There’s an ancient style of archery that’s been gaining more and more of a following recently. It has been used by medieval archers in Europe, Native Americans in the Americas and the Ninja of feudal Japan.

What is Instinctive archery

Instinctive archery is a means of “aiming by not aiming” that dates back thousands of years. It’s the practice of shooting a bow: normally a traditional wooden bow, longbow or recurve bow with no attached sights.

Essentially, no pin sights, scopes or peep sights.

Lately, more and more archers are getting back into this style of traditional archery – nothing but the archer with a bow and an arrow. It’s gets back to the pure talent, practice and skill of archery from the days of old. If that’s something that interests you, I highly recommend you start by reading this.

The sense of accomplishment from landing a 50 yard shot exactly where you wanted it without any aid of scopes or sights is amazing. Many traditional archers will say that it flat out dwarfs that of any target archer with a pin sight, target stabilizer and whatever other fancy, modern day gear and accessories.

There are two main styles considered to be the most used, and most effective forms of instinctive archery, Gap shooting and purely instinctive archery – or “see it and shoot it”. While there are some archers (or purists) that will argue that gap shooting is not instinctive archery, many others will agree that these are just different types of instinctive archery – each having their own specific uses.

I consider gap shooting to be instinctive archery as it is what most people who’ve never held a bow literally instinctively do when they try to shoot. Ask any kid to shoot a bow, they’ll usually close one eye while instinctively lining up the arrow with the target.

So to me, if that’s what people really do instinctively go to – it’s a real part of instinctive archery.

One way to think about it is that gap shooting is conscious aiming, while the see and shoot method is subconscious aiming.

There are times when you’ll want to use gap shooting, and it will out shoot any ‘see and shoot’ instinctive archer. But there are other situations in which this is completely reversed and see and shoot will have more accuracy.

When you’re shooting in a straight line, with little or no obstacles, gap shooting tends to win out. However, when you’re shooting up or down hills or inclines with trees and brush obscuring your view, see and shoot will have the advantage.

This is because gap shooting makes you great at discerning range by sight over time with lots of practice, while see and shoot allows you to quickly and accurately shoot in challenging situations. While we’re at it, here’s a guide I wrote about how to judge yardage like a top tournament archer.

The Basics of Instinctive Archery

Regardless of which method of shooting you’re using there are some things that you need to do to make either of them work well for you. It’s much easier to install a good habit than it is to correct and replace a bad one.

So take note of this section – especially if you’re new to archery altogether. If you’re an experienced archer, chances are you’ll have adopted or been taught some of the following tips, techniques and best practices. If your technique or training is somewhat different from the following, consider changing up how you shoot and learn a new routine. You’ll probably want to also check out the guide I wrote all about how to aim a recurve bow.

If there are only subtle differences in how you shoot compared to what’s presented here, it may not be all that much to worry about anyway. Just keep an open mind and consider some new ways of practicing – you may find that it pays off big time.

Your Stance

Firstly, you’ve probably heard it before, but your stance is very important in any type of archery. The reason you’ve heard it before it because it’s true. Stand at 90 degrees to the target (the target should be directly in line with the outside edge of your non-dominant foot).

For right handed archers this means the outside edge of your left foot. You should be sideways facing the target. As you get better and more comfortable you can vary how much sideways you’re facing, but for now just stick with the side facing target approach.

Make sure your feet are standing at least shoulder width apart.

The Shot Sequence

One thing that’s very important for both styles of instinctive shooting is consistency of your shot sequence. Your shot sequence is simply the all of the things that you do leading up to each shot.

Things like checking that your stance is correct, nocking your arrow, drawing the bow to your anchor point, looking at the exact spot on the target that you’re aiming for, releasing the arrow and finally, following through with the shot.

It’s important to develop a shot sequence that is exactly the same every time. You must do all of the same things in the same exact order before every shot. This is important as it gets the shot sequence trained in the subconscious mind over time – so it becomes second nature to perform with every shot.

Your Bow Grip

The grip of your bow hand should be light, almost as if the bow is only slightly resting on the top of your hand. No tight gripping the bow, get in the habit of checking that you’re only gently supporting the bow as a part of your shot sequence.

Your Draw Hand Grip

Most western archers today shoot what is known as Mediterranean draw, which is using the index, middle and ring fingers to draw the bowstring back.

There are two main types of the Mediterranean draw:

Some archers shoot split finger – the index finger being above the arrow, while the middle and ring fingers are below the arrow.

While others shoot ‘three under’ – where all three fingers are under the arrow.

For gap shooting you’ll more likely want to use three under, as it holds the arrow closer to your eye, which makes it easier to aim and more accurately shoot each arrow.

Many people also prefer the three under grip for see and shoot as well, but you could shoot split finger if it feels more natural and works better for you. More on that later. Either way, you’re definitely going to want to use one of these, thank me later.

After you decide which way you prefer, you should hold the string on the meat of your fingers: past the fingertips but not so far as it falls into the first joint of your fingers. If you shoot with the bowstring in the joint of your fingers, your string release will be jagged and will really throw off your shot.

Whether you’re gap shooting or going with the ‘see and shoot’ approach, there’s another thing that they both have in common – practice. Yeah, yeah, you’ve heard that before too. But seriously, both styles really do require a lot of consistent practice to get good at – especially the see and shoot method. There’s simply no short cut to the need for practice with both techniques.

If you’re just getting started with traditional archery, I wrote this beginner’s guide to traditional archery – you should check it out. While we’re at it, you might also want to read my post on the archery basics for beginners, it’s got all of the essential tips that you need to know to get started.

Gap Shooting

The first style of instinctive archery is gap shooting, where you line the point of the arrow up with the target and judge distance. Basically, you learn over several practice shots where your ideal range is, this is the range where you’ll hit the target perfectly while aiming directly at it.

From this point you can start to tell how far under or over the target you should aim – depending upon how much farther from you or closer to you the target is.

If you look at the image above, you’ll see what a typical arrow trajectory looks like. In gap shooting there’s something that’s called ‘point on’. When you’re ‘point on’ you’re standing at the exact distance of the complete flight path from your arrow to the target.

Note: Each bow’s point on distance is unique. Some bows may be point on at 30 yards, while others are point on at 60 yards. You’ll have to find your point on distance by shooting and moving closer to and further away from the target (usually in 5 to 10 yard distances).

That means that if you’re point on and aiming right at the center of the target and shoot, your arrow will travel upwards, reach it’s peak, and then descend, finally hitting the target perfectly. Picture this while looking at the image above.

If you’re closer to the target than point on: your arrows would be to high, as they travel on the curve upwards – but don’t have enough time to fully descend.

If you’re farther away from the target then point on: Your arrows will fall short of the target as they’ll go through the entire flight path – but you’re too far away from the target.

So, when you’re closer to the target then point on – you aim lower than the target. When you’re further away from the target – you aim above the target.

You want to know how far above or below the target you need to aim depending on your distance from the target, aiming at a 10 yard distance is going to be way different than aiming at a 30 yard distance. Here’s how to figure out your gaps:

Start with three of the exact same type of arrows, 10 yards from the target. While aiming directly at the center of the target, shoot each arrow one at a time. Measure how far off from the center of the target they are, in inches. Make a note of this number.

Now move back to 20 yards from the target, and repeat the process (noting the results again).

Repeat at the 30, 40 and 50 yard points, respectively.

This lets you know approximately where to aim at a target, depending upon how far away from the target you are. If for example, at 10 yards distance your arrows are always off by 15 inches. So from now on when you’re aiming at a target 10 yards away, instead of aiming directly at the target, aim 15 inches above the target.

You simply do this using how far off your arrows were from the above shots at targets 10/20/30/40/50 yards away. Many beginner archers will use the data from their notes and make a cheat sheet on a small piece of paper, which they’ll tape on the inside of their bow where they can see it while aiming.

Remember each bows’ point on distance is different and you’ll have to find your bows’ point on distance through trial and error. Even if you don’t know your bows’ point on distance, by using the method above you’ll still know approximately just where to aim (how many inches high or low of the target) depending on your distance from the target.

Tip: When gap shooting, it helps to use long arrows. Instead of having your arrows cut to fit your bows as you would with most other styles of archery, using uncut arrows is preferred in gap shooting.

Many gap shooters swear by shooting arrows that stick out 2 inches past the edge of the bow at full draw. Longer arrows give you shorter gaps, this is ideal for gap shooting.

With gap shooting you’ll want to adopt a higher anchor point and use the three under draw, as mentioned before. By doing both of the above it aligns the arrow more in line with your eye – making shooting accurately far easier.

A cheek high anchor point with the three under draw would be ideal for gap shooting.

It’s possible to gap shoot split finger, but it’s definitely a lot harder to do so without lots of consistent practice. Gap shooting three under is especially accurate when it comes to shooting at closer range targets. Many first time archers are making very good shots at closer targets after only an hour or two of practice.

One trick some people use is if you have a pin sight you can use it to practice memorizing your gaps. Use the first half of your practice session with your bow sight attached, noting where the gaps seem to be.

Then remove the sight and try to shoot the estimated gaps on your own. Consistently practicing this over time will definitely up your accuracy with gap shooting.

If you’re a beginner archer you could also try this trick: extend the index finger of your bow hand so that it’s pointing at the target. This helps because the finger is directly below the arrow and in line with the target.

Using this trick will help to teach you proper alignment.

Your Anchor Point

An anchor point is the point where the bow string and your draw hand are when you’re at full draw. For most archers this is at either their chin, the corner of the mouth or the cheek.

See and Shoot – Purely Instinctive Shooting

The see and shoot method is as simple as that: You literally look at the target and then shoot at it – with no aiming at all.

Many people relate this style of shooting to that of throwing a ball. Think about it, when you throw a ball you simply throw it, with the intention that it goes where you want it to. Some people have more of an affinity for this than others.

Think about when you were a kid, some kids were just better at throwing and catching than others. It’s the same for people first starting out with the see and shoot style of shooting.

The reason that the ball or arrow goes where you want it to is all down to one thing – muscle memory. The same way an incredible drummer can move all four limbs in different ways at the same time while keeping the rhythm is all down to muscle memory.

Your muscle memory is trained by lots of consistent practice, and by lots I mean tons of practice. This style of archery requires a lot more practice than gap shooting does, it can take years to become really proficient at this purely instinctive style of shooting.

When I was first trying to learn to shoot like this, I kept reading the same things over and over again. Every web site I read or video I watched all just said to focus on the target. Well, of course I’m going to focus on the target!

That advice didn’t help me increase my accuracy or consistency when came down to actually shooting. What did help was getting my shot sequence down to the point where it was completely effortless, all on auto-pilot.

Also, you have to almost force yourself to not to look at the arrow, as it’s ironically instinctive to look at the arrow before you shoot.

You need to look at the exact spot on the target that you want to hit – not the whole target. You need to do this every time.

I’ve even heard of a guy missing a shot at an deer that was only a few yards away because he didn’t focus on the spot that he wanted to hit. He was so cocky because the deer was so close that he just shot, ignoring the hours and hours of correct practice that he had.

He missed a guaranteed shot by not doing what he had trained himself to do, focus on the small exact spot you want to hit, ignoring the idea of the large target your shooting at altogether.

You need to hyper focus on the one inch round circle on the target that you’re shooting at and keep this focus until the arrow has hit the target. A good habit to get into is to shoot and hold your pose until you hear the arrow hit.

Do this every time, with every single shot. Getting this trained into your subconscious will up your accuracy over time with any type of archery.

Instinctive Archery Training Exercises

The following are a couple of exercises your can use in your practice sessions that will help you improve both gap shooting and the see and shoot style, respectively. If you’re interested in both instinctive styles of shooting, add each of these into your regular routine – practicing both of these over time is almost a guaranteed way of making you a pro traditional archer.

Gap Shooting Exercise

Begin at a range of only ten yards to the target. Shoot at least a dozen arrows at the target, using the gap between the arrow point at the center of the target. Keep doing this until you can get the arrows grouping closer and closer to the very center of the target.

Once you can easily group the majority of the arrows in the center of the target, move back to fifteen yards and repeat. Once you’re consistently grouping arrows at fifteen yards, move back to twenty yards.

Once you’ve mastered twenty yards, from this point in it’s important to constantly mix it up – shooting all different distances. This will help you to improve judging range at all different distances.

So for instance, the next time you practice shoot at only ten yards. Then immediately shoot at twenty five yards, then start shooting at fifteen yards – then thirty.

Consistently mixing it up will yield you lots of improvement if you stick with it over time.

See and Shoot Exercise

Get a paper or Styrofoam cup and attach it to your normal, circular target so that the open side of the cup is facing you. Starting at a distance of of only three yards, start shooting. Just looking at the center of the target and shooting, as described above.

Keep shooting at this range until you can consistently group the majority of the arrows into the center of the cup. Once you’re doing this, move back to five yards and repeat until you can consistently group at five yards.

From here out, just keep moving back a yard or two at repeat. Oh, and if you’re wondering why the paper cup – it helps to train your eye for real, 3D shooting at the same time.

As I mentioned above, it’s a good idea to both learn and practice both styles of shooting, as they’ll both be helpful in different situations. Having them both in your bag of tricks will be something you’ll be glad that you took the time to learn.

If you’re new to traditional archery, or archery in general, check out this post I wrote on getting started in archery, there’s lots of good info there. You might also want to read my post on 12 killer archery accuracy tips to improve your shots – you’ll be killing it in no time.