Aiming strategies

[SLOWHAND]

I agree with everything thats been said but heres two things worth trying. If your sight is constantly wanting to go to the right try moving your back foot forward by an inch or so.If your sight is constantly wanting to go down check your tiller (your bottom limb may be to heavy).
If it's the sight picture that is causing the problem try changing your focus- if you focus on the target try focussing on the sight and vice versa.

[PaulT]

Originally Posted by SLOWHAND

If your sight is constantly wanting to go to the right try moving your back foot forward by an inch or so.

I second that, finding the foot position that is right for you is a very important base for lining up your whole shot.

[Adam]

Indoors I find the best sight to be a very large dot (mine's about 4 or 5mm in diameter). I pull-in the sight extension until the dot pretty much fills the gold - all I see is a fine halo of gold around the black dot.

I find it takes all of the stress out of aiming and eliminates all of those "is it really in the middle of the middle" type of questions from my mind. A huge benefit is that a change of target face makes no psychological difference to me: after all, if I can't see the middle of the gold, I can't see the "suck-holes" beloved of most compound shooters, so a change of face doesn't alter my sight picture at all.

I'm considering trying the same dot outdoors, but haven't quite figured out how to deal with the changing distances yet.

Adam

Originally Posted by Adam

Indoors I find the best sight to be a very large dot (mine's about 4 or 5mm in diameter). I pull-in the sight extension until the dot pretty much fills the gold - all I see is a fine halo of gold around the black dot.

I find it takes all of the stress out of aiming and eliminates all of those "is it really in the middle of the middle" type of questions from my mind. A huge benefit is that a change of target face makes no psychological difference to me: after all, if I can't see the middle of the gold, I can't see the "suck-holes" beloved of most compound shooters, so a change of face doesn't alter my sight picture at all.

I'm considering trying the same dot outdoors, but haven't quite figured out how to deal with the changing distances yet.

Adam

I'm going to give the black dot a try, the "suck holes" are always a problem to me as I do tend to aim at the holes, wherever they are.

[Dave]

Could someone explain "suck holes" a bit more?

Ta

Dave

[gunmender]

I read that as the visible holes - tears and shot out bits that draw your eye as you aim. like walking towards a pot hole you naturally stear towards it! target fixation

[Adam]

Originally Posted by gunmender

I read that as the visible holes - tears and shot out bits that draw your eye as you aim. like walking towards a pot hole you naturally stear towards it! target fixation

Correct. It's fine if they are right in the middle, where you wan't your arrows to go, but if the face is changed and this reference point disappears it can cause a big problem. Similarly, if a visible tear/hole appears off-centre, this can cause you to aim off centre. With a big dot it doesn't matter, 'cos you can't see the middle anyway.

Adam

This problem is part of the human mind, Many a motorcycle rider has hit things they are trying to avoid as it is very easy to transfix on what you are trying to avoid like pot holes, cars, lamp posts, hedges, etc.

It does make sense to change to a large spot. I wish I had known this earlier. It may explain my poor performance during this winter, as I can't see arrow holes at 90m. I will try it tommorrow. At the moment I shoot with a large ring site, probably about 8-9 mm. I may just try a 4-5 dot in the middle of that. or remove the 8-9mm ring all together. I will let you all know how I get on.

[Radar_UK]

Originally Posted by rgsphoto

This problem is part of the human mind, Many a motorcycle rider has hit things they are trying to avoid as it is very easy to transfix on what you are trying to avoid like pot holes, cars, lamp posts, hedges, etc.

I can certainly vouch for this - a couple of years back whilst on a motorcycle trackday we were warned about avoiding a certain gravel trap as once you were in there it was a real nightmare to get out.

Needless to say I ended up getting 'taget fixation' on this particular corner with the inevitable result......

[Marcus26]

I didn't like a big dot because because I know that any visible movement is bad, which is the problem I have with the circle. What I like about the small dot (as small as I can get) is that I let it move around the 10 ring and because I get comfortable with the moving I can relax and execute correctly.
I also can aim off the suck holes so have had less trouble with those.

The big dot Adam describes would be a great solution for that issues though. Worth people trying I think.