I am suspending my hunting until I get this ironed out and perfected. Does anyone anchor on the side of the face rather than directly under the eye? I'm a right handed shooter. Up till now I have pre-aimed the arrow with a set bow arm, then drawn to the corner of mouth with a totally vertical bow. Everything was in line with the arrow under my eye. The vertical alignment took care of windage for the most part. I then focused on target center, held full draw for a couple seconds, and released. I used mostly instinct to get the elevation right. So the shot was somewhat instinctive. I decided to make some changes, since I wanted to use the gap to aim after achieving full draw. I learned that the corner of mouth anchor point was not ideal for this since it puts the arrow point a little too low, making aiming difficult, since the gaps are large. So I tried a higher anchor point, but still under my eye. I use split finger. The new anchor point was with index finger just under eye. It didn't seem comfortable or consistent. I don't want to give up split finger. It seems like everyone is doing the three under method, from all the internet resources I was looking into.
So I decided to try anchoring on my cheekbone, just outside of the line of sight. The shot method involves me pre-aiming just as I did before, with the bow arm set out and pointing the arrow at what looks like the right gap. I then draw and anchor middle and index fingers to the cheekbone, with the drawing hand tucked against the face. I make sure the draw is locked in with good back tension holding it. Now the sight picture is different though. The arrow comes across from right to left, with the tip of the arrow oriented to the left. It looks odd compared to the old sight picture. I still hold the bow vertical. I place the arrow tip under the target at the right gap, then I release. The draw length was the same as my old style so that worked out. I noticed my windage was affected though. My arrows were hitting right a lot of the time. I was able to correct this by tilting my face to the left instead of leaning it into the string and over the arrow, as I used to do. I think my whole alignment had to be different to accommodate this style.
Apparently Joel Turner of Shot IQ shoots with a thumb ring and he anchors on the side of his face as well. He described this sight picture in a Youtube video he did with Clay Hayes. This is the only resource I have found describing someone shooting this way. I know that normally, English longbow/warbow shooters draw to the side of their face, but normally they don't hold long and I've heard their shots are made instinctively. Is it reasonable to gap shoot while anchoring on the side of my face? Things I know work for me so far: vertical bow. pre-aim with set bow arm. split finger. A consistent pause and hold at the end of draw to allow aiming. The anchor point is up in the air.
