Arrow left

[DC]

Start off by saying that I'm not a good shot. From twenty yds I can get most of the arrows in a standard 16" target face. Every once in a while though I'll get one or a series or arrows about a foot left. One night at the range(of course) just about every arrow went a foot left. On the average though, I'm going to guess 1 in 10 goes left. It's always the same amount, about a foot. I usually shoot the same arrows, sometimes all go left, sometimes none so I'm sure it's not the arrows. Is there maybe one thing that I should be looking for? I'm thinking of video taping myself shooting. Should I video from the front or the side?

[Hawkdancer]

Both would probably be a good idea!  But I ain't going to volunteer for the frontal angle! .  Mount your camera so you can see several angles to see if you are doing the same thing all the time.  Can't help with the fix, just the finding out!  Good luck!
Hawkdancer

[BowEd]

Dc... I guess we are both poor shots.I have that happen occasionally too.I would'nt worry about it.When the same arrow occasionally shoots left then I know it's the operator not the shafts.

[burchett.donald]

  DC, sounds like your arrows are almost to stiff...Make sure you are reaching full draw to get maximum paradox...You may be shooting when tired, short drawing...Which will increase spine and cause that arrow to float to the left...jmho
                                                Don

[TimBo]

You could be short drawing on those for sure - at that distance it would be noticeable.  If they are that far over, you may be right on the edge of the right spine so any inconsistencies are magnified.  Do you have heavier points you could switch with to see if that helps?  That would decrease the spine a smidge. 

[Pat B]

Sounds more like a release of form problem than an arrow problem.

[DC]

Sounds more like a release of form problem than an arrow problem.

That's what I thought. The short drawing does make some sense though and I have been guilty of that. I just thought that since the symptoms were almost exactly same every time that it might help nail down the problem.
A few weeks ago, all of a sudden I started shooting very well. For three days I was shooting 5-6" groups repeatedly. I could feel that everything was right. I thought that all I had to do was practice steady for a week to lock whatever I was doing into my muscle memory. It rained hard for four days. By the time it cleared up the feeling was gone. I was that close

[bradsmith2010]

DC, good suggestions from above,, usually when I shoot left, it is alignent,, or the arrow is not under my eye,,
I forget are you right eye dominent,, and if my finger pressure is not consistant they go high and left,,
this is what I do when I shoot the best,,
1 pre aim the bow( point it where it need to go and hold it there throught the shot process)
2make sure I am pulling the arrow under my eye
3make sure I am pulling with back tension as I hit anchor
4pull through the shot( dont just let it go keep pulling)
5 make sure my bow arm remains steady,,

sounds easy right,, well when I do that,, I am pretty consistant,, if the arrow goes off,, I didnt do something right,,usuall short draw with no back tension,, if I short draw with good back tension it will still hit pretty good a close range,, but on longer shot you are losing cast and it will drop low,,

maybe video  yourself ,,, easier to see what is off on the bad shots,,

[k-hat]

DC, I am by no means a marksman and you're probably more accurate than me, but I'll share some marksmanship advice given by a good friend.  He is in the army and was telling me about an excellent teacher he had.  Teacher said it's typical for a person to "force" themselves into an unnatural alignment, and thereby produce inconsistencies.  His advice to my friend was: (something like this)
--set up and aim like your going to shoot, then close your eyes and relax.  Open your eyes and without moving look through your sight and see where you're aiming. 
He found that the muzzle tended to drift left a touch.  So rather than change his aiming, he rotated his body/stance to the right and boom, precision increased dramatically.  If your force your body into an unnatural stance it will fight it.

Might I suggest that you may need to do similar,  and it may be on those days you had consistent accuracy you may have accidentally adjusted your stance some.

Just my worthless 2¢

[Eric Krewson]

When I hit left I am getting into my arm guard with my string. I made an osage bow with the string a little to the left, I shot it a bit, everything was OK, that is until I shot it in a tournament. Every few shots I hit a foot or more left and realized what I had been doing. With uphill, awkward stance shots I was hitting my armguard. I changed to a bow with with the string more centered on the handle and stopped hitting to the left.

[Chief RID]

DC. I struggle with this also. I used to think that a steady bow hand in follow through was the solution, and it could very well help but since my wing shooting has gone south the last few years, I am considering the dominant eye thing. There can be many things that cause your dominant eye to lose it's dominants during shot alignment. This can become very frustrating for instinctive shooters as well. Some folks say it takes as little as something to blur your vision in your non dominant eye. I am going to use this for my wing shooting. I may even cover my non dominant eye if I have too. I have been able to eliminate the problem shooting the bow at close range by concentrating on my sight picture and making sure I get my eye over the arrow. At long range I can tell I have a harder time focusing , probably due to the target being harder to focus and the dominant eye thing being more pronounced of a problem. That's my theory and I'm sticking to it, until I come up with a better one.

[jeffp51]

This is a really good video on the different reasons we miss left.  I found it helpful, anyway.  I still can't shoot straight, but at least I don't miss consistently one way or the other.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDrAS9tKjqw

[DC]

Wow, great answers and it looks like I'm guilty of most of them. I know I'm hitting my arm guard once in a while because I can hear it even if I don't feel it. Raising my brace height seems to fix that. Eyes and concentration. Well I'm 70 with the beginnings of cataracts and concentr----- ooh, lookit the grouse. That is a great video, he touches on just about everything I do wrong. I'll watch more of his videos.
Thanks guys

[Jackpineboyz]

Dc,
I tend to do this occasionally for 2 reasons.  If my spine is right on at full draw, if I collapse or alter my form enough to loose a little draw length my arrows are stiff and shoot left (right handed). I try to keep my arrows just slightly weak to prevent this.  Also if you bare shaft tune, a perfect arrow tends to stiffen slightly with feathers added.

With this change in my set up, I typically shoot left when I my draw cycle gets sloppy and my right hand is at anchor, but the back of my hand is off my face.  I now use on my 1 st thumb joint as part of my anchor as well as finger tips.  When I am doing this, I also realized that I'm loosing my string blurr since I am no longer right over the arrow.

[aaron]

All good thoughts  above.  Only thing i would add is that if you are shooting instinctive, you may want to try gap shooting. Worked for me.