinking, I whirled and shot an arrow and drilled it. Pacing it off, it was 40 yards, and all I had seen was a shape (I am near-sighted and did not have my glasses). We were shooting old Pearson Colts in 25#-35#.

I draw and release (bare fingered) in one motion. More than once I've scored on deer that were intently watching me at close range.

Fancy high dollar equipment is not required. But I have seen some selfbows in Primitive Archer that made me drool!

Here is my favorite picture of my archery hero from circa 1960. What a clown! And what an archer!


Codger
 
Many people cheat by sighting down the arrow. This is not instinctive shooting.

Shoot at the flame of a candle in total darkness. When you can put the flame out at any range, even 5 or 10 feet, you are shooting instinctively.
 
Yep, shooting without thinking and without reference points is instinctive shooting. I've nailed a few squirrels myself out near and past the 40 pace mark. If I'd have stopped and thought about the shot, I'd have missed for sure.

I tried my hand at a compound for a few years and was pretty good with it. then an old man handed me a longbow and said "son, if you can shoot this bow and kill your target, without thinking about anything other than the arrow killing your target, you'll be a bowhunter", I took up the challenge. He was right!:D
 
That is the way I shoot. A guy at the range showed me about moving his fingers on the string and sighting down the arrow. I said it seemed like cheating :D

I'm getting mostly gold or the red/gold rim @20 yards after about 8 sessions. I'm happy enough with that progress. Maybe in a couple of weeks I will go to 30. I was tempted to try it yesterday, but I decided to go back to 15 as I had the new bow to get used to.

We took a trip out to the mountains today so no shooting but we found a house on land in a wooded area for next to nothing. The mad scramble now is to get the money together to buy it. Loads of room and 3 fishing ponds within 20 mins of the house. Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! :D
 
Hope it all works out for you. Watch out for the hornets. I hear they get big in your neck of the woods.
 
That is the way I shoot. A guy at the range showed me about moving his fingers on the string and sighting down the arrow. I said it seemed like cheating

I believe that is called "string walking". There is another form were you sight down your arrow and use a "gap" method. The space between your arrow tip and the target, you adjust that for your yardage. Those two methods are not considered instictive shooting. And if caught doing that at some shoots (3-D) your score could be pulled. I believe Byron Ferguson uses the "gap" shooting method. But his one heck of a shot.

In previous post, guys talk about just pulling back and letting er' fly, that is instictive shooting. I focus on a spot on the target, pull back until my hand makes contact with my right cheek (Anchor point) and then release ( I do not hold). At no point in time taking my eye off that spot.

How many of you still use Cedar arrows? I was talked into using carbon arrows this year. Gold Tip 3555 traditional, they look like wood, but last like carbon. My arrow spead went from 175fps to almost 200fps, from going from 575grain cedars to carbons that weight almost half.
 
I use cedar and aluminum. I like the extra momentum that the higher weight gives, but to be fair, I havn't shot carbons from my bows, so I can't say whether I'm really getting all I can out of the ammo. I would probably still want 9gr. per # of draw, even shooting the carbon sticks. Mainly because the heavier the arrow, the more of the bow's energy it absorbs when released and the quieter the bow is.
 
As regards production longbows,I used a Martin ML-10 75# for years and years..Now that I'm pushing 50 (sob....),I'm using a Martin 60#. I only shoot these when I'm without one of my self bows I make. Once you start making your own arrows etc...there's no going back. Try every out of position shot you can when practicing. In all weather and light conditions. For hours and hours....If you're in Japan, go watch some traditional Japanese archery. The single most important thing in instinctive archery is to let go of your mind. Absolutely KNOW you'll hit the target and do so without thinking about hitting the target.Total,relaxed focus.Nothing funnier than a compound shooter missing the elk of a lifetime and muttering that his sight pin slipped....
 
Mr. Turner, Reread your missive. Cedar hits harder due to the weight (same reason a 45-70 hits a LOT harder than a .223) and sounds natural in the woods when it hits if you miss (unlike carbon or aluminum). It also can break on entry creating a better wound channel. In traditional archery, weights and grams are a fairly mute point. while modern materials have their place, they somewhat counter the direction of traditional shooting. 'Course, I also hunt bear with a Flintlock in the Olympic range so i'm not right in the head anyways...
 
Archery is a bit like fishing, the type of bow and weight depend on what your going after. I wouldn't want to shoot a bush pig or water buffalo with a 40# bow.
 
I agree with dartanyon 100% and to clarify, I used a 75# longbow as I generally hunt bear (which have a subcutaneous fat layer that makes for a terrible blood trail), elk and wild pigs (which have a shield under the hide). Penetration is very,very important in that regard. It would be a tad heavy for deer etc. although a heavily muscled animal like a cougar would be in the heavier range bows for me.
 
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