gap shooting?

[Llamma1]

I keep hearing about gap shooting. So what is the concept of it. How would one start to do it. Thank you.

[PEARL DRUMS]

The gap is the distance between the arrows point and your target at full draw. Your aiming. One HUGE problem with gap shooting is you have to now know your yardage to be accurate, that's never good. Plus, it adds tremendous strain to a self bow. Since its a method of aiming you have to hold the bow drawn longer than desired to zero in. Im just not a fan of at all if you cant tell.

[adb]

Gap shooting is judging the position of the arrow tip relative to the target. In other words, you're actually looking at the arrow. Often, not a good thing. Instinctive shooting is all about target focus... concentrating on the spot on the target you want to hit, and letting instinct do the rest... much like throwing a baseball. I ONLY use gap shooting if I'm target shooting at 40 yards (which I rarely do), because I find my arrow trajectory is too much, and I miss low instinctively. Some of the archery events I attend require targets at 40 yards. Other than that, it's instinctive. Remember, aim small, miss small.

[jayman448]

i know i slightly different definition of gap shooting. my good buddy is a gap shooter (or so he says) but does not use the arrow tip at all. (this could be point of aim?) he claims that you must know how far your arrow will drop at a certain distance and then aim at it as if it were twenty yards, or wherever your bow still shoots flat at. he coaxed me to try it here and there and ive had varied success. personally ill stick with my instinctive XD

[Pappy]

jayman, that is what they call their point on distance, any distance less or more you have to adjust where you aim and depending on where you anchor and how flat you bow set up is will determine your point on distance, in other words if you use a high anchor your point on will be at a closer range than if you use a lower anchor. also a fast set up will have less adjustments to make than a slower set up. Very accurate method to shoot, but I prefer just looking and shooting.
   Pappy

[crooketarrow]

  I can't think of one good thing to say about gap shooting.

[Pappy]

Very accurate,for the folks I know that use it, I can say that Pappy

[jayman448]

i always get a kick out of shooting with my gap shooting buddy. i make a 20 yard shot, "well where did you aim for that one" "at the target" next is a fifty yard shot "well where did u aim for that one?" " at the target" " i dont know how anyone can be accurate like that, i cant do it"

bottom line, archery is about what works.   

[Wooden Spring]

Here's the simplest way I can explain it... With a picture!   
We teach a LOT of people how to shoot primitive bows when we give demonstrations at Civil War Reenactments (Civilian Archer's Society), and when we do, we teach the "gap shooting" method.

If you want, you can get Byron Ferguson's book "Become the arrow," or just read my synopsis below, combined with the picture of one of our ladies shooting her bow. (blue line is sight line, red line is flight path of the arrow)


Building the shot from the ground up

Stance
Stand 90° away from the target with the left side of your body facing the target. Stand with your feet about shoulder width apart with most of your weight on your left foot , this will cause you to lean just a bit towards the target

Grip
With the bow in your left hand, use your right hand to take an arrow by the nock and place it on the left side of the bow on top of your knuckles.

The arrow will ride on top of your left knuckle – do not extend your left index finger or the fletchings may cut you, you should grip the bow firmly, but not a with death grip. Think of the way you would grip a mop or a broom handle and hold the bow similarly

Place the arrow on the string at a 90° angle to the bow with the odd colored feather facing out

Place your index, middle, and ring fingers of your right hand on the string with the arrow between your index and middle fingers (this is called a “split fingered grip”

Tilt the bow about 45° to the right

Draw
Since the bow is tilted 45° to the right, the fletchings of the arrow will form a “V” with the upper two feathers, bring this back smoothly, and directly under the pupil of your right eye

Your right middle finger must find an anchor point on your face – that is – a reference point (such as the corner of your mouth) that you draw to so that each shot is consistent

Aiming
Aiming is just a short pause before loosing. Your focus is ALWAYS at the target – the arrow is just seen in your peripheral vision. And don’t just focus on the bullseye itself, try to focus on the fly that just landed on the center of the bullseye – remember, “aim small, miss small!”

Windage - As the arrow is drawn directly under the right eye, sight along its length, and draw an imaginary line straight to the bullseye

If your shots pull to the left with the arrow lined up straight to the target, try rotating the bow more to the right, and your shots will move right

Elevation – To gauge the elevation of your shot, you will do what is called “gap shooting.” When the arrow is drawn under the right eye, in your peripheral vision, you will see that there is a gap between the tip of the arrow and the bullseye. By taking a few test shots, you will be able to measure what this gap should be to hit the bullseye

The closer you are, the lower on the target the tip of the arrow will have to be

The farther you are, the higher on the target you will have to be

With practice, this will become second nature

Loose
To loose the arrow, simply relax the right side of your body. You will know that you have done this correctly when your right hand travels backwards near your right shoulder

 

[crooketarrow]

  I once worked for a survayer for 8 years. He was totally HOWARD HILL.  At the time I had target panic bad. So I learned to shoot HOWARD HILL way if you don't know anything about Hill He shot distance.

 Iwas deady from 38 was my point on. Out to 50 I could repeaty shot 8 inch groups at 50.

  But any thing 20 or closer you shoot instintive. I've killed 40 bucks with a selfbow. LONGEST ONE WAS 17 YARDS. So after a year or so It was nice to hit a 40 50 yards.
  For a couple years I tour the grond hogs up. THAT FIRST YEAR I KILLED 13 GROUND HOGS SECOND SUMMER I KILLED 17 THE THIRD SUMMER I ARROWED 11.

  I did'nt keep count of all the rabbits. Enough to keep my frizzer filled

  But for bucks I shot them all intintively.

  The HILLS way of aiming you use your peripheral vision. You know the arch of your arrow know the distance useing your peripheral vision literly aiming the path of the arrow to your kill area.
  Thats not a very way of telling it.

   It fixted my target panic thats been pushing 20 years ago. Any thing under 20 yards with hills way you shoot instintive. So it did'nt take me long to just forget about it. All my shots are 12 to 15 anyway.

  I like wood springs building a shot. I'll give it some thought.

[Wooden Spring]

   I like wood springs building a shot. I'll give it some thought.

Well, I learned this technique from Byron Ferguson... 

What I also tell archers when I'm teaching them how to shoot (by the way, over the weekend, we taught about 850 school kids how to shoot at the Civil War Re-enactment of the Skirmish at Gamble's Hotel at The Columns Plantation in Florence, SC) is that shooting an arrow is a lot like aiming a baseball in the sense that I can teach you how to put the arrow downrange, I can teach you about proper skeletal and muscular alignment and the like, but if there is a method that you find that works well for you, then do it. There's no real "wrong way" to shoot an arrow. After all, it's all about having fun, and if you're not having fun with it, then you're not going to do it well. 

Here's a few pictures from our event if you're interested... The first picture is of me shooting GAP method at 30 paces for the newspaper. The picture was lifted from SCnow.com.