Being new to archery I wonder what is considered good accuracy? I am shooting a compound bow with a release aid. Would 2 to 3" groups of 3 arrows at 35 yards be considered good or do many of you group them even tighter than that? I only plan at this point to use my equipment to hunt elk, possibly deer rather than competition. I know a deer's vitals are about 6-8" but obviously one wants to have a significant margin of error so groups of much smaller than vital size at maximum range is the goal. Bruin.

Welcome to Bowhunting! Sounds like you off to a good start. I don't believe in "good enough to hunt" accuratcy. I feel one should be shooting 2" groups at 10yrds PAST his personal comfort range. With 1" groups at your hunting range max.

For example I hunt out to 20yrds but practice at 35-40.

Try this as a personnal test. Before work go out and shoot one arrow... period, no warm-up shots. Then you get to think about it all day This is also good after a long hard day at work.

I start doing this 2-3wks prior to a hunt.

Bruin,

You are ready to Rock & Roll! That is great groups at that range especially, for deer hunting.

I usually shoot groups from 2-4" at 25 yards and I've never had trouble taking game from 0-30 yards, if they are further than that, they are too far for me. Most of the deer I have taken were from 10-15 yards.

Congrats on the good shooting and welcome to the sport.

Reloader

Bruin, I have found that accuracy is relative. that most hunters don't try to be as accurate as they can be. They are happy if they can hit the preverbial pie plate that is good enough. Personally I stick golf tees in my target and shoot at them. I don't hit them every time but I will at least touch the tee 80 to 90% of the time. It goes back to the concept of aim small miss small. Another thing that will help your accuracy is work on your form. Don't shoot till your tired you will get sloppy if that means that you can only shoot 5 to 10 times a day then do that until you build up to shooting allot. I would never take a long shot on an animal but with good form and a small target I can hold my groups pretty small out to 80 yards.

Good luck and welcome to the sport

quote:

Bruin, I have found that accuracy is relative. that most hunters don't try to be as accurate as they can be. They are happy if they can hit the preverbial pie plate that is good enough. Personally I stick golf tees in my target and shoot at them. I don't hit them every time but I will at least touch the tee 80 to 90% of the time. It goes back to the concept of aim small miss small. Another thing that will help your accuracy is work on your form. Don't shoot till your tired you will get sloppy if that means that you can only shoot 5 to 10 times a day then do that until you build up to shooting allot. I would never take a long shot on an animal but with good form and a small target I can hold my groups pretty small out to 80 yards.

That's quite good shooting. If your are not 3-D pro, you should really consider it.

I have a Cousin that is a 3D Pro and shoots for Mcphearson, he shoots in the Ball Park of what you are talking.

Anyone that can shoot 2" groups and judge ranges reliably can do quite well in the hunter class as well.

Don't let anyone kid you Bruin, I've shot w/ quite a few successful bow hunters and if you can consistently hold a group from 2-4" at 25-30 yards you are doing quite well my friend, you'll never have trouble taking game w/ that kind of accuracy. The key is consistency and practice, if you stay well practiced you will be successful as long as you can handle the pressure.

Now, Being able to handle Pressure such as "Buck Fever" is much more crucial to being an succesful Bow Hunter than accuracy. Sure, You have to be accurate but, If you can't shoot under pressure, your are going to be disappointed. I'd rather be able to hit a 6" circle under pressure than be able to shoot a 1" group in my back yard and then flinch two feet because "Buck Fever" got to me at the moment of truth.

That Buck fever is a booger to overcome especially, in bowhunting. I still get quite shook when an animal is closing in but, I found it much easier to control my nerves after harvesting several animals w/ my bow.

Good Luck!

Reloader

Reloader - Good point about "Buck Fever". Bad things is you've plainted a seed in the poor guy's head.

One thing I found at least for myself is that the better I got & continue to get the less I'm bothered by the fever. That's not to say I don't get excited by a game coming into range no at all. I still get plenty jazzed up. I'm just a lot better at finding the elbow, picking my spot and NOT LOOKING at the danged rack.

When the days comes I don't get excited anymore, I think take up golf.

quote:

When the days comes I don't get excited anymore, I think take up golf.

Boss Kongoni,

You can say that again!

I'll go ahead and Fess up on one last year, The Last weekend of the season in late January I went w/ intentions on a descent buck or young doe. I ended up seeing 5 does and one young one started closing the distance. When she got to 20 yards she spotted me, I was Busted but, she couldn't figure me out and the stare down began. After about 10 Minutes of fierce eye to eye staring I began to tremble quite miserably (Over a Little Doe!) then, she broke and trotted about five yards and made the fatal mistake to stop and look back at 25 yards.

Man, a while back, I injected one of those little hams w/ cajun injector and let it marinate for two days then, smoked it on the pit. Yumm, I can almost taste it now.

Like you said, when I quit getting excited, I think I'll persue another hobby.

Reloader

Bruin,

Unfortunatly what these guys are saying is true the fever is a terrible thing. I'm sure that you will get the fever and probably miss one or two, until you learn to control it. Just don't get discouraged and give up.

I wasn't trying to say that groups of 2 - 3" aren't good because they are. I know allot of guys that shoot everyday that can't shoot that well, and that is more than adequate to take game, my point was that if you will shrink the aim point from the size of a half dollar to the size of a dime or smaller you will be amazed at how small your groups will get. It won't be long before you and your buddies will be trying to shoot each others nocks off.

At least 75% of my arrows hit the 4" circles on a Morrels target at 40 feet. The other 25% will be pretty close. I try to practice 3-4 times a week just to keep my shoulders in shape. Can't wait till bow season. My goal is to get an archery deer, it doesn't have to be a buck. That would be awesome, lot better than with rifle, but i like gunning for em, too!

Plinker

quote:

At least 75% of my arrows hit the 4" circles on a Morrels target at 40 feet. The other 25% will be pretty close.

The next time you shoot. Shoot 3 arrow groups slowly. Mark you arrows 1,2,3, on the nock with a felt tip pen. Don't shoot the arrows in any order.

You might find you have a bad arrow or two.

3" at 35 yards is better than good.

Boss, thats good advice about the bad arrow. I found one that was bad,(an Easton ACC that just would not shoot with the rest of the arrows.) Same weight as the others but it just wouldn't do the job. Re-fleched and re-nocked. New heads. Bad arrow.
Bruin, I like to use playing cards at 30+ yards for a target. If you can place all of your arrows into a card, you have a deer on the ground. At shorter distances your setup should give you accuracy tight enough that you don't want to shoot at the same point twice for fear of Robin Hooding an arrow.
Be sure to practice a couple of times with your full hunting garb on, including calls and face mask. Last year I missed a slam dunk on a mature doe at 30yds due to a F*&(^%g Gillie Suit with Scent Lock that got hung up in my string on the release.
Have a friend listen to you shoot to see if something in making noise.

Good luck guy and welcome to the Bowhunting Community.

quote:

Be sure to practice a couple of times with your full hunting garb on, including calls and face mask.

That's a darn good point you made yourself, my friend.

I 've done the playing card and Business card shots too. Great for focus. Actually, The guys in my club & I used to hang a 5/8" washer infront ofthe 20yrd bale a shoot at it(longbows & recurves) most guys would hit it a few time a night with a nice group around it. We'd toss a few $$ in the pot and once a night someone would put an arrow in the hole. We'd hang that washer up on the side of the club house with the guys name. We had a lot of fun like that.

We also would take a tennis ball and toss it in the woods on the club property and"stump" shoot it. This was great practice for jusdging distence. And of course this game was skewed in favore of the trad guys.

I'm thinking about getting a recurve around 50# pull to shoot for fun. I know it would help me shoot my compound better and besides, they are just plain fun to shoot. I would be floating on air to put an arrow through a washer at 20yds!

Boss, thanks for the advice about marking the arrows. Haven't tried it yet, been to hot to shoot. One thing i never do is try to get a tight group arrows. It's impressive to look at unless you knock the fletchings off. They cost 96.00 a dozen!

Plinker

Plinker: When I'm shooting at less than 30 yds. I will seldom shoot at the same target for groups because it gets expensive. I like to take a paper plate and put dots on it at different places. I aim for individual dots.

Perforator -It's amasing how good you can get with a little competion with your friends. Braggin rights are a powerful motovation.

Plinker - No one ever gets good without busting up some arrows.

There's value in all types of practice. distence, blind bale, 3-D, pounding out groups, moving targets. The important thing is to remember to have FUN!

This old bowhunter doesn't worry about buck fever as I always have it--my problem is target panic, and I've had it for 30+ years since I bought my first Damon-Howatt recurve. I manage to compensate for it on game, but shooting at spots and targets, it is unnerving.