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Long-Distance Practice and Shooting

By Michael Corrigan

Shooting at distances greater than 30 yards is a valuable practice exercise. It hones proper shooting form and builds confidence for the short shots.

I routinely practice at distances up to 80 yards. Other bowhunters I know practice out to at least 100 yards, seemingly just for the sheer thrill of it. While attempting long-distance shots on game is a controversial subject, long-distance practice on targets is not. The fundamentals of long-distance shooting are exactly the same as close-distance shooting. The only thing that really changes is the perceived size of the target.

Long-distance shooting is, for the most part, a mental game. The first time a novice archer attempts a long-distance shot, a huge amount of mental effort is wasted on overcoming self-doubt. To combat that, try this short-range shooting exercise to build small-target confidence. Begin by examining the bull’s-eye on the 20-yard to 30-yard practice target that you normally use. Is it the size of a grapefruit or perhaps a tennis ball?

Rather than immediately backing up to 50 or 60 yards, first try aiming and shooting at a much smaller bull’s-eye at that same 20- to 30-yard distance. Simply affix a postage-stamp-sized sticker to the center of your existing bull’s-eye and practice aiming and shooting at that tiny bull’s-eye.

This exercise essentially simulates long-distance shooting without actually increasing the distance from a target. It’s a mental game that works wonders and will build your shooting confidence significantly. It helps because it refines your aiming technique while getting you used to the look and feel of a much smaller bull’s-eye. In doing so, the natural anguish over the sudden appearance of the tiny target is eliminated. You can even take this one step further and resort to a much smaller overall target at 20 yards.

Once we prove to ourselves that we can consistently hit the new smaller bull’s-eye, we will now have the confidence to back up and attempt shots at longer distances. The difficulty in moving from, say, 30 yards to 40 yards is lessened by removing the small sticker bull’s-eye and focusing on the center of the original, large bull’s-eye. At this distance the bull’s-eye should almost appear bigger than the small sticker bull’s-eye that was used as an aiming point at the closer distance. As you move further and further away from the target, continue to enlarge the bull’s-eye on the target. Use a paper plate for 50 or 60 yards. Settle your sight pin in the middle of that paper plate. So long as you can see the radial edge of the white plate surrounding your sight pin, your arrows should group well inside the paper plate.

Bowhunters who are new to shooting at longer distances often complain that the size of their sight pin is too large and completely fills the entire kill zone or bull’s-eye of the target they are aiming at. This is somewhat of a valid complaint. We call this target block-out. Most hunting sights are equipped with fiber-optic pins that are .019 or .029-inches in diameter. When used at longer distances, they can cause considerable target block-out. By switching to sight pins equipped with smaller .010-inch diameter fiber optics, target block-out can be reduced substantially. Small-diameter fiber optics are popular with tournament archers, and the advantage they provide for long-distance shooting is undeniable. For this reason, many western bowhunters have outfitted their bows with target sights rather than typical bowhunting sights. Wide-open shots are the norm out west, and big game animals are truly big in this region of the country.

However, there is another less-publicized way to do this. Try to shoot “pin gaps,” which are the open spaces situated between multiple sight pins. Target block-out is eliminated with this method of sighting. The concept is straightforward. Rather than settling a specific pin on the center of the kill zone, the shooter centers the spot to hit between two pins of choice. This method allows the shooter to focus on a specific spot on the target rather than on one specific pin. Used properly, the arrow will hit the mark. Practicing this sighting method at various distances with a quality 3D target—one that represents the species of game animal you plan to pursue—is another great way to hone the skill of shooting at longer distances.

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