Christophe of Grey
Leathersmith/Archer
Speed Shooting
The basic question is “How to shoot fast”. This discussion will concern shooting with a hand bow as I have no experience, yet, with speed shooting a crossbow. Speed shooting consists of two parts, getting the arrow on the string and draw, aim, release in one motion. The entire issue in speed shooting is the elimination of movement. Every movement you can remove from the process of nock, draw, aim, release increases your speed.
Step one, the easiest to practice, draw, aim, release. Now let’s consider this as one single movement. I will also assume that you have an established, consistent anchor point. A consist, repeatable anchor point is critical and your ability to move your draw hand to this point at any time is also critical. If you have to think about it, you will lose time. How to practice? Put an arrow on the string. Hold your bow with arrow on string in front of you looking at the target. In one smooth movement raise the bow as you draw, come to your anchor point and release. Simple. Yeah but……. OK, as you are raising the bow while drawing at about half draw you should/want to be on target aim. Then as your draw hand comes back to your anchor point, as it hits your anchor point you release. This is really much like the Fred Bear shooting style. He would be on full aim at half draw then continue his draw until his middle finger hit his eye tooth at which point he would release. Hunters call this a snap shot. So practice this step over and over until you can hit at least the red color on a Royal Round target consistently.
The “other” process in speed shooting is getting the bloody arrow on the string! There are a couple of ways to do this. Obviously the basic point is to nock the arrow. Whether or not the cock vane is away from the bow is irrelevant. We have to use feather fletches which compress nicely against the bow. Don’t worry if the arrow is nocked “backwards”. It really doesn’t matter that much. What does matter is getting the arrow on the string!
Now some folks like shooting a double arrow on the first shot. For those who do this it seems to work. I have never been able to keep the two arrows within about a4 inch spread which means one of them is outside the gold. You could re-fletch two arrows so that when double nocked they would lay right next to each other reducing the natural spread two arrows shot at the same time will have. For my money I would prefer shooting more arrows accurately, thus I present the methods following.
Holding two or three arrows in your bow hand. I learned this technique from Gregg the Archer in Atlantia. He holds three arrows in his bow hand and one on the string. I can only make two arrows in the bow hand work, but here is the method and I will assume you are going to hold two arrows in your bow hand. Place the arrows such that the cock vane is outward facing at a slight angle to your left if a right hand shooter. Your first arrow goes between your little finger and ring finger of your bow hand. Situate the arrow such that the fletches are just touching your fingers. Place a second arrow between your middle finger and ring finger, same positioning. Now make sure the parts of the shafts extending downward are not crossed up. A third arrow is on the string. After shooting the first arrow, on the string, reach over and grab the nock of the arrow between your middle finger and index fingers. DO NOT PULL THE ARROW OUT! Instead simply rotate the arrow onto your bow arrow rest and nock it. Same thing with the next arrow. You will find that you can get off three arrows in the time most other archers only get off, maybe two. Now move to one of the two next methods for the remaining arrows to be shot.
Arrows in the hand. This technique is displayed on You Tube. You hold a number of arrows in your bow hand opposite the side you rest your arrows. For a right hand shooter this would be on the right side of your bow. After shooting an arrow, pull an arrow from the group in your bow hand and run the tip between the bow and the string. Using your draw hand which extracted the arrow and using your draw hand thumb as a guide to the bow string, nock the arrow which should be pinched between your index and middle fingers. From here you simply pull the bow string back to shoot. This technique removes the reverse of the draw hand used in the technique below. A common problem with this technique though is sticking the point of the arrow into your bow and causing a fumbling of the flow. Another common issue is having enough grip on the arrow to actually nock it. Putting a single wrap of string around the arrow just ahead of the nock then cemented using Duco or some other glue works to create a “ridge” that your fingers can grip for the nocking process.
Arrows stuck in the ground. This technique I learned from the, then, baron of Windmaster’s Hill in the Raleigh area. Stick more arrows than you think you will get off in the time allowed in the ground in front of you. Orient the arrows so the cock vanes are away from you. After you shoot an arrow place your bow between you and the arrows, reach over your bow to grab an arrow by the nock. Bring it to the string and nock the arrow as you raise your bow. Now we are back to the draw, aim release step. What many people do is hold their bow to the side, reach down grab an arrow, then move the arrow OVER the bow to nock it. This is one more movement. Make sure your bow goes between you and the arrows in the ground.
So there you are several methods for increasing the number of arrows down range in a speed shoot. Practice these techniques. Sir Mika told me once that he would sit in front of the TV at night and simply nock and un-nock arrows until he could do it without looking. As getting the bloody shaft on the string is THE major part of this whole exercise practicing that is not a bad idea. Using these other techniques may also help.