TRADITIONAL ARCHERY | NEWBIES - HOW TO Shoot a Recurve Bow

Hey everybody this is Mark Vogt with Vogtland Outdoors and this episode is a newbie lesson in how to shoot a recurve bow in five easy steps but first the intro. Okay now that you guys are back this is for new archers you're out there you're looking on YouTube trying to find a way to shoot a recurve bow you're looking for tutorials and the problem is you probably saw all kinds of them and they try to make it all mystical and they talk about gap shooting and you see them anchoring on the side of their cheek and you see people shooting all over the place probably and you're kind of wondering is that really for me if your goal is if you've been looking out there for a way to take an empty recurve bow there's no sights of any kind there's no release there's no pin there's no nothing you want to learn how to shoot this accurately with nothing but your fingers and your brain this is the method that you want to learn it's a five-step method I call it the Vogtland shooting method and it looks something like this I'm going to call it out and then we're going to explain it step one you're going to choose what's called a gap you're going to anchor underneath your chin you're going to anchor from wherever you choose this gap the distance between where the arrow is and where you're actually pulling on the string that's called the gap you're going to choose a gap you're going to draw back under your chin you're going to look down with this eye you're going to look down this edge of the string four you're going to put the tip of the arrow right smack on a target that you're trying to hit five you're going to do a smooth small motion release under your chin just by opening your hand up you're not going to let go of your chin let's go over those five steps one more time one step one choose your gap this will determine the angle of the bow this will determine the angle of the arrow that will determine the range the distance the arrow goes the smaller the gap that you go towards the the knocking point of the arrow the more the arrow points up the farther it goes you can go all the way out to two and even three fingers above the arrow yeah three fingers above the arrow you could go four arrows below the arrow which gives you ranges with this technique you'll be able to shoot anywhere from 10 yards out to 120 yards 120 yards with this technique let's start over from the beginning i'm just going to pick a three finger gap step one choose your gap step two drawback under your chin step three look with this eye the one that's closest to the string look down the left edge of the string at your target step four put the tip of the arrow that becomes your front sight look put it right smack on what you're trying to hit not higher not lower not to the left up for you guys not to the right you're putting it right on what you're trying to hit step five small motion release small motion let's try this on that 10 yard target the gap the distance the angle for me that the arrow has to be is a three finger grip a three finger gap sorry so it's going to look like this i'm going to choose my gap three and a half fingers i'm going to draw back with this finger right here under my chin i'm going to end up looking down the left edge of the string and i'm going to be trying to put the arrow right smack on the target like that not below it not above it not to the right of it not to the left of it i'm not trying to imagine some gap in space out there between the tip of my arrow and the target i am putting it right smack on the target like that that's what your eye would see let's give this a try you're going to look right over my shoulder at this step one choose my gap three and a half fingers for this one step two draw back under my chin step three look down the left side of the string step four put the tip of the arrow right smack in the middle of that target step five smooth small motion release i shot a little high which means that what i got to do is slightly change my gap to make it a little bit bigger than my gap was three and a half fingers and it was pointed like this but shot high to make it shoot low what it shot high to make it shoot a little bit lower the back of the arrow has to go up so i just have to make a little bit bigger gap and that's going to tip the arrowhead down so that it goes a little bit lower let's give that a try that seems easy doesn't it all right here's my gap draw back under my chin looked on the left side of the string left edge with the tip of the arrow right on the target and small smooth small motion release let's adjust that gap just a little bit more i'm going to go all the way to four fingers i don't normally shoot it 10 yards it's a really short distance step one i chose my gap step two draw back under my chin step three put the tip looked on the left edge of the string step four put the tip of the arrow on the target step five and now we got a bullseye so you can see how easy this method is and the because this is important for all you newbies because i'm actually drawing back under my chin i'm able to look right over the top of the arrow and get that in perfect alignment with my target you'll see other techniques where they draw back off to the side of their face like this but what you end up with guys is that now the arrow is actually pointing a different direction than you're looking if you were my target and this is my eye i'm looking right at you and my arrow isn't you need a method that's going to bring the arrow in perfect alignment with your eye so you're looking and aiming at the exact same thing and you'll find out that that technique works a lot better let's uh let's back up to 20 yards and then we're going to shoot at 30 and even at 40 and you're going to see this method so i'm going to back up okay now we're shooting at 20 yards i got two arrows before i got three arrows and all we have to change is the gap we saw that at 10 at 10 yards my gap was four fingers so that means i'm going to go up about a half of one of these fingers as a whole pinky i'm going to go up a half a finger and three fingers becomes my 20 yard gap boat land shooting method step one choose your gap step two anchor under your chin step three look down the left edge of the string step four put the tip of the arrow on the target step five smooth release shot a little high step one choose your gap step two anchor under your chin step three look down the left edge of the string step four with the tip of the arrow on the target step five now we got a perfect bullseye my god let's go and see if we can shoot at 30 yards too camera's still rolling 30 yards is over on that side what changes just the gap okay i had to charge my camera up so it's it's like an hour later after we were shooting at 10 yards and at 20 yards so now we're going to pick up and shoot at 30 yards that's the target that's out there that's got the rag on it what do we do for this this this method that i'm teaching you this five step method we just change that gap looks like this this was 20 yards this is going to be 30 yards just go up a half a finger and that's going to actually pull the arrow down in the back put the tip up in the front which means it's going to go a little bit farther and it's going to look something like that when you're looking down the left edge of the string and putting the tip of the arrow right on the target we're going to pick the gap about two and a half fingers now we came up a half a finger we pulled just a slightly we're a half two and a half fingers instead of three step two draw back under our chin step three look down the left edge of the string step four put the tip of the arrow right smack on the target step five and we're almost dead bullseye fantastic let's do the next one the next one out there is those four big black dots that's 40 yards what changes only that gap changes that you pick in this case it's going to be see you greg instead of three fingers for 20 yards instead of three fingers for 20 yards two and a half fingers for 30 yards now it's going to be a two finger gap like that and it's going to look like this at 40 yards we're going to look down the left edge of the string put the tip of the arrow on the target and do a smooth release like that so let's get out of the way of the camera i think this is looking pretty good i'm gonna pick my gap step one choose my gap step two i'm aiming for the center of the target not at any one of them step two draw back onto the chin step three look down the left edge of the string step four put the tip of the arrow on the dead center of the target step five nearly perfect i'm like this far left of dead center at 40 yards so what do we got to do time to go out let's see 20 30 40 time to go after the 50 yard one what do we do at 50 just change the gap what's the gap going to look like it was three fingers for 20 and look like that it was two and a half fingers for 30 and look like that it was two fingers for 40 and look like that so now it's going to be yes you guessed it one and a half fingers for 50 and it's going to so let's give it a try step one choose your gap step two draw back under your chin step three look down the left side of the string the left edge step four put the tip of the arrow right on the center of the target step five smooth release i'm this far to the left of dead center on a bullseye at 50 yards with this shooting method if you're a brand new recurve archer one thing you're going to find out is hardly anybody shoots a recurve certainly not barebow at 50 yards and now you're learning how to do it so what are we going to do you're looking and saying mark you just showed me how to shoot at 10 yards and 20 and 30 and 40 and 50 but there's a 60 yard target out there so let's go after it i got one arrow left what do we do is there some magic involved nope we're changing the gap we have to continue this is what 20 yards look like this is what 30 yards look like this is what 40 yards look like this is what 50 yards look like this is what 60 yards will look like that kind of a gap let's go over it again we had this was our 20 and it looked like this at two and a half fingers we had our 30 and it looked like that at 40 yards we had two fingers and it looked like it looked like that at 50 it was one and a half fingers and it looked like that so now at 60 it's going to be one finger and it's going to look like this way out there at 60 yards like that let's give it a try kind of tired step one of this method the vote land shooting method step one choose your gap step two draw back onto your chin step three and hook down the left side of the string step four put the tip of the arrow right smack on the center of the target step five oh let's go take a look at that i hope if you're a new archer you're what you're getting is this you're saying mark are you telling me that in five easy to learn steps you can teach a complete novice that hasn't even shot an arrow before how to actually shoot with deadly accuracy and confidence at 10 yards at 20 yards at 30 yards at 40 yards at 50 yards at 60 yards yeah yeah that's what i'm telling you you just have to be willing to unlearn any traditional shooting techniques and advice that you're getting from other people about aiming off target at some imaginary gap stuff like that you have to be willing to unlearn that and if you do then this is what you're going to get to enjoy shooting with confidence shooting with confidence at that kind at that kind of a distance and what does 60 yards look like let's swing all the way around it's way the heck up there you guys see that white way off in the distance see that white way over there that's the 60 yards and the arrow came whop right in there pretty darn cool and here's the other thing that i want you to know about this method this shooting method because i use the tip of the arrow as my front sighting pin i actually am watching that arrow i'm watching that arrow from the moment it leaves my bow all the way as it's flying through the air coming back down and landing on the target i'm watching the arrowhead my eye never leaves it i'm not looking at some other set of pins some other sighting mechanism i'm actually watching the arrow in flight and that is so cool so there you are let's uh pop this back up and go over this bolt lens shooting method one more time the method that i'm teaching you has got five steps to it five easy to remember steps step number one choose the gap at the back of the bow the gap between the top of your finger and the arrow itself that gap as it gets smaller causes the back of the arrow to go down causes the front to go up causes it to shoot farther so 10 yards looks like this 20 yards looks like this 30 yards look like this 40 yards looks like this 50 yards looks like this 60 yards look like this and if i could show you what you're thinking is mark there's room left on the string guys this is 70 yards this is 90 yards this is 110 yards and this is what it looks like when you're shooting this is what it looks like when you're aiming you're putting the tip of the arrow right smack on what you're trying to hit not you're not putting that arrow below it somewhere above it somewhere off to the that'd be your right side off to your left side no you're putting it right smack on what you're trying to hit and that gives you a supreme amount of confidence with this shooting technique did you know the arrow is going to go where you're pointing it not some other place it's going right there so the five step boat land shooting method choose your gap here would be a gap for 20 step one choose your gap step two draw back under your chin not on your cheek when you draw back on your cheek guys you're holding your arrow like this but if you're my target i'm looking there and my arrows aim in some other place so then you have to try to compensate by moving the whole arrow off to the side which means now you're aiming over there somewhere to try to hit this holy bucket anchor under your chin and that problem goes away look down the left edge of the string with your eye look right over the top of the arrow and put the tip of your arrow right smack on the target five step five do a small motion release small like you're a little mechanical release like that there's the five step vote land shooting method that anybody can learn if you've never picked up a bow you can learn this i teach this in 30 seconds to people and they plug 10 yards they plug 20 so those are the five steps in the vote land shooting method i can teach anybody to shoot a recurve bow in 30 seconds flat with this technique and you can shoot with that method even a 20 pound bow can go all the way out to 70 even 80 yards 80 yards with a 20 pound bow check the method out feel free to watch some of my other videos if you like what you see subscribe and like this is mark boat with boatland outdoors and i i'll see you out there bye cut