Anchor points

[Reece]

Where do you anchor when using a barebow or longbow?

I've heard that you can use the corner of your mouth or under your eye.

What are the pros and cons? Is there any tips and tricks?

Thanks,

Rich.

[Howling Dog]

Reece it depends on which style you shoot and power of your bow.
When I shot barebowcompound & recurve I used a gap method for ABA and used the same principles for my hunting setup
As follows

Recurve 60# Damonn Howatt middle finger in the corner of my mouth with thumb up beside my ear, the point of aim on this was 35 yards and adjusted accordingly for closer and further distances.

Compound 56# Index finger high under my nostril, thumb up again, point of aim was 50 yards for ABA & and at six o'clock on the B zone for 40 yards series 3,2 &1 straight at it
This worked for me in ABA as I attained Grand Masters on numerous occasions and it flowed over to my hunting style succesfully
Hope this helps

[humphrey]

i anchor with the last knuckle of my index finger in the corner of my mouth. i just cant seem to comfortably shoot anchoring with the middle finger.

[Glenn]

I anchor with my index finger in my mouth also, I can't cnchor with my little finger at all...Glenn...

[HOOD]

Samick 55# curve and I anchor with the tip of my index finger pushing in the crease of my gum and jaw line with my thumb under the jaw bone and have the nock of the arrow in the corner of my mouth with 3 fingers under the arrow.

I find that this way I have a solid anchor point with both my index and thumb resting on the jaw bone, and by doing this I find that I can sight striaght down the string and arrow for a good center line of aim.

Hood 8)

[burner]

Hi there guys, this is great info. I'm new to archery, and I am having difficulty with the gap shooting. I haven't as yet got used to having to allow a "gap" between the aiming mark at the intended point of impact. I've been shooting a club bow (20lb), which requires quiet a bit of "gap" between the distances. I've read that some of you are anchoring with the middle finger, and also at the nostril. Got a query; the club coach doesn't like an anchor point above the mouth as he's concerned with nocks and arrow discinteration and the risk to eye injury. Is he being over cautious ? I must admit having a higher anchor point would relieve some of my "gap" anxiety. Or, will this gap issue go away when I get a bow of higher poundage ie flatter shooting.

thanks, burner.

[Axe]

Burner,
Appears to me that you are looking for a higher anchor so as you can sight down the arrow as if it were a gun barrel, gap shooting is actually using the point of the BH or a mark on the bow to gauge the shot, but you must be able to judge the distance accurately in the first instance, IMHO not very good in a hunting situation. Another way is to "walk the string' (shooting 3 under) whereby you count the strands on the serving of the string & move your fingers down the string to the desired amount, which in turn gets you to alter the angle of the bow as you bring your fingers back to the anchor point on your face. Why are you gap shooting at all, who's idea, yours or the coach :?
Nuth'n wrong with it, but it does take some time to conquer, and as I said earlier, need to get the distances right. I admire Howling Dog for the fact he can use the technique for target & hunting, I've never tried it, but been hunting with plenty who can use it on the range where the distances are set, but could not use it for hunting. Rattled on here, don't know if I helped ya or not :?

[woody]

15 years ago I got my draw hand crushed at work, long story short, my middle finger ended up 6mm shorter, lol, all you blokes who cant anchor with the middle finger, need them shortened :D

Middle finger on eye tooth, first thumb knuckle on the corner of my ear hole. = shaft right under my line of eye

Just got to work out up and down now :D .

[Reece]

Well I tried the index finger anchor and it worked well, but then i tried the middle finger and I found my index finger anchoring under my cheek and thumb behind the jaw and under my ear. That's a three point anchor! I was shooting even better!

As with everything else, you gotta try all and find what is good for you.

I'm happy. :D

The only problem is it's lengthend my draw by about 3 inches!!!

[burner]

Axe, No I'm not looking down the shaft like a barrel. Currently I use the tip of the arrow. The challange I find is to work out the gap between the tip of the arrow in relation to the intended point of impact. I'm figuring that if I can reduce the gap (by raising the anchor point), I might be more consistant. I find I'll shoot reasonably groups, but never more than a couple of arrows in the same place. Generlly in a vertiacl plane, which leads to thinking that its a gap problem (read me not having a consistant gap problem)

Keep the rattling coming, it's the only way us novices get to learn.

It's interesting to hear that you mentioned counting the servings and using a diferent finger placement to vary the angles. Won't this method effect the way the arow is propelled ie not propoelled in a straight line, potentially causing it to "fishtail" (excuse the poor or incorrect terminology).........burner

(can't wait to get my own bow to start experimenting)

[humphrey]

i dont even really look at the arrow when shooting. its in my perhipheal(?) vision, but i only concentrate on the target.

[Axe]

It's interesting to hear that you mentioned counting the servings and using a diferent finger placement to vary the angles. Won't this method effect the way the arow is propelled ie not propoelled in a straight line, potentially causing it to "fishtail"

Thanks for your confidence Rich, happy to help, but I ain't the guru in this gap stuff (nor anything else for that matter), just learned a little thru the years

(Archers Paradox)"fishtail" as you call it, is generally related to the spine of the arrow, which will interfere with the sight window if not correct. If of course you stuff up your release, like "pluck the string" then you may get all sorts of erratic arrow flight. :)

If you haven't already done so, you might like to Google in String Walking & Gap shooting, you'll find info from"experts" in these methods.

Obviously you have the basic idea so IMHO take your own advice (experiment) and advice from Reece, do what works best for you, including maybe a go at the instinctive method, as with Humphrey, concentrate on target with the arrow in your peripheral vision. :)
Good Luck!

[humphrey]

i know the topic is anchor point, but one tip that has improved my accuracy 300% is to not grip the bow too tightly. i know its basic and is easy to avoid when shooting compound, but when shooting a recurve its natural to strangle the grip with fear of the bow jumping out at release. i now hold the bow firmly, but not too tightly with my index finger and thumb, a bit less tightly with my middle finger, and not at all with my ring finger or pinky. i noticed a huge improvement instantly! :D

[Glenn]

Burner what sort of shooting do you want to do, are you going to hunt or just shoot targets? String walking is a good method for targets and there are some top archers around that string walk. By walking the string you are changing the tiller of the bow, a bow is tillered to have the hand placed on the string at a certian spot and I have always thought it was a worry because this would put a lot more pressure on the bottom limb. This might not be so bad with the long target bows and normally they are fairly light poundageas well it probably wouldn't be too bad but with the heavier weight and shorter hunting bows I wouldn't like to see them drawn like this. But as other have said here you have to experiment and find ut what works best for you. Once you get a heavier bow and properly matched arrows you will see a big difference over the equipment you are using now. As a rule of thumb a bow should shoot with properly matched arrows 100 fps plus the weight of the bow which would be 120 fps so a 50# will be around the 150 fps, big difference in trajectory. Those figures are on the lower end of what modern composite bows will do...Glenn...