# Sight Shooting without a Sight



## Tex-Shooter

Sight shooting
• Always wear Safety glasses
• For sight shooting a good dimension across the fork tips is 4 inches
• Stand side ways to the target and form a tee with your body and arms a full draw
• When shooting vertical the top fork is the sight
• Keep thumb strait and release like you would release a butterfly (soft and smooth)
• Follow through (the slingshot will move, but don't move it on purpose) and hold on target.
• Move slingshot up or down for elevation
• Rotate slingshot slightly right or left for wind-age
• Your front foot might be moved slightly right or left for slight corrections in wind-age
• Practice, Practice , Practice
The pictures show my aim at 10 meters with several different slingshots wit different tip spreads and bands.
Tex-shooter 1/3/06 
This might help also, it does me. A deep breath while drawing, release part of it, then hold just before getting on target and remember not to jerk. The real trick is to relax while doing everything. I hope we are not overloading you.


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## forest dude

Great information to have; thanks for posting. That looks like a green o-ring for your band to fork attachment. I've not seen that before.


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## e~shot

Thanks Bill, great piece of information.


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## Tex-Shooter

Here is approximately what I see when sight shooting. The first picture shows my approximant sight picture on a 3 inch bull’s-eye at 10 meters with my classic. The second picture shows my approximant sight picture on a 7 inch bull’s-eye at 20 meters. This is a set-up not actual just to give you an idea of what I see. I shoot with both eyes open. I don’t have a sight picture when shooting instinctive; in fact I am not even aware of the slingshot. Tex-shooter


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## Performance Catapults

forest dude said:


> ... That looks like a green o-ring for your band to fork attachment. I've not seen that before.


Hog castration band.


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## slingshot_sniper

Performance Catapults said:


> ... That looks like a green o-ring for your band to fork attachment. I've not seen that before.


Hog castration band.








[/quote]

Do they work?

[edit] that sounds daft,I mean keeping the bands on?


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## Tex-Shooter

Forget it guys, it takes two hog bands per and they must be installed in a certian sequence. Tying with rubber is easier and faster. -- Tex-Shooter


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## slingshot_sniper

Thanks Tex just saved me some money trying it out...and my dog looks relieved for some reason


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## forest dude

ouch! That looks like it would be a bit, you know, restrictive. ;-)


Performance Catapults said:


> ... That looks like a green o-ring for your band to fork attachment. I've not seen that before.


Hog castration band.








[/quote]


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## NaturalFork

Thanks Bill. This will help the newcomers for sure!


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## NoSugarRob




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## Bill Hays

Very good tips and advice. The way I first learned to shoot a slingshot in the sideshooting method was by watching Bill Herriman and modifying to my natural draw and feel that was developed through Kyudo.
Before I saw him (Tex) shooting this style... for some reason it never really occured to me... always shot with the forks up and missed more often than hit, unless it was a big target.

I also find it interesting that the most accurate slingshot for Tex is the fourth one in the picture series... and it's also the one that has the best vertical alignment on the fork tips at full draw.


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## coyotebarren

Saw your post tex and thought Id add some background as to why what you do works so well. quite simply it is called muscle memory. Muscle memory is what the mind and body program into your subconcious when one shoot a slingshot.,or a bow or a rifle or throw a rock or perform any motion that requires skill. By constant repetition a shooter will create a neural pathway in brain and body. Theoretically speaking if one is in a relaxed state ones body will want to perform this repetitive motion the same way each time using the neural pathways developed while practicing. If you take that principle to its logical conclusion one could say that with enough focused practice one could shoot in any number of different postures and achieve accurate results. But of course this is seldom the case and proven techniques make accuracy easier to obtain. The tried and true has a way of compensating for the various inconsistencies that cause inaccuracy and eliminate potential variables that will creep up on a shooter who lacks stamina or is tense or is inexperienced.
Books have been written about this state of mind that some call the zone or being in the groove. This state of mind allows the subconcious to direct performance and the act of shooting becomes almost an unconcious act.. Top tier athletes will clear their mind of any thought and become almost a robot for the few seconds it takes to perform a skill. This emptying of the mind allows the subconcious to to duplicate an act in the most familiar way known to it. Thus the more refined the technique the fewer neural pathways are used and the better the grouping . 
The things that interfere with this subconcious way of shooting are imagined pressure , fear of failure, muscle fatigue and negative thoughts. In my youth I competed in olympic style archery at the international level and became very familiar with the above . The big mistake that I made was not putting enough emphasis on letting my subconcious mind take over , thus my performance was erratic . When I did shoot well it was effortless and when I knew I was in the groove I became very confident that I would do well that day. When I shot poorly it was because I was constantly interfering with my subconcious by allowing concious thought during the shot cycle thus over ruling my subconcious and creating new neural pathways.
I alwayse practiced by shooting one arrow at a time, then walked to the target and used this break to examine what I had just done. By the time I got back to my bow all the lactic acid in my muscles was gone and I was completely ready to try and duplicate my last shot .Even then there was alwayse a period during a practice session when I would achieve maximum grouping followed by slow degradation in my score. The trick was to try and extend this period of maximum accuracy for as long as possible through prolonged practice.
One good bit of advice came from a manual I obtained written for the United States Army Marksmanship Unit. A lot of progress can be had by simply having short frequent practice sessions. By doing this one has time to check on exactly what one is doing and not ingrain bad shooting habits through blind repetition.


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## Peresh

Very interesting there Coyote!








Thanks for posting this.


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## whipcrackdeadbunny

coyotebarren said:


> Saw your post tex and thought Id add some background as to why what you do works so well. quite simply it is called muscle memory. Muscle memory is what the mind and body program into your subconcious when one shoot a slingshot.,or a bow or a rifle or throw a rock or perform any motion that requires skill. By constant repetition a shooter will create a neural pathway in brain and body. Theoretically speaking if one is in a relaxed state ones body will want to perform this repetitive motion the same way each time using the neural pathways developed while practicing. If you take that principle to its logical conclusion one could say that with enough focused practice one could shoot in any number of different postures and achieve accurate results. But of course this is seldom the case and proven techniques make accuracy easier to obtain. The tried and true has a way of compensating for the various inconsistencies that cause inaccuracy and eliminate potential variables that will creep up on a shooter who lacks stamina or is tense or is inexperienced.
> Books have been written about this state of mind that some call the zone or being in the groove. This state of mind allows the subconcious to direct performance and the act of shooting becomes almost an unconcious act.. Top tier athletes will clear their mind of any thought and become almost a robot for the few seconds it takes to perform a skill. This emptying of the mind allows the subconcious to to duplicate an act in the most familiar way known to it. Thus the more refined the technique the fewer neural pathways are used and the better the grouping .
> The things that interfere with this subconcious way of shooting are imagined pressure , fear of failure, muscle fatigue and negative thoughts. In my youth I competed in olympic style archery at the international level and became very familiar with the above . The big mistake that I made was not putting enough emphasis on letting my subconcious mind take over , thus my performance was erratic . When I did shoot well it was effortless and when I knew I was in the groove I became very confident that I would do well that day. When I shot poorly it was because I was constantly interfering with my subconcious by allowing concious thought during the shot cycle thus over ruling my subconcious and creating new neural pathways.
> I alwayse practiced by shooting one arrow at a time, then walked to the target and used this break to examine what I had just done. By the time I got back to my bow all the lactic acid in my muscles was gone and I was completely ready to try and duplicate my last shot .Even then there was alwayse a period during a practice session when I would achieve maximum grouping followed by slow degradation in my score. The trick was to try and extend this period of maximum accuracy for as long as possible through prolonged practice.
> One good bit of advice came from a manual I obtained written for the United States Army Marksmanship Unit. A lot of progress can be had by simply having short frequent practice sessions. By doing this one has time to check on exactly what one is doing and not ingrain bad shooting habits through blind repetition.


You talk like Bruce Lee.


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## whipcrackdeadbunny

Thanks Tex.


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## Northerner

Thanks Bill! I was working on "sight shooting" for a bit this afternoon. I should have re-read your posting so I could adjust windage. Sometimes I was a bit left so next time I will try rotating the forks a bit. I managed to group 10 balls into 5" from 20 yards. A 20 shot group went into 6". These were my best 20 yard groups for the day.

When shooting at 10 yards I seem to do about the same with instinctive shooting or sighting. I still need more practice with sight shooting and then I might be able to tighten things up a little. Once I stretch to 20 yards it gets much more difficult for instinctive shooting.

Cheers,
Northerner


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## Northerner

Hey Bill,

I just spent some time trying out your advice on windage adjustment when shooting gangsta. "Rotate slingshot slightly right or left for wind-age". From 28' I rotated the top fork from the 11 o'clock position to the 1 o'clock position. The point of impact went from 5" on the right of the bullseye to 5" on the left. I didn't think there would be that much affect at only 28'.

My groups seem to hit closest to center when I very slightly rotate the top fork to the right (rotate frame clockwise). From 28' I managed a 3" group for 20 shots with 75% of the shots hitting the 2" black bullseye. I put a couple of shots low and 3 hit a bit to the right. The rest hit or touched the 2" bullseye. I'll be happy if I can keep this up!

Many thanks,
Northerner


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## fishjunkie

great info tex i tryed it today was right on target thanks onces again for the info


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## RedRubber

Thanks Tex, Coyote and Bill.

I wish I could have read this when I first got back into slingshot shooting.

This should be a sticky.


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