# Disadvantages and Advantages? Practicing daily in a 12 yard basement range then going to 18m for competition



## T2Green4U (Aug 20, 2021)

I have a full 12 yard range in my basement I've been religiously shooting in over the winter. Been a bowhunter for years now I'm switching focus to indoor target shooting. Anyone have tips, advice or do's and don'ts about short range practicing for Indoor Target?


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## Bikeman CU (Nov 27, 2005)

Good idea. Practice form and follow-thru. Use reduced size targets, scaled for 10 yards. Available from Lancaster Archery or Mapleleaf Press. 
I use my 20 yard setting at 10 yards. Arrows impact above the bullseye allowing target to be used longer. Don't worry about scoring.


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## c_m_shooter (Aug 15, 2018)

Depends on your class. If you are using a sight, no issues, just change your sight on competition day. If you are shooting barebow or traditional, your sight picture changes with distance and the size of your target. I shoot longbow, and I switched to just shooting the 40cm blue face at 20 yards over the winter to be better prepared for the weekly matches. I am trying to switch my brain back to foam animals now.


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## T2Green4U (Aug 20, 2021)

Bikeman CU said:


> Good idea. Practice form and follow-thru. Use reduced size targets, scaled for 10 yards. Available from Lancaster Archery or Mapleleaf Press.
> I use my 20 yard setting at 10 yards. Arrows impact above the bullseye allowing target to be used longer. Don't worry about scoring.


That's an excellent idea, I haven't thought about specific targets for 10 yards. Thanks for the tip.


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## limbwalker (Sep 26, 2003)

T2Green4U said:


> I have a full 12 yard range in my basement I've been religiously shooting in over the winter. Been a bowhunter for years now I'm switching focus to indoor target shooting. Anyone have tips, advice or do's and don'ts about short range practicing for Indoor Target?


I did this for years inside my garage, mostly in the winter in Illinois. Don't bother trying to score. Use it to work on form and get your shot total up to build endurance. 

Pro tip - set your sight off by 1" or so and aim at your last arrow. You can draw a line across the bale without destroying arrows. The quality of your line will tell you how good you're shooting.


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## T2Green4U (Aug 20, 2021)

limbwalker said:


> I did this for years inside my garage, mostly in the winter in Illinois. Don't bother trying to score. Use it to work on form and get your shot total up to build endurance.
> 
> Pro tip - set your sight off by 1" or so and aim at your last arrow. You can draw a line across the bale without destroying arrows. The quality of your line will tell you how good you're shooting.


WOW! that's a great tip! I'm for sure going to start doing that


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## limbwalker (Sep 26, 2003)

I will add that having 12 yards inside is quite a luxury that most archers don't have. Use it to your advantage. I did about half my shooting in '03-04 inside my garage, usually after the wife and kids had gone to bed for the night. I'd get in an hour of shooting before I went to bed, probably 4-5 nights/week. It's incredibly nice to just walk into the garage, grab your bow and start shooting, especially when the weather is crap outside. It's a huge competitive edge to have something like this easily at hand.


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## CoffeeGrinder (Jun 3, 2015)

Definitely an advantage to shoot as often as possible. Since you'll be shooting more you'll want to think about target life too.
On my bag target I've used a sharpie to draw extra dots (bullseyes) on the target, use different dots each arrow, keeps one spot in target from getting too soft too fast.
Also what would work good is drawing a grid on the target, you could shoot at the square centers sometimes and shoot at the line intersections other times. That will help the target last a little longer and work on accuracy/precision at the same time.


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## df06 (Jun 9, 2007)

I have a 10 yard range in my garage. I’m not a tournament shooter, just a bowhunter. But I shoot 5-10 shots most days at that close range, just for form. And I shoot 20 yards several days a week all winter at an indoor range.


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## DeathClutch (Aug 23, 2009)

recurve or compound?


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## N7709K (Dec 17, 2008)

Close games help a great deal; so does working blank bale for form and the feel of a good shot. Other than the sight picture being a little different, the only difference between 20yds and 10yds is the mental aspect of knowing that "its 20yds". 

I'm not a big fan of scaled targets personally, I feel that if the arrows aren't also scaled with the target face it gives and conflicting sight picture-- but thats a completely personal thing. They are handy for working on sight picture and replicating the "feel" of 20yds.

Shooting close games for score can be a large confidence booster and help with the mental side of things when moving back to 20yds. The fundamentals are all the same: a strong shot is a strong shot and it will give the same score result up close or at distance. Where the scoring helps is that you get into a routine of being a "300" shooter and you mentally accept and expect it to happen, instead of trying to make it happen if that makes sense. For the majority of the time I competed I'd shoot 20yds at the range once a week to shoot some scores and daily i'd shoot 7yds in the house; it helped me anyways on keeping the average up and being relaxed knowing I was going to shoot 300's.

Depending on the size bale you have another good drill to do is put up some sort of target(dots on a piece of cardboard works pretty well) on one half of the bale and leave the other half open. Shot one arrow at a dot, shoot one arrow blank bale, shoot one arrow at a dot, one arrow blank bale, etc etc.


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## T2Green4U (Aug 20, 2021)

DeathClutch said:


> recurve or compound?


Compound sir...


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## DeathClutch (Aug 23, 2009)

T2Green4U said:


> Compound sir...


What release?


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## T2Green4U (Aug 20, 2021)

DeathClutch said:


> What release?


Stan JustX thumb trigger release, arrows are 28" super drive 23s 475 100gr pin point, 61/62lb +/- Original Elite Ritual with updated cams at 28.5" dl. Black gold competition 2A sight, specialty archery scope 1 3/8" with double vision lens kit. Stabilizers I've been toying with I don't have a finalized set I like yet. Front bar 30" side bar 10". I plan on jumping to Mathews Trx 38G2 when that ol tax return hits that bank.


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## T2Green4U (Aug 20, 2021)

limbwalker said:


> I will add that having 12 yards inside is quite a luxury that most archers don't have. Use it to your advantage. I did about half my shooting in '03-04 inside my garage, usually after the wife and kids had gone to bed for the night. I'd get in an hour of shooting before I went to bed, probably 4-5 nights/week. It's incredibly nice to just walk into the garage, grab your bow and start shooting, especially when the weather is crap outside. It's a huge competitive edge to have something like this easily at hand.


Yeah I got pretty lucky, my basement is partially unfinished and from corner to corner its exactly 12 yards.


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## limbwalker (Sep 26, 2003)

T2Green4U said:


> Yeah I got pretty lucky, my basement is partially unfinished and from corner to corner its exactly 12 yards.


That's how my garage was in Illinois. 12 yards corner to corner and I could shoot over my wife's car. Good to be tall sometimes. 
The 2nd home I had in Illinois, we had built. I designed the "man" door into the garage to be in a position so I could shoot from inside my garage, out that door, to my garden shed, exactly 20 yards away. I called it my "indoor/outdoor/indoor" range. LOL


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## T2Green4U (Aug 20, 2021)

limbwalker said:


> That's how my garage was in Illinois. 12 yards corner to corner and I could shoot over my wife's car. Good to be tall sometimes.
> The 2nd home I had in Illinois, we had built. I designed the "man" door into the garage to be in a position so I could shoot from inside my garage, out that door, to my garden shed, exactly 20 yards away. I called it my "indoor/outdoor/indoor" range. LOL


HA! That's great! I hope you didn't have any uh-oh moments. Must have have had that mental fortitude going for ya. I have kids and I probably would of zinged one of the roof of the car from kids fighting or something lol


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## DeathClutch (Aug 23, 2009)

T2Green4U said:


> Stan JustX thumb trigger release, arrows are 28" super drive 23s 475 100gr pin point, 61/62lb +/- Original Elite Ritual with updated cams at 28.5" dl. Black gold competition 2A sight, specialty archery scope 1 3/8" with double vision lens kit. Stabilizers I've been toying with I don't have a finalized set I like yet. Front bar 30" side bar 10". I plan on jumping to Mathews Trx 38G2 when that ol tax return hits that bank.


You will have target panic.


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## hrtlnd164 (Mar 22, 2008)

I have the same distance available in my basement and probably fire twice as many arrows there as at the club in the winter time. Short games on standard target face gives the confidence in your mind that a 300 game is achievable. Aiming drills at small dots gives the mind peace that holding in the middle is OK. A blank face gives the feel of constant expansion until the shot breaks. All these exercises build the stamina needed throughout the miserable northern winters. Helps having basically my own shop full of tuning equipment to try multiple adjustments to see what works best…


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## limbwalker (Sep 26, 2003)

T2Green4U said:


> HA! That's great! I hope you didn't have any uh-oh moments. Must have have had that mental fortitude going for ya. I have kids and I probably would of zinged one of the roof of the car from kids fighting or something lol


Oh, I had small kids at home at the time as well. My youngest was 3. That's why I did a lot of shooting after they all went to bed!


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## limbwalker (Sep 26, 2003)

hrtlnd164 said:


> I have the same distance available in my basement and probably fire twice as many arrows there as at the club in the winter time. Short games on standard target face gives the confidence in your mind that a 300 game is achievable. Aiming drills at small dots gives the mind peace that holding in the middle is OK. A blank face gives the feel of constant expansion until the shot breaks. All these exercises build the stamina needed throughout the miserable northern winters. Helps having basically my own shop full of tuning equipment to try multiple adjustments to see what works best…


Anyone in this sport for very long (well, any guy at least) will basically have their own shop somewhere eventually. LOL


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## lees (Feb 10, 2017)

Agree with the other guys. I have a Reinhardt block target in a Bowtree in the apartment which allows shooting at about 6 or 7 yards and, well, it's better than nothing. I do the aim-at-the-other-arrow thing with my sight set at 20 yards, which puts the new shaft right around but not robin-hooded into the other one without blasting vanes off, etc. It definitely helps and is better than not shooting at all because I'm sick of that damn drive out to the range every day, etc....

The only difficulty that can arise is chronically having to shoot downwards at the target which is just right over there on the floor in the living room, etc. Which is a common syndrome if you don't have a way to get the bale up to at least shoulder height inside your abode. That gets you accustomed to tons and tons of excellent form/shot execution work tilting everything down at the ground. So when you do get out to the range, it feels like you're all out of alignment, trying to lean back, etc., especially at longer distances than 20 yards.

So beware of that. I'm still working on a good way to get the target to shoulder height on my setup, soon as I decide to shoot enough inside to justify it.

lee.


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## T2Green4U (Aug 20, 2021)

limbwalker said:


> Anyone in this sport for very long (well, any guy at least) will basically have their own shop somewhere eventually. LOL





limbwalker said:


> Anyone in this sport for very long (well, any guy at least) will basically have their own shop somewhere eventually. LOL


already have one lol
How a 25$ Goodwill drafting table turned into a Basement...


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## hrtlnd164 (Mar 22, 2008)

limbwalker said:


> Anyone in this sport for very long (well, any guy at least) will basically have their own shop somewhere eventually. LOL


No doubt… Amazing the heap of equipment/parts a person can acquire over 30+ years! If they ever have an archery “Hoarders” TV series, my wife will be calling the producers!! 🤣


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## T2Green4U (Aug 20, 2021)

DeathClutch said:


> You will have target panic.


Are you basing that on the fact that I shoot a trigger release? Because I have back tension and resistance releases. I've personally found my success with the thumb trigger release.


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## T2Green4U (Aug 20, 2021)

hrtlnd164 said:


> No doubt… Amazing the heap of equipment/parts a person can acquire over 30+ years! If they ever have an archery “Hoarders” TV series, my wife will be calling the producers!! 🤣


HAHA! I'm with you brother! it doesn't help that my whole family shoots. My wife and have six kids and we basically need another house just to store our Archery equipment.


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## limbwalker (Sep 26, 2003)

When we moved to our "empty nest" house, it was just after I stopped running a JOAD program. I did a pretty good purge of all things archery I wasn't going to use. Not everything, but most things. Man, that actually felt pretty good. I'm down to only 6 bows now!


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## DeathClutch (Aug 23, 2009)

T2Green4U said:


> Are you basing that on the fact that I shoot a trigger release? Because I have back tension and resistance releases. I've personally found my success with the thumb trigger release.


it has to do with the lights and the brain knowing where your location is. even if you have a 3 spot paper in yo basement at 18m


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## DeathClutch (Aug 23, 2009)

T2Green4U said:


> Are you basing that on the fact that I shoot a trigger release? Because I have back tension and resistance releases. I've personally found my success with the thumb trigger release.


Walking into vegas and scoring 300 is next to impossible  but i assume atm, you have more chances of winning 50k in 1 weekend than you have winning 1000$ in their jackpot machines or bj tables.  You got this <3


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## DeathClutch (Aug 23, 2009)

T2Green4U said:


> Stan JustX thumb trigger release, arrows are 28" super drive 23s 475 100gr pin point, 61/62lb +/- Original Elite Ritual with updated cams at 28.5" dl. Black gold competition 2A sight, specialty archery scope 1 3/8" with double vision lens kit. Stabilizers I've been toying with I don't have a finalized set I like yet. Front bar 30" side bar 10". I plan on jumping to Mathews Trx 38G2 when that ol tax return hits that bank.


Buy a Elite Rezult or a Hoyt Invicta. I want an invicta!


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## *SWITCH (Nov 27, 2007)

T2Green4U said:


> I have a full 12 yard range in my basement I've been religiously shooting in over the winter. Been a bowhunter for years now I'm switching focus to indoor target shooting. Anyone have tips, advice or do's and don'ts about short range practicing for Indoor Target?


i too have a 12m range, i've found that its good for keeping your form and shooting strength but not good for trying to set stabilizers or other equipment choices. as soon as i go to 18m or more it shoots usually like crap and i end up changing things again.


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