[Horsebow] Horse Bow Aiming - See Through Hand?

blakey

Active member
Best way is to look at the rules. Target archery (GNAS) will classify trad as barebow, so allows string and face walking. So at 70m just change your drawing reference point. Field GNAS you have to stay with one finger and one drawing reference though the whole shoot. Not a problem as max distance for trad is 55m (I think). GNAS big game 70 yards, national animal 55 metres. NFAS again is one reference point in all "instinctive" classes and its pot luck on the distances. Until competition organisers recognise trad as a separate class, take advantage of the rules.
That's an interesting point about string walking. I've never tried it. I suppose to get greater elevation you would lower your nocking point. So then if you found what nocking point would get you POA on 80yds, you could tie it off there. Then you could change from split-finger to 3 under for the shorter distances. I'm intrigued enough to have a play around with it. I've tried face-walking and don't like it, because I found changing the anchor position caused inconsistencies in form. Probably just me of course. String walking would put the bow out of tune slightly. I don't know how much that would affect anything? With a recurve with limb bolts I suppose one could compensate by tightening the bottom limb? But with trad bow? I suppose you could try a tip protector on 1 limb to slow that one down? Interesting stuff. Cheers
 

rmcpb

New member
When I string walk for the closer shots I nock my arrow high so I am pulling on the same part of the string and keep the bow in tune. Basically I move the arrow nock not my fingers. For the longer shots I change from three under to split. I only have three positions this way but with a bit of gap shooting it can handle all the ranges commonly encountered. Note I said IT can handle the ranges, not necessarially me :)

I tried combining some face walking with the nock changes and it just got too complicted........................
 

ChakaZulu

New member
When I still shot target I used to stringwalk indoors and facewalk outdoors. My stringwalking basically involved pulling the string maybe 1" below the arrow. Never noticed any significant tuning issues beyond a slightly increased twang

My facewalking went from anchoring under the jaw for 100yds, on the jawbone at 80yds and so on until I got to the upper canine at 50yds, after which I gap shot if I needed to do 40 or 30.

I never had any problem with changing form except at 100yds. That change of plane from face to below jaw really messed up my shooting. I just used to rely on getting 20pts per end at 100 and then make it up once we dropped to 80!
 

Raven's_Eye

Active member
Ironman
i hate to say it, but it looks like you've reached your natural limit. Once your hand obscures the target, other than buying a heavier, or faster bow, you are reduced to trying one or all of the following... different arrows, different anchor point, different string. the (less than satisfying) alternative, is to gap shoot.
i would recommend the first. an increase of even 5# can get you quite a lot.
There is another option as well. I shoot an english longbow and due to insufficient funds I can't afford new set of arrows often and the ones I have have 4" fletchings and 125grain ends, which when shooting 100yds can be a problem. What I found is that if you keep both eyes open when you aim you are able to see through your hand to the target. You can then start counting knuckles/gap between knuckles to get the right elivation.
 

blakey

Active member
When I still shot target I used to stringwalk indoors and facewalk outdoors. My stringwalking basically involved pulling the string maybe 1" below the arrow. Never noticed any significant tuning issues beyond a slightly increased twang

My facewalking went from anchoring under the jaw for 100yds, on the jawbone at 80yds and so on until I got to the upper canine at 50yds, after which I gap shot if I needed to do 40 or 30.

I never had any problem with changing form except at 100yds. That change of plane from face to below jaw really messed up my shooting. I just used to rely on getting 20pts per end at 100 and then make it up once we dropped to 80!
Hey Chaka, I've just tried setting up a bow for stringwalking. Only on 20M because I'm in the back yard. About 1" above the nock gives me a reasonable POA (low black gives me gold). I used a hybrid longbow/AFB with a deep arrow-shelf. There is a massive tail kick on the arrow because of the downward pressure on the arrow-shelf. I was scoring reasonably well with the odd horrendous flyer. My feeling is that I could not try this on my target barebow because it would be too much for my Hoyt Superrest. Off the shelf I feel that it is extremely unforgiving compared to a conventional horizontal nock? But of course this might just be me? Cheers
 

ChakaZulu

New member
blakey said:
Hey Chaka, I've just tried setting up a bow for stringwalking. Only on 20M because I'm in the back yard. About 1" above the nock gives me a reasonable POA (low black gives me gold). I used a hybrid longbow/AFB with a deep arrow-shelf. There is a massive tail kick on the arrow because of the downward pressure on the arrow-shelf. I was scoring reasonably well with the odd horrendous flyer. My feeling is that I could not try this on my target barebow because it would be too much for my Hoyt Superrest. Off the shelf I feel that it is extremely unforgiving compared to a conventional horizontal nock? But of course this might just be me? Cheers
I'm a little confused. You seem to be saying that you're nocking above the nock point? It's been a while since I shot target but I'm pretty sure I used to nock on the nock point and then put my fingers lower to stringwalk. Never had any problems that I noticed going down to a couple of inches below the nock point...
 

Si2

New member
Yep, seems like you have the fundamental concept of stringwalking wrong.
The arrow stays in the same nocking point and you walk your fingers down the string.
In effect canting your bow down.

Here are two nice pics that show the technique, notice the brass nocking ring above the arrow on both shot....

standard finger position.




for short distance:




hope that helps.
Si
 

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blakey

Active member
Yep, seems like you have the fundamental concept of stringwalking wrong.
The arrow stays in the same nocking point and you walk your fingers down the string.
In effect canting your bow down.

Here are two nice pics that show the technique, notice the brass nocking ring above the arrow on both shot....
hope that helps.
Si
Brilliant. That's very clear. I was evidently very confused downunder. I'll try the correct method au matin. Cheers
Got a bit excited, so just rushed down to the yard before the light failed. Shot off a dozen, but still porpoising significantly. I'm using a centre-shot AFB, so I'm hazarding a guess that it would work better with a take-down recurve with adjustable limb bolts? I'll have another play tomorrow. Very nice sighting though having the arrow right under the eye. Cheers again
 

blakey

Active member
Just as a matter of interest, back to the original query about 70M, down the club today, along with playing with some ELBs, I had a shot on the 70M with my 28 lbs barebow recurve. With an under the chin anchor, which I am definitely not used to, POB was on with light allies (1614s). It seemed to shorten my draw length, down to about 26.5", but distance no prob. Also, thanks to all the comments re string-walking, etc I now have a new anchor for 40M, which used to be my nemesis, but I am now nailing. Thank-you. Cheers
 
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