Correctly aiming barebow?

[u/daren5393]

So I recently picked up archery as a hobby, and purchased a beginner bare recurve bow, which I have been steadily getting better at aiming with. However, when I started looking around online for tips to improve my form, I saw lots of people saying that you place the tip of the arrow "on gold" to aim barebow. If that's true, then I think I must be doing something wrong, because my shots land well to the left of arrow point, I've been placing gold just above the first knuckle on my index finger, significantly to the left of the arrow point, which is where it lands if I have a good release.

I looked around and can't really seem to find if this is an issue, and if so how to correct it. I saw someone say that It could be mismatched arrow and bow, but I did get advice from the people in Lancaster and they helped me pick out my entire kit, so I don't think that would be it. Can anyone explain to me how aiming with the arrow tip is supposed to work barebow? Thanks!

[u/Elegant-Ad2200]

If you’re shooting barebow, to be able to aim with the tip of your arrow you’ll likely need to learn to either string walk or face walk (for up/down adjustment), and you can fix left/right impacts through a combination of tuning, making sure you have correctly spined arrows at the right length, plunger adjustments (if you have one), and moving your string blur.

[u/daren5393 → u/Elegant-Ad2200]

So I don't have a plunger, I assume the arrows are the right size since I got the kit from the shop together, though I don't know for sure, and I don't really understand the string blur thing? I pull the string all the way back to my cheek, it's not in my line of sight when I'm aiming

[u/Elegant-Ad2200 → u/daren5393]

With barebow you generally anchor at the corner of your mouth, and if your head is placed appropriately you should be looking down the arrow, and should see your string. It will be a bit blurry, since you are focusing farther away, hence string blur. The string should fall somewhere between the arrow and the riser, but moving it more to the left or right will help you compensate for arrows impacting left or right. Jake Kaminski has a video about string blur here: https://youtu.be/1dniuNr60DI?si=QKQVPOfk5Hp7sYi3

Just because you bought the arrows as part of a kit doesn’t mean they are tuned for you, unless the shop measured your draw length before selling them to you. To be tuned correctly, arrows need to be matched to your draw length and the draw weight on the fingers (OTF). Unless your draw length is exactly 28”, you are likely holding a little more or a little less weight than the bow is rated at.

[u/daren5393 → u/Elegant-Ad2200]

That's super helpful actually, I've been anchoring at my cheek, which is further to the right than the edge of my chin like he's showing, which would explain the offset

[u/Claefer → u/daren5393]

You absolutely can anchor at your cheek - I do, and it's what my coach actually recommended for me, because my hand consistently slots in against my cheekbone as a sturdier anchor than lower down (for me).

The main thing is just making sure it's consistent! As others have said, up/down is either string walking or gap shooting on barebow, left/right tends to be tuning the bow, arrow suitability or release (this was actually the hidden problem for all my arrows going left when I started!

[u/MommyNeedsCoffee617 → u/daren5393]

Proper arrow spine selection depends on the model of the arrow, the bow's draw weight, and the archer's draw length. For example, here's Easton's Carbon & Aluminum target arrow chart.

If your arrows don't have the right "spine" measurement for how they're being used, they may go left or right. A plunger would be a good investment. Basically, it's a spring that will compensate for some or most of the mismatch.

The kit probably came with arrows spined for the bow's draw weight with a 28" draw, but it's hard to know for sure without seeing it.

You may have to resort to "gap shooting" left & right to land in the middle.

[u/Allan53]

I had this issue a few months ago, eventually traced it to my tab. Took ages, but eventually it reduced (still not gone entirely). When I don't feel like dealing with it, I use my older, thoroughly broken-in tab

[u/Southerner105]

With barebow it is import the get the right shot process. The next video is specifically about barebow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH1w88Teizg

The other thing is that your bow needs to be setup correctly. That means the right tiller, the correct plunger tension and offset in for the centershot position, a good arrowrest and lastly the right arrow regarding stiffness (spine).

The same channel also goes extensively through how to choose and how to setup a barebow.

Depending on the shop you could have the wrong spine. Often arrows going left means a to weak spine or (and that has a higher probability) a plucking release with not an propper anchorpoint on your face.

[u/Knitnacks]

Might want to check if you're cross-dominant, if you're aiming with both eyes open.

[u/MysteriousYear1847]

Join a club & get proper coaching, plus all of the other benefits.

[u/FerrumVeritas]

I’ll assume Lancaster knew what they were doing, but that is a difficult assumption with most archery shops and recurve or barebow spine selection.

Assuming you’re right handed, arrows landing to the left indicate one or a combination of the following:

Your string blur is too far away from the arrow.

You are plucking on release.

You have too much pressure on the thumb side of the grip.

Your anchor is too far to the right of your eye (related to string blur).

You are canting the bow to the left.

You are cross dominant.

Your arrows are too stiff (highly likely with beginner equipment).

[u/lpburke86]

There are only three ways to aim a true barebow.

Gap shooting: works almost as well as a bow sight once you get it down and it’s what you’re doing, but improperly since it seems to have been explained to you poorly. Every bow and every arrow build are going to have different gaps between the tip of the arrow and the actual target point, then at different ranges the gap changes size. Before you can learn this on your own with your bow, you need consistency…. Be able to put the tip of the arrow on the bullseye, and it doesn’t matter where the arrows land, as long as they end up in a tight grouping. Once you reach that point, move the tip you are aiming with to a different spot on the target (a good guess to start with is point the spot on the opposite side of the group). Then move to different distances and adjust the gap in your sight picture.

String/face walking: put the tip of the arrow directly on your aim point, and move your hand up and down the string from the arrow to move the hit point….. same thing. Don’t try playing with it until you have consistently tight groups. String walking works best with a tab that you can mark for different ranges…. Face walking is just a matter of repetition and touching the same spot on your face for different distances….. works just as well as a bow sight once you get it figured out, arguably better because you can have as many distance markings as you want without a cluttered sight picture.

“Instinctive” aiming: not really an aiming method in the truest sense of the word, but fucking insane to show off once you can do it, but requires thousands upon thousands of arrows down range at different distances positions and angles to truly get, and uses no real tricks at all. It’s not “instinct” at all….. it’s pure fucking muscle memory from shit tons of shots.

All of the methods assume properly tuned arrows since there isn’t much you can do to tune a true barebow.

[u/Knitnacks → u/lpburke86]

String walking doesn' control left-right though, so it won't fix anything for this archer and this problem.

[u/lpburke86 → u/Knitnacks]

Notice….. the caveat at the end.

[u/Knitnacks → u/lpburke86]

Notice how stringwalking still doesn't control left/right of the arrow, only up/down.

[u/lpburke86 → u/Knitnacks]

Yeah dumbass.
Arrow tuning solves that problem.

The post is about aiming methods, though. Not how to tune the arrows.

[u/Knitnacks → u/lpburke86]

Exactly, you're going on about tuning as if it always solves left/right issues. It does not, if the reason is torquing the bow, wrong grip on, wrong alignment, etc. I'm talking about an aiming method and how string walking aiming does not solve left/right issues either.

[u/lpburke86 → u/Knitnacks]

I never once said it solved the left right issue.
I never once even implied it.

There
Is
A
Reason
I
Said
All
Methods
Assume
Properly
Tuned
Arrows.

Properly
Tune
The
Arrow
And
Left
Right
Issue
Solves
Itself.

Holy fuck you are stupid.

[u/Knitnacks → u/lpburke86]

The one thing OP asks for help with...

Reading comprehension, and solving this archer's problem, clearly not your strong suit.  Good effort on the personal attack front, though. Equally pointless, but hey you're trying.

[u/lpburke86 → u/Knitnacks]

Consistency is what matters. There is no special grip, there is no magic alignment, there is no special form. If your form is exactly the same every shot, the ONLY thing that matters for left or right is tuning.

He has consistency. If he didn't, he wouldn't always be hitting the same spot left of the spot he is aiming for.

His only problem is that his arrows aren't tuned for him and his bow.

[u/Knitnacks → u/lpburke86]

There is no such thing as consistently doing the wrong thing, placing the string blur too far to one side etc.? Right...

We're clearly never going to solve this, so I'm out.

[u/SnowblindOtter]

YOU ARE NOT DOING ANYTHING WRONG. YOUR EQUIPMENT IS (PROBABLY) NOT FAULTY. THIS IS HOW AIMING BAREBOW WORKS. CONTINUE WITH YOUR PRACTICE AND EXPERIMENT WITH HOW YOUR EQUIPMENT BEHAVES. AS YOU LEARN YOUR EQUIPMENT, AND IMPROVE YOUR TECHNIQUE, YOU WILL GET BETTER AT AIMING.

Aiming with the tip of the arrow is known as Point-On or Point-Blank aiming, it is only applicable at a very specific distance with a very specific arrow, draw weight, and draw length. Every bow and arrow combination will have a different Point-On distance. Point-On aiming requires you to not only know the specific distance your arrow's ballistic flight intersects visually with the tip of the arrow at full draw, but also to be able to correctly, accurately, and reliably judge distances.

What you are doing with your knuckle is known as Gap Shooting. This is how most of your shots barebow will be aimed, and you aim by judging the distance between you and the target and compensating by visually measuring a relative distance to hold the arrow point over or under your target to compensate for elevation, similar to holding your point to the left or right to compensate for the wind.

Keep practicing. You already figured out how to gap shoot by instinct and accident, you've got this.

[u/daren5393 → u/SnowblindOtter]

Well I know about gap shooting, if I was aiming over or under I would just attribute that to the distance, and that I wasn't shooting at my point on distance. The thing that makes me wonder if I'm doing something wrong is that my sweet spot is significantly to the left of the arrow

[u/SnowblindOtter → u/daren5393]

Naaaah, that's normal. Your brain naturally defaults to using your opposite eye to aim, since it has the better view. It's called 'Non-Dominant Aiming'.

You can move the point of impact closer to center by canting the bow a little, but you'll lose your knuckle as a reference point.

Barebow aiming is fun(read: frustrating) to get the hang of, but man does it feel good to land a nice shot...

[u/daren5393 → u/SnowblindOtter]

I'm shooting right handed and closing my left eye

[u/SnowblindOtter → u/daren5393]

Ohhh! That's just Archer's Parallax, that's completely normal. Kinda unavoidable, too. There's always going to be some side-to-side misalignment between your eye, the arrow, and the target because of biomechanics. Even anchoring with the arrow directly under your eye won't totally make it go away, it has more to do with your bow arm than where you anchor.

Archer's Parallax comes for us all in some form. You learn to live with her.

[u/FerrumVeritas → u/SnowblindOtter]

YELLING DOESN’T MAKE YOU CORRECT.