# Judging Yardage



## Padgett (Feb 5, 2010)

What this article is really missing is the unknown 3d game, Just guessing the yardage is only one small piece of the puzzle. How you mentally play the unknown game is way way way more important. Many of my strongest scores have been shot when I wasn't judging very well at all. In fact when I am judging really good I find myself shooting a worse score because a good unknown shooter is adding safety yardage to his guess so he doesn't shoot out the bottom so if I am guessing really freaking good I will hit just out the top of the 12 over and over. When I am guessing a little short of the actual yardage then by adding a little safety yardage will cause me to shoot a bunch of 12's instead of shooting out the bottom. 

But when I am guessing poorly hot and cold and I know it I can play the safety yardage game and stay nice and safe in the 10 ring all day long and if I get lucky and have a run of 12's or occasional 12's I can shoot a very strong score.

In the end Learning how to play the unknown game is freaking hard and you need to shoot with a strong unknown shooter to learn the mental approaches because you will struggle to learn them all on your own. I wrote all of mine up into articles a few years ago but I have started shooting known so haven't done them in a couple years. I kind of miss it.


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## pinwheeled (Apr 27, 2008)

So you have to practice?


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## Bruiser8464 (Jan 19, 2019)

Yeah judging yardage is a skill that takes practice.


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## Ruca (Aug 5, 2020)

As a brand new hunter, this gives me anxiety about how much I have to learn.


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## Padgett (Feb 5, 2010)

As a new hunter my suggestion to you is to buy a small target to take into the woods to your treestand. Also take a buddy so that you can shoot at a variety of distances from straight down out of the tree to your max distance you want to shoot at a deer. Use a rope to pull the arrows up to you after he go gets them and also moves the target to a new distance. 

1. Straight down shots are weird and you have to learn the subtle things to make really good shots.

2. if you are really high then cutting a little distance off the shot will help you not hit high. High hits on deer is a bad thing.

3. Learn to step off different shrubs or logs or trees so that when a deer walks into your shooting lanes you already know the distance. You do not want to be judging his distance when he shows up!!!!!!! Having a range finder makes this really easy and quick work. Do not plan on just ranging him when he shows up because it happens super fast and you will not have time.


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## Kona1 (Aug 22, 2020)

As a new bow hunter/archer, this has been invaluable to me. Thank you!


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