# I need help with left and right hits



## jim p (Oct 29, 2003)

Many times my groups of 30 shots are 2" high and 6" wide. I need some help on getting this horizontal spread under control. I have my bow bare shaft tuned so that the bare shaft is hitting with the fletched arrow and the bare shaft is aligned with the fletched shaft.

I have tried moving my rest back to try to cancel out torque. I put a torque indicator on my bow to help me make sure that I am gripping the bow consistently. I have swung my back stabilizer out to see if that would help. I have tried many different techniques of operating my hinge release. I have adjusted draw length from 27" to 28.5". 

I am using a 9" extension on the sight. I have not tried moving the sight closer to the riser.

Sometimes when everything looks lined up the arrow will hit 3" to the left or the right of center. I am running out of ideas to try.

So I will appreciate any tips on things that I can try to get this under control.


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## aread (Dec 25, 2009)

Sometimes an archer will get left right misses is because they start like a limp rope and try to add all the pressure during the aim period and its very erratic. 

That's the problem with a too relaxed shot. There needs to be pressure from your bow arm elbow thru your tricep across your back and thru your release arm tricep to your release elbow. On both arms from the elbow to your finger tips should be relaxed and your bow arm elbow needs to be unlocked.


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## jim p (Oct 29, 2003)

I will be taking your advise. I think that I found my problem today. I am not consistently leveling my bow. I put a larger peep in and the first thing that I noticed was that my bubble was not centered. Centering the bubble seems to make a big difference with a slow arrow.


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## jim p (Oct 29, 2003)

I have reduced the 6" spread down to 3". The thing that seems to have made the biggest improvement is pulling strong into the wall. I think that by pulling strong into the wall that it eliminates small torques caused by the string touching the face or nose which make the sight not be aligned correctly. Also grip torque may be minimized by pulling strongly into the wall.

The second thing that seems to help with the left and right misses is to make sure that the bubble is centered. I am shooting 540 grain arrows and the speed is around 160fps. So not having the bubble centered makes a big difference.

I am going to be building a set of strings before long for my bow. I can change the draw length of the bow by moving the draw stops. My draw stops are currently set to give me maximum letoff. I am thinking about setting the draw stops to decrease this letoff because I am having to hold strong into the wall anyway. So I am thinking about making the string a little long so that when I move the draw stops to get less letoff that I will still have the same draw length.

All comments are welcome.


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## RCR_III (Mar 19, 2011)

What you're experiencing is two things. By pulling harder into the wall you are giving yourself more holding weight. This holding weight, like you said, will help deter some of the movement on the string if you have it draw across your face. 

The second part is that your forcing your body to hold its shape more by holding into the wall more firmly. There's a point of no return to this obviously, but having the bone to bone alignment and being aggressive with your shot will keep the body in place easier.


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## Sasquech (Dec 15, 2014)

Many factors contribute to these issues . Form pics ,bow hand at full draw pics. Sight level is big. Grip comes a close second on right and lefts. When coaching new folks I ask them to stand with their arms at their side no bow. Look down at the relaxed hand. That is the grip shape slightly curled fingers thumb pointing straight but no tension in it. When the bow is added a wrist sling is mandatory or a finger sling as you don't grasp the bow.

1 seconds your feet. 
2 load an arrow. 
3 Hook your release 
4 pull a couple of pounds while you set your grip. 
5 draw. (Keep front shoulder down. Sight should settle slightly above the ultimate aiming point 6 inches minimum to start.)
6. Anchor.
7 Aim. Bubble level use bow tune to make the bubble level automatically. ( adjust the sight to center on the target with. Torso tilt at waist with core muscles . Do not lower the front arm. Tilt the whole t. if all is solid and no or very little sight movement start your release engine)
8 continue to aim till the arrow is gone. (If conditions change stop engine and let down.)


Using these simple steps I game new archers breaking mocks in 15 minutes at 20 yards and grouping well at 50 assuming they have no physical issues that prevent this from being executed. 

Biggest points to overcome 
1 over bowed.( over60# for most is difficult to work. It requires the engagement of muscles that cannot be relaxed when full draw is achieved.)
2 too much let off needed about 20 lbs for a good repeatable hold ( single hole kind of hold) if dot /pin is moving outside a silver dollar at 20 yards your sight movement is too much refer back to step 8 and let down. 
3 don't aim at the yellow or the white on the 5 spot. Aim at the absolute center of those spots. ( aim small and don't miss) many aim at the yellow not the x inside you can't hit what you are not looking at. 

This is my standard teaching card for a guy trying to get started or just move the performance needle. It never fails to reduce groups never if all steps are adhered to. 

Note: this does not address release engines and the error introduced by these flaws. Punching or command releases will cause lots of variation and nuts be addressed separately.

One guys method . Mine thou works for those I work with. And me. Results will vary based on attention to detail. 

P.s.Remember every muscle you don't have relaxed will run out of oxygen and start to shake at about 15 seconds the arrow should be gone by10 from anchor. 


Read the whole thing and start with the 8 step I tape them to the riser for a short while to get them habit. Good luck please post your progress.


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## jim p (Oct 29, 2003)

Thanks for the instruction/information. I put a longer module on the bow and kept my same draw length by moving the limb stops. I am now holding more weight and things seem to work a little better. I am only pulling 45 lbs so I may put even a longer module on the bow to get even more holding weight. I no longer have a valley. The cams never roll over the hump. This is not a problem at this low draw weight.

I am still having a crazy left and right hit from time to time but not so often. Yesterday something crazy happened. I had to move my sight 23 clicks to the left to get to the center. I didn't find anything loose so I don't know what caused this. Maybe lighting conditions. It will be interesting to see if I have to move the sight back today.


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## Sasquech (Dec 15, 2014)

Often I had difficulty with 2things that can very put 23 clicks in. Canting the bow ie bubble out of plumb or consistently not concentric peep scope sight picture


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## jim p (Oct 29, 2003)

I am thinking that the bow sight got moved some way. Maybe during transport the sight got bumped. Anyway the sight has been pretty consistent since and has only needed maybe 5 clicks of adjustment. Still this could be due to different lighting.

I am fairly satisfied with my left and right hits now. My groups are now about 2"
high and 2" wide. Maybe one day I can get to a 1x1 but for now I am just glad for the 2x2.


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## mike 66 (Jan 21, 2010)

put some side weight on the side bar so its level and then you dont fight it on the shot. i would also try bending the shafts to get the arrows coming off the rest the exact same way by checking the spine on each. then fine tune each arrow. should help also.


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## jim p (Oct 29, 2003)

Thanks Mike, I will give that a try. Tuning the arrows might help. Most of my problem now is just not being able to keep still on the x. I am moving out into the 9 ring and that is where some of my arrows are now going. That is all on me.

I am going to start another thread about how I am shooting my hinge release and maybe I can get some more pointers.


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## Sasquech (Dec 15, 2014)

http://www.archerytalk.com/vb/showthread.php?t=2782305&p=1077492570#post1077492570

Check this out even without the discussion of the rest of the thread this should help understand s major contributor.

Hope this helps


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## jim p (Oct 29, 2003)

Canting really affects my arrows impact. My bow is shooting around 160 fps so there is a large arc to the target. A slow bow shows the affect of cant more than a fast bow.


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## Sasquech (Dec 15, 2014)

Perp scope concentricity in your sight pic is huge.


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