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Practice With Traditional Gear

How does everyone practice with their traditional gear? Since I've entered the traditional world a month ago, my main practice has been at hay bales or my deer target. With the hay bales, I place my target where a deer's vitals would be. My question is, do you guys find it beneficial to practice shots that aren't in a deer's vital area? Like ground level targets? Targets 5 feet off the ground? My thought is, if I'm never going to need that shot, why would I bother practicing it.

How do you know you are never going to need that shot? Or, any particular shot? IMO, best form of practice = roving.

I find it fun to change things up and keep it interesting. I find that when I get out of the normal straight on target shooting that I get more bad releases. Since hunting rarely gives us those perfect shot I like to vary my practicing to hopefully minimize the human error factor when hunting

At ground level I practice shooting standing, sitting and kneeling at different distances. I practice shooting sitting and standing from elevated positions at different distances. I like 3D targets. For fun and gaggles we will roll a tire across in front of us with a balloon taped to the center. I also practice out of my pop up blind.

I enjoy following the "First Shot" over on leatherwall.

Different shots at different angles, positions and distances.

Even with my compound I try changing things up as much as I can. I even go as far as climbing up on my roof once in a while to get a longer, steeper shot. In the last week up to the season, I only shoot one arrow from each location.

Reggie, welcome to the Trad world. It's addicting and you will find yourself not wanting to quit shooting. If you are just starting, I would concentrate more on getting your arrows tuned for your bow correctly, bow set correctly, your form and a consistent clean release before worrying about shot angles and such during the hunt. Once your shooting good then go out and really have fun with 3D targets and stump shooting. It's pretty incredible when you just have to focus and pick a spot to shoot, no distance judging anymore (unless your gap shooting). It is amazing how accurate you can become without sights. When you can pick an arrow hole in a target and lay another arrow right in it, its quite the feeling of achievement. Good Luck.

Buy some judo's and head for the outdoors! Shoot at unknown ranges and shoot small items. I do shoot 3 D's at shoots which is great! But getting your concentration to "Shoot small" or Pick a SMALL SPOT"! I think is the key! Don't over bow yourself. WTA has several shoots through out the summer! GO, talk to others and even shoot their bows. The shoots are GREAT, evening you sit around the camp fires and talk about hunting, bows and idea's! Good Luck and Enjoy!

I am a bit late to respond but see that you have already gotten the advice that I would have given. My theory has always been; if you are having fun you are doing it right. In the end it all boils down to experience, so just build on that. I understand that at times you may be limited to the type of practice that you can do, like in the winter just repetitive shots in the basement. So focus on form then. When you can use open spaces, find a way to use them. It all will contribute to your experience. And until someone gets all of those critters to stand real nice and pretty in the open like targets that experience will help make those shots.

Reggie go to the WTA shoots and meet the people, talk to the people and most of all have fun. Practice is important and once the weather breaks, there are a bunch of shoots to try. Some have elevated stands, bluffs etc.

Get a clicker and learn how to use it the right way.

I agree with attending trad shoots. In addition to just fun, you'll meet like-minded, helpful folks. Don't be afraid to start conversing with about anybody. Ask questions...let em know you're fairly new to this...it's a brotherhood and people are always willing to help.

Welcome aboard...it's addictive, fun, and effective. Feel free to shoot any PM's.

Get some judo points, then just have fun shooting., get your form down first the rest will come!! Have fun!!

Archery is archery. I do the same things with my traditional bows a lot of others do with their compounds: indoor target, outdoor target, 3-D, field archery, hunt etc.

“My thought is, if I'm never going to need that shot, why would I bother practicing it.”

My thoughts with respect to bowhunting are that the challenge should lie in getting the shot, not making it. I shoot competitive field archery out to 80 yards, outdoor target to 70 meters, and 3-D out to however far away the targets are set (33 yards max for IBO tournaments). That being said, my average shot distance on medium and large game (whitetails, elk, moose etc.) is about 14 yards. In 32 years of bowhunting I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve taken bowhunting shots past 20 yards, and I’d have fingers left over. At the end of the year I like the number of shots I’ve taken to match the number of filled tags in my freezer.

This is just my opinion, but we should be capable of far greater accuracy than we ever plan on using in the woods. Otherwise what we are doing is trying to kill an animal with a shot that’s at the outer limits of what we’ve practiced. Is that really a wise thing?

I would suggest for being fairly new to the old is to go out at night and set a bright spot on your bale and step back 10 -15 yards and just focus on the spot and shoot. It will help to clean up your form and get your mind trained on the spot. I continue to do this off and on to help clean up my sloppiness, enjoy the journey.

Thanks for the suggestion,JJS. I'll definitely give it a try!

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