Blind bale?

[spurdude]

If that's what it's called. What an eye opener! no pun intended. Just for fun I stood 10 feet away from my 4 x4 foot square bale. Set my stance, checked my posture, nocked an arrow and closed my eyes. Raised my bow set my draw arm went into a rotational draw to anchor, pulled thru the release, and..... heard my arrow tear through the brush behind my bale. I completely missed a 4 foot target at 10 feet! Found my arrow and repeated the process only this time I cheated at anchor and opened my eyes to see my perfectly aligned bow arm pointing at the bottom of the bale and 2 feet to the right! Holy cow I wasn't expecting that. I spent the next few minutes adjusting my stance until my bow arm was naturally pointing at the bale. After that I was able to start hitting the bale. I had to concentrate on raising my bow arm and focusing on the draw arm high elbow, bringing it down in line. This was a very revealing exercise.

[McDave]

Blind bale shooting is ordinarily done at a distance where it is impossible to miss, so all of your attention can be focused on how the shot feels without having to combat any nervousness over missing.  However, since you are learning things at a distance where it IS possible to miss, congratulations on taking blind bale shooting to a new level!

[spurdude]

Yes, thanks for that. I am aware of the purpose of blank bale shooting. I'm also aware you need to be close so you don't miss the bale. The point of the post was to share my experience and point out that removing the sense of sight will show to a greater extent flaws in one's form. I was very surprised to miss the target at 10 feet. I didn't think I would. What the exercise showed for me was my stance wasn't in sync with my bow arm and the bow arm was weak.   These things go unnoticed shooting with eyes open, actually drawing with. It's kinda like waking in the night and walking to the bathroom with your eyes closed. You might be surprise how well you do it or poorly.

[McDave]

It's kinda like waking in the night and walking to the bathroom with your eyes closed. You might be surprise how well you do it or poorly.

Sometimes it's best to just wander outside and go on the lawn, where you know you can't miss.