Anyone practicing holding their draw?
Elk
With the upcoming elk season fast approaching, does anyone practice holding their draw? We all practice shooting but there are many times when we draw on an animal and then have to wait for the shot. I started holding my draw on a 30 yard target for as long as possible. Once fatigue was about to take over I release. I have been able to draw and hold my 70lb Hoyt for 2-1/2min with a perfect shot. I've been gaining 15 seconds each time I try this. Just another fun thing to add to training. Anyone else?
I'm not hunting elk this year, but moose in the rut might be similar and with the other hunts I'm doing, it can't ever hurt. I'm up to 2 minutes at 40 yards with an 85 pound bow and I'm hitting within 2"-3" of where I'm aiming.
Holding at full draw is overrated, at least for me. Most of my shots have been draw and shoot.
Could be over rated but the one time you needed to hold on a stud and couldn't would haunt you. On a side note a shoot a Matthews switchback XT. The other day I drew a Hoyt carbon spyder and man is it smooth and a breeze to keep drawn.
I'm not...havnt thought about it. Yhanks for posting this because ivwill start asap.
Funny, I do this rarely but all year round. Its a great 'fear' of mine. Having to hold my draw for too long and going wobbly. I've practiced this from the very beginning of my bow hunting. I've had to hold draw for over a minute on a couple occasions and it felt like forever. I should do this more. I do find that the more I shoot without practicing this, the easier it is.
Btw-I like to do this with my recurve, it really burns! I think it messes up my form tho.
I do this every year. At the end of my practice sessions, I usually do 4-6 more shots where I hold about as long as I can.
Yes. I think it's very important to practice every situation you COULD encounter while hunting. Whether it has or hasn't happened in the past I try to imitate as many as I can.
Thanks for reminding me. I agree it's a good thing to do, especially before an elk hunt.
Best of Luck Jeff
draw when your ready to shoot and let the arrow go, heck man, in todays world most all compounds have a huge let-off,85%,??? you should be able to hold that all day long. So, when that animal is stepping into your shoot lane, draw, pin and shoot. practice that........
Great suggestion! Another time when holding a shot may be important is in windy conditions. I've noticed it doesn't take much wind and I'm rocking back and forth...waiting for a pause in the wind to shoot.
Another thing I've noticed is that about 98% of the bowhunters I watch shoot at our range shoot from a standing position. I can count on 1 hand how many standing shots I've taken. I have never understood why guys practice shooting while standing while...#1 hunters usually are in a kneeling position in a blind or when stalking. #2 I'm a lot more stable when shooting while kneeling.
TurkeyBowMaster might agree that he may need to hold his shot for turkeys?
My first elk kill was a stare-down for 2 minutes before he moved and I could shoot.
I know it was two minutes because I practice holding and time myself.
My second elk, I drew behind cover and slowly inched my way into a shooting lane while my elk thrashed a tree.
That hold was almost a minute.
(I'm sure the trad guys are shaking their heads)
One thing you learn by practicing holding is how little strength you actually need to use once you're comfortable with your bow. When I first started archery, I would spontaneously draw down because I'd not use enough strength to hold. I compensated by using more than I needed. Once I started practicing holding my draw, I could use much less energy and hold my draw much longer because of this - all while not spontaneously drawing down.
It's also one of the reasons I shoot my bow at 52# instead of 60 - I can hold my draw much longer and with much more accuracy on longer holds, comparably.
A lot of guys define being "overbowed" as above the max they can draw and shoot smoothly.
That's great if all you ever have to do is draw and shoot like you would when practicing.
I think there's a case to be made for length of hold, being able to draw your bow very slowly, being able to draw your bow straight in front of you, and being able to draw your bow pointed straight behind you when deciding what poundage to set your bow at.
Everyone who's hunted knows the world of difference between target practice and real world shooting at an animal.
What dgildy said is key I think: You have to practice holding a long time and then shoot to really have an idea of your limits.
Hold for 2.5 minutes then let down then immediately draw again and shoot. Don't forget to shoot in your fancy new clothing:) good luck Andrew! C
If all you can do is draw and shoot your success rate on elk will go way down. Almost always need to be drawn many seconds ahead of time on a bull coming in.
Important point that is often overlooked.
This well done video illustrates it nicely. Montana Wild Outdoors on Vimeo "Ambush" http://vimeo.com/m/72248391
Those blindless guys who hunt semi tame birds hold for a long time...no need to hold on Alabama birds because they fly when you put tension on the string...while they are still 80 yards out. You would have to draw before daylight and hold until the shot...tried that once and about 12 noon was all I could hold. Need to build myself up before elk season.
Yes! It helps my mind more than anything. Remembering to breath and stay calm with a long hold is great practice IMO.
Try this. Once at fulldraw if you have to wait, put the bottom limb or cam on your thigh or knee, then drop your right elbow, elbow only, to your side. If the shot comes all you have to do is raise your elbow back up and your at fulldraw.
"no need to hold on Alabama birds because they fly when you put tension on the string."
Gawsh TBM, no wonder you have so much trouble killing a turkey. I just thought you didn't know how to hunt.
Not bad advice after seeing that video I posted. For tree stand whiteys never had to hold for long. Maybe 10 seconds tops. I have drawn and let back down and re-drawn many times though.
I better - every time I draw on an animal I'm all over the place until I settle down and my pin stops moving around!!!
Gawsh TBM, no wonder you have so much trouble killing a turkey. I just thought you didn't know how to hunt.". Had trouble with all 217 that I put an arrow in. The next best Turkey Hunter in the world could have probably killed 55 of them....they would have been easy to him if heed killed 55. Thanks for the next level tip...I let you his one slip past me even though it's obvious.
I've been trying it every practice session. My shot placement suffers after I hold for two minutes(I use a timer). So I just put another stipulation on my son, who'll be my caller. So far they are as follows;
Huge antlers (will look better on the wall) anorexic (easier to pack out on our back) In close (my groups start spreading after 40yds) One bad eye (and it must be nearest me, so I can draw whenever I want without holding back)
I'm sure I'll have to add more before out trip!
Dan
1:00 to 1:27 ish shooting at 65yds, inside 7"???? I figure that it will be easy at 45 yds!!
About ten seconds is all I can hold back my string and still hit something! But I'm shooting a longbow and holding over sixty pounds. Got caught drawing two seasons ago, I lasted about thirty seconds when she finally looked away I shot and it wasn't pretty, but I got pretty good penetration on the aspen about two thirds the way to her!
If you'd have been using a single bevel 2 blade, it would have gone through the Aspen and killed the elk :)
JK :)
60 lbs...you're doing good oldgoat :) I figured I'd check on my recurve tonight since this thread came up and I'm not shooting my compound right now. At 43#, around 10 seconds, my arms start to do this weird seizure thing... I think it's an electrolyte imbalance.
Yep, I practice holding my draw. I also practice a fast release, hitting the trigger as the pin first hits the bullseye.
The aspen was off to the side, I was trying for a bank shot! Had a buzzcut on that day!
Visualize every opportunity to draw, and practice drawing and executing the shot cleanly and quickly. Unless you're sitting in an open field, there are plenty of opportunities to draw and shoot in rhythm without holding for 5 minutes
I'm not a fan of drawing just in case a shot opportunity might present itself. Knowing when, and how to draw with minimum movement when I have a shot has worked well for me. If the critter should hang up unexpectedly in a bad position when I get to full draw, I judge the situation and either wait him out for a short time or SLOWLY let down. Practicing a controlled, slow let down has been more beneficial than long holding.
it really can't hurt, can it?
I practice drawing slowly and straight in front of me, letting down slowly and under control, drawing while behind a tree and then side stepping out to shoot, any kind of hunting scenario I can think of.
You longbow guys are amazing! It all takes practice, practice, practice!
When stuck at full draw turn you head ever so slightly and also hold your thumb tight behind your ear to relive some of that fatigue. You can hold at full draw forever that way. Use the leverage of your thumb to relive the strain on your arm. ;)
Breathing helps too.
LOL.
There is a vid on Youtube you can look at that shows A trick. You can bring your bottom cam down on your knee.
:)
Not only holding at full draw should be practiced. Slow and smooth with little movement let down should be practiced. It is pretty hard to let down some bows with radical cams nice and slow.
Working on extending my hold time has been a practice of mine for MANY years. Now that I'm an old fart I'll just use a 90 sec egg timer... Definately not what I used to be able to do but hopefully it will be long enough this year.
The hunter in the video on the VERY close elk encounter thread provides a tutorial on how and when NOT to draw.
Since he's shooting a compound, he should have drawn when that bull was coming in, at some point when his head went behind a tree, and held until the bull passed him.
When the bull was close, if he'd kept his cool instead of jumping, the bull would have turned his head at some point and given him the opportunity to draw and shoot slightly quartering away at single-digit yards.
He's very lucky that bull stopped to offer him a second chance. 99 times out of a hundred that bull is gone if the hunter makes such a mistake.
Yes....about back to my elk hunting minimum of 5 minutes. Needed it last year, or I would not have my WY 346" bull on the wall
Not really seeing as I shoot 50-70# trad 98% of the time so holding my drawn compound for a long time is easy.My compound is a '95 Browning Mirage FPS with 60% or 45% letoff. If I had a bow with 80% let off, well...
I practice this religiously now. Last year my inability to hold at full draw for longer than a couple minutes cost me my biggest buck. He stopped when I drew behind a small bush not offering me a shot. I held as long as I could waiting for him to take the next step. He saw me let down and it was game over. How he saw me draw when he was behind that brush is beyond me, I guess sometimes they get lucky.
Yes, practice it every year. Also practice a lot kneeling, sitting, etc.
Although there are a lot of "you shouldn't have to" advisors out there, it's best to be prepared for everything.
In the past I had to hold a LONG time on a bull I got. I wasn't willing at the time to take a frontal 20 yd shot (now I would do it in a heartbeat). I ended up putting the bottom cam on my knee for a while and eventually letting down. Believe it or not I still managed to get the bull, it wasn't pretty, but I double lunged him and he died in sight.
I don't practice it. In a hunting situation Usually adrenaline allows me to hold for longer than my "normal."
Probably been said already but also practice holding from one knee, both knees and flat on your butt as well.
Yep, I practice it. I will go through a couple cycles of holding for 90 seconds, then 60, then 30, then back to 60 and back to 90. Also practice the smooth draw with the bow directly in front of me and am harassing my son about this all the time. We also practice sitting, from knees, and turned at different angles at the waist.
I guess we have become so accustom to TBM's wild comments that no one even took notice of the ones above. Did that guy really say that? Unimaginable....
I've never had to hold even close to this long and really hadn't practiced it much either. I snuck up on this bull to 18 yards and I was close enough to watch his head bobbing as he panted since it was pretty warm out. He was bedded quartering away downhill with tall grass obscuring his body.
I drew back and tried to get him to stand up by cow calling with my mouth, grunting, mooing like a cow and even whistling.......I kept thinking the moment I let down, he's gonna stand up and I just kept on holding. He would turn his head when I called but wouldn't stand up. I instinctively used elknuts technique of resting the lower limb on my leg which relieved pressure and I know it was over 2 minutes but didn't time it. Finally, he stood up and I made a decent shot quartering away.
My point is, you may never need to hold that long but the one time you do, it's worth the practice. I work on it now......
One thing for dang sure, it is a LOT harder to do a good shot after a long hold than when you don't. Double ditto for sitting. I practice, and hope I don't have to use it on a real animal.
I play a game, if I hear a car coming while I am drawn or if I am drawing, during practice, I wait until it is out of ear shot before I release. The road I live on has moderate traffic so it may or may not happen. That way it comes as a surprise.
I made it a whole 13 seconds yesterday evening and shot a twelve! Amazing, I know!
Another good practice method is to stand in a fire ant bed and let them getting to bite you before you draw and try to place a mental block and execute a good shot under that pressure.
TBM, have you ever trained your tracking ants to fight-off the fire ants long enough to shoot?
I often carry a bull snake in my pack, and if I need to shoot when near a rattler I set my bully on him to keep him at bay until the critter is killed. You might want to pick up a good, reliable bull snake if you plan to hunt CO this year.
Good reminder. My hold times are going up fast.
Also, my ability to visually block any post by TBM is getting better and making Bowsite more enjoyable.
LMAO. You guys are a hoot.
Why no crossbow shooters in this discussion?
TBM, I'm calling BS until I see a picture or video of this practice technique.
A mind is a terrible thing to waste, so thanks for lending yours to bowsite!!
I have practiced holding in past summers, but an odd thing... I tend to develop target panic when I do this. I got to thinking about it and I've never had to actually hold at full draw for very long in the field, so I decided it was not worth it. To each his own, I reckon.
I wouldn't go as far as fire ants, but I do shoot through flies flying in my eyes or mosquitoes landing on me and biting as that happens hunting as well and can really break your concentration.
oldgoat, if I tried the same, I bet I could shoot a 12 too, except 12 would be how many feet I'd miss by!
