ARCHERY This page presents a simple trick for improving the accuracy of your shooting

While shooting in college, I developed a sighting aid that increased my score per an "in" of six arrows by one full point using ten-ring scoring. I offer it here to anyone who may find it useful.

If your arrows aren't already numbered, do so and shoot at least six "ins" with them always shooting them in numerical order. Do this on a windless day and don't use any southern windage to correct for any eccentricities you may already know about. Aim all of the shots at the center of the gold. Each time you retrieve the arrows, place a dot in its location on a small copy of the target at which you're shooting. After six "ins," your small target will look something like this:

Each number indicates the number on the arrow shot. The locations of the groups of arrows are the result of peculiarities in each particular arrow and eccentricities in your form, release, etc., in the shooting order. In reality, the subgroups may spread out so far that they overlap.

Next, decide on the center of each subgroup. Then take a very small, 1 to 2-inch diameter paper copy of a target, and place the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 on it in positions that are 180-degrees opposite from the corresponding arrow group's position and as far from the center as the group. Such a target based on the above groupings would look like this:

Paste this miniature target on the back of your bow just above the grip. The numbers indicate the area you need to aim toward to correct that arrow's, and its shooting order's, error. As you set up for the each shot, glance at this aiming guide and aim to the part of the target indicated.

Of course, this technique will only help shooters who are consistent.

Finally, repeat this with at least one other set of arrows. If you lose an arrow in competition, replace it with an arrow from one of your back-up sets with an arrow that has the same number and remember to shoot it in the proper order. Since this new arrow's correction is likely to be different than the first arrow, pencil in the appropriate correction on your aiming guide.

 
(Click on main site to browse 70 other topics ranging from exotic kaleidoscope designs to the strange world of lucid dreaming.)