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You’ve been shooting your bow all summer, your gear is tuned up, and you’re ready hunt. Or are you? Shooting baseball-size groups at the range doesn’t necessarily translate to accuracy from a treestand when a live target is standing out in front of you. So, we designed five real-world shooting drills to liven up your summer practice sessions and prepare you for deer season. To help you execute each drill, we asked five experts to divulge their favorite tips on how to get ready for bow season.
DRILL 1: 3 AT 30
Think of this set of five drills as a mini summer school for bowhunters, and this first one, devised by Larry Wise, is your entrance exam. If you can’t execute this most basic and critical bowhunting shot, you don’t move on to the more advanced stuff. It’s also a good barometer for whether you’re ready to hunt (or not).
THE DRILL
Set a target 30 yards from your treestand and put 3 consecutive shots in a 4-inch group centered around the bull’s-eye. Shoot this drill with your broadheads.
THE PLAN
Before you get into your tree, try drawing your bow while sitting in a chair. If you can’t raise your bow and draw it straight back, keeping the arrow parallel to the ground, then you need to turn your draw weight down. The first key to good shooting from a treestand is a stealthy draw.
Once you can draw properly, get in your stand and start your pre-shot routine. Spot the target at 30 yards and pick a precise aiming point. Take a deep breath, raise your bow to target level, bend at your waist to account for the downward angle, and draw. This is where Wise’s coaching gets a bit more intellectual. He trains his shooters to transfer the energy used to hold the bow at full draw from their arms to their back. It works this way: With relaxed arms, your back muscles contract, and your pin hovers over the target as your back muscles continue contracting. Your release hand squeezes the trigger, and you launch an arrow without consciously thinking about it.
Your goal while at full draw—aiming at a deer or, in this case, a target—is not to shoot the deer. “The act of shooting a deer is in the future,” Wise says. “And if you start thinking in the future, you’ll punch the trigger. You need to stay in the present.”
Make a conscious decision to think about transferring energy from your arms to your back (block out any other thoughts) and let your bow do the rest. This method of shooting combats trigger punching and target panic, Wise says.
If you’ve been practicing, and your bow is properly tuned for your broadheads, this drill should be a cakewalk.
THE EXPERT
Larry Wise is a renowned archery coach and former professional international shooter. Wise literally wrote the book on compound bow shooting. Literally. It’s called, Core Archery, and is widely available.
https://www.outdoorlife.com/articles/hunting/2015/08/bowhunting-prep-5-drills-prepare-you-your-best-bow-season-ever/