Learn To Shoot a Bow Accurately without Aiming

So, there are basically 2 ways to hit what you want to with an arrow. You can aim, either looking down the shaft, or with a gizmo; or you can use your instincts to hit the spot you want to. I used to aim. But when I switched from compound bows to traditional bows, It was very fatigue-inducing to hold it at full draw long enough to aim. So I was pondering the problem when I read an article in Field and Stream about aiming without aiming. It's instinctive shooting. You look where you want the arrow to go and let your body calculate the elevation and windage. Through practice and experience, you can get very small groups on target from random distances and even with obstructions. And the shot is eventually loosed as soon as you focus on the target.

My weekly practice looks like this:
Shooting while standing normally, thumb indexed on chin. 3 shots each at 5 ft distance intervals at my straw target
Shooting while standing normally, thumb indexed on chin. 3 shots each at 5 ft distance intervals at my straw target with a tree branch in the way
Shooting while turned at the waist to shoot behind me, thumb indexed on chin in different location. 3 shots each at 5 ft distance intervals at my straw target
Shooting while kneeling, bow tilted 45 degrees to avoid ground interference, arrow resting on top of bow, 3 shots each in 12 ft intervals with or without obstructions

Ground on range is lumpy as is natural. Uneven footing is common in the forest, practice for it. Greatest distance is 45 yards. Because of my practice regimen I get 3 inch groups out to 20 yards, 6 inch out to 30, and 1 ft at 45. I often strike my own previously fired arrows.

Looks like a very good regimen. I know that that method of aiming (It was described to me as "point shooting") works with firearms, with tons of practice, so I have no doubt it would work with a bow. Although that is more self defense than hunting orientated for sure.

Do you feel like you would use this method "cold turkey" (a pun!) to take game? By that I mean with no warm up/practice before hand. Or if that was the situation would you aim in the traditional sense?

Dan Fish wrote:Looks like a very good regimen. I know that that method of aiming (It was described to me as "point shooting") works with firearms, with tons of practice, so I have no doubt it would work with a bow. Although that is more self defense than hunting orientated for sure.

Do you feel like you would use this method "cold turkey" (a pun!) to take game? By that I mean with no warm up/practice before hand. Or if that was the situation would you aim in the traditional sense?

I'd practice ahead, I never warm up because the game isn't going to let you warm up. When I'm confident in the use of a new bow, then I use it to hunt. I can't use guns, I have really bad PTSD, and because I was hospitalized for it, I don't have access to them. So I also use a bow for self defense, and in such situations you have to shoot fast and well without a warm up. But if you have good posture and enough strength in your string hand's shoulder, you're unlikely to hurt yourself shooting a bow even if you don't warm up. I also have a sword and spear for self defense and I practice with them weekly using Roland Warzecha tutorials on youtube.

One of my dream hunts is to take a bear with a spear, and the other is to take a bear with a knife. The spear is not the safer of the two. The knife is just really ballsy, because you have to kill the bear in its den. In its den, it can't move freely and swipe you, so you have a serious advantage because you're smaller and can move freely. It is actually a traditional way to hunt bears among the Ainu people of Japan and Russia. I just have old fashioned goals. I want to test myself. See what heights I can achieve. That goes along with my ways of hunting, and my way of life. My dream job is hunter-gatherer.

I now use a compound bow to hunt with, while I have ! Sight on it, I use the instinct method usually, even when shooting for fun. My aimed shots are almost as accurate but I've been hunting with a long bow since I was 5 years old. I only got the compound bow when my lemon wood long bow became 80 years old and I want to pass it to my grand daughter.

The ancient archers were non-aimers, mostly... instinctive shooters.  But, they had incredible draw weights and daily practice regimens we can barely imagine.  During the WIlliam Wallace era, 100lbs was a kids weight almost!  Archeologists have found their bones altered due to the incredible weight and regular practice.  The same is true in Asia.  The Kyudo archers often "aimed" at targets they could not see, and much of the martial art has to do with "not aiming".  My take is that if you do anything enough, it becomes instinctive.  I love my recurve and the old longbow I inherited... but I would need a whole lot more practice to be instinctual.  I had a little experience with such when I was in my late teens.  The neighbor had really bad dogs... dogs trained to fight.  They kept trying to kill my dogs and came after me one day.    My grandfather had taught me to shoot with an old, like 1930s S7W .38 short barrel revolver... basically an antique.  I put 4 out or 5 bullets center mass in the lead bitch over more than 100 yards, no aiming at all.  THe owner called the cops and even claimed i was trying to shoot his kids!!!  I went to court and the judge told him, "If that boy had wanted to shoot your kids, he damn sure would have hit 'em!"

You may want to Google/search "GAP shooting" and string walking.  I don't use the technique but know some are very good at using it to adaptt o different distances without chaning anchor point.

Gap shooting is like using the point of your arrow as a 'pin' and practicing sight picture between the target and the pin.  String walking changes the relaease point or the arrow to compensate for distance.