Aiming methods for barebow

TJ Mason

Soaring
Supporter
Fonz Awardee
American Shoot
When shooting barebow, what aiming method do you use?

Back when I used to shoot ONLY barebow, I used gap shooting for target archery and instinctive shooting for field archery (whether the distances were marked or not).

Gap shooting worked well for target archery because so many arrows were shot at the same distance -- keeping a consistent visual gap between the arrow point and the target made sense.

Instinctive shooting worked well for field archery because I practiced a heck of a lot and could pick the right shot in most circumstances.

I never really got the hang of other "deliberate" methods such as string walking and face walking.

What are your opinions and experiences?
 

Dave

Administrator
Staff member
Fonz Awardee
Ironman
American Shoot
NOCO
Can you explain string walking and face walking, Tim?

Ta

Dave
 

JohnK

Well-known member
Gap shooting for me, although I was shown the basics of string walking once (and shot a 29 on a FITA 18 triple spot, much to my amazement).

I did quite a bit of barebow target shooting when I started out with my KG1. Shooting about 40lbs with 31.5in 2114 XX75 Autumn Orange shafts my point-on distance (with three fingers under) was 60 yards. I hardly ever missed at that distance, but things got trickier the closer I got :)

I'm shooting without sights but target style at the moment as a training exercise. I can still shoot okay groups at 20 yards, but it's very hard to judge the gap well when anchoring under the chin.
 

Dave

Administrator
Staff member
Fonz Awardee
Ironman
American Shoot
NOCO
Thank you very much sir, I shall have a read.
 

Macbow

New member
I use a variety of aiming methods - mainly gap (Byron Ferguson's system which in turn is based closely on Howard Hill's split vision method) but for some distances I use physical points on the bow such as the shelf at 60 yards and the shape of the riser at 20 yards. For anything under 20 or anything moving I shoot instinctively.
 
Top