Shooting close distance inside house due to COVID-19

Randonee

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Dec 23, 2018
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I live in a city and can only practice shooting inside my house. Archery ranges, trailheads, etc are all shut down. Even before the shut downs, I typically practiced shooting in my house on weekdays because the closest range is 30-45 minutes away. I feel like I get a lot of benefit from shooting inside my house for things like practicing my form, muscle memory and development, and mental concentration.

Now that shooting at any real distance is completely out for a while, I have a few questions about shooting at “close” distances, especially ways to make it more applicable to practicing for hunting.
  1. What distance do you shoot? My maximum is 9 yards.
  2. What do you use for an aim point? I use 3/4” to 1” dots I paint on a bag target. I feel this provides a good size to test accuracy and consistent form.
  3. Are there any drills you do? I practice both longer holds and shooting quickly.
  4. Any suggestions to make it better preparation for hunting? I practice shooting at blank areas of the target or between 2 dots. The idea, in my head at least, is to vaguely replicate shooting at a particular place on a target by using other reference points, like sometimes happens when shooting at an animal.
  5. How do you set up a safe area? My basement has a concrete wall for a backstop and a door I can lock to bar entry. I also check my bow for functionality before shooting (especially the drop away rest), and make sure the arrow only points at the target from the beginning of my draw until I release the arrow.
Thanks for any advice and stay healthy! @robby denning
 
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I am lucky and when it’s nice can get 80 shooting at an angle and almost on my neighbor’s property but I’m the winter I just do a lot of blank baling draw find my
Anchor close my eyes and feel the shot go off just keeping my form and muscle memory in check in my garage at very close range


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Jbehredt

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I’ve got a blind with some turkey decoys surrounding my block target set up in the basement right now. Perfect low light turkey practice.
 

4rcgoat

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1 arrow in the same hole,over and over and over and.........sometimes ill practice shooting from a seated and kneeling position.
 
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I made a large target using the diy Thirdhand target skins that works great for this. I shoot a lot of bareshafts thru paper for practice because it really shows your grip and form mistakes as your shooting. It's also a good time to practice shooting kneeling and so on.
 

D.Rose

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The very best drill for off season/close range in my opinion is aiming drills. Draw back and try to hold your pin on a very small dot until your shot breaks down. Then let down and repeat. Very boring but necessary. Do it every night for a couple weeks and it will surprise you when you go back to distance shooting.
 

Catahoula

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I’ve been shooting in my basement since mid-February. I have about a 12 yard distance to target setup. I am also able to shoot standing (Obviously), one and two knee kneeling position. I also use things in my basement to run scenarios in my head ie... animals walking behind would-be tree. So, it is great exercise for form and muscle memory if one can do this. Also, use my Bow Trainer for both left and right hand.
 
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robby denning

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OK guys, the reason I had Randonee put this thread up is we were trying to figure out a way to include the homebound in our Cold Bow Challenge.

Do you think there’s a way we can set up some parameters for people to shoot indoors short-range (and safe!), that are simple like it is for the guys that have a range, but also realistic & helpful practice?

I’m a firm believer we all need to be shooting yardage to get ready for hunting season, but I sure would hate to exclude guys that absolutely have no way to get to a range. The other three years of the challenge we excluded those guys, because I just don’t believe you can get ready for hunting unless you’re shooting yardage, but this year is totally different.

If you don’t know what our Cold Bow Challenge is, here you go:


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Bl704

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Charlotte NC
  1. What distance do you shoot?
  2. What do you use for an aim point?
  3. Are there any drills you do? I
  4. Any suggestions to make it better preparation for hunting?
  5. How do you set up a safe area?

At home I can shoot to 50yds with my current layout. I'll move things around later in the year to stretch it out to 70 or so yes. Down the street is a field where I can shoot much further.

Shorter distances, smaller objects. Stickers or golf trees. Longer, post its or markings on target.

Speed/duration; varied distance; with/without pack; different pins or gap shooting; elevated heart rate/winded; dead reckoning/estimate yardage, form, awkward shots, etc. We also started a FB group to encourage each other or create daily challenges.

Suggestions? Draw on past scenarios: head on, quartering, followups, run stairs for x minutes before shooting, pushups, burped, jump rope, etc.

Big backstop and undeveloped land next door for me. I'm setup on the edge of my property, fence at my back, so I have line of sight for anybody approaching (wife, pets, neighbor) from 3 sides.
 
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My basement ceiling is just over 7' so there's no way I can sky my bow to draw it. Over time this has trained me draw my bow better for hunting and seems to instinctively carry over when I move outside.
 

Brendan

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No easy outdoor shooting for me either, would be a good drive and am trying to stay at or close to home.

But, I am shooting daily in the basement. I have a 5-spot target set up at about 5-7 yards on a block target, am focusing on proper form, and am also only allowing myself to use a tension release: No trigger or hinge shooting at all. Good shots are all center punching the X and going off with a good surprise release, but as soon as form breaks down and I have trouble getting the release to fire, I take a break and walk away.

Only way I can think of to include this in the challenge: Pick a much smaller target, like a quarter depending on your range. If you want extra challenge, use a bare shaft. Use a tension release or a hinge if you have one. 5 days in a row, first thing in the morning when you're still tired and sore, walk down and send one arrow: Take your picture and leave the same target up so you see where they hit.

Not perfect, but better than nothing. Or, just postpone and see if things clear up by June.
 
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For the cold bow challenge I think it should be a same hole challenge. Probably work better to exclude broadheads, won't be long before they are cutting all the way through. Also they mess up the target enough it's hard to tell if it's the same hole.


I think 8-10 yards, put a piece of paper on the target and try to keep arrow in the same hole. Label arrows and shoot 5 different ones maybe. Doesn't matter where you hit. Just aim at the same point every day.

Or make it a sling shot challenge on grouse sized targets.
 
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1 arrow in the same hole,over and over and over and.........sometimes ill practice shooting from a seated and kneeling position.
I second this. Shoot the same hole the arrow has made in the target. Really gets you to focus on that spot. Taught myself to shoot traditional really well this way. Great for compound too obviously. I do different positions too to mix it up... haha.
 

stonewall

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this is a resized target calculator/generator I saw on Facebook If anyone is interested:

As far as outside, I’m blessed with a big yard and get out past 100. Not that I can actually hit anything mind you

however the only time I really get to shoot is in the morning and it’s dark at that time. Come daylight I have to be headed to work. Indoors I can get 13 yards from dining table down hall thru garage (no bedrooms connect to that hall for the record). I just shoot an nfaa 5 spot and try to get inside out x’s. Also shoot bareshaft
 
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Randonee

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Brendan

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If you're going to shoot the same hole - make sure to get a piece of paper or something and move it around your target, pretty easy to drill through a target reasonably quickly if you don't.

Another drill is taking a piece of bow string, hanging it on the target with a weight on the bottom, and trying to get to the point that you can split the string with a bare shaft. (Start with a fletched arrow first, then tweak your tune until both fletched and bare shaft are splitting the string)

Blank or blind baling can be good if you're fighting T.P.

I can get my bow 90% tuned in the basement - bow setup, check for clearance, paper tune, bare shaft tune, where by the time I get outside there are minimal changes to be made.

Here's my setup:

 
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stonewall

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If you're going to shoot the same hole - make sure to get a piece of paper or something and move it around your target, pretty easy to drill through a target reasonably quickly if you don't.

Another drill is taking a piece of bow string, hanging it on the target with a weight on the bottom, and trying to get to the point that you can split the string with a bare shaft. (Start with a fletched arrow first, then tweak your tune until both fletched and bare shaft are splitting the string)

Blank or blind baling can be good if you're fighting T.P.

I can get my bow 90% tuned in the basement - bow setup, check for clearance, paper tune, bare shaft tune, where by the time I get outside there are minimal changes to be made.

Here's my setup:

good ideas here!
 

mrgreen

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Jul 23, 2013
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I rigged one of my hang-on stands to a support post in my basement. It's only a couple of inches off the floor so I can shoot sitting or standing on the platform.
 
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