looking down the arrow

[Sam Dunham]

I'm new at it, Do you look down the arrow or use the arrow tip? I have have been working at it and think I just look down the arrow and gap. I would like to use the arrow as more of a sight than gunbarrelling down the arrow. I also have been shooting with both eyes open, do you guys?

[toxoman]

Use the tip. I open both eyes.

[ZolcsiBB]

Both eyes open, arrow tip concentric with the gold.

[Sam Dunham]

Went in to all the old stringwalking threads and found a wealth of knowlege. I was close, but was not useing the point as a sight. I want to use it primarily for hunting. Any "tips" on useing stringwalking for hunting?

[bobferrell]

As I will soon post on the "hunting escapades" thread that I started, I'm having big problems on squirrels that keep rapidly changing yardage, so I'm thinking Rusty's tip to tie on a 20 yard mark that you can find without looking, and then aiming high or low depending on the estimated distance might be very good :)

I'd rather do a more accurate crawl if I could, of course, since one main "point" of string walking is to have exactly the same sight picture at each distance, but sometimes the critters just don't give you the time.

I can't imagine counting stitches or serving wraps in a hunting situation, but maybe it could be done by feel (heck, I can't even see the stitches unless I'm wearing my bi-focals). I use the splits on my widow tab at this point for certain yardages, and the middle of the sections for others, and guestimate from there, even when target shooting.

Another problem that I fight is the tendency to revert to my instinctive sight picture in the heat of the moment, and leave a gap above the point rather than slapping the point right in the deer's chest - I shot right under one last year with that mistake.
My biggest problem is bow noise, and I'm still working on that.

Other factors that I can think of depending on your setup might be freezing your hand on a metal riser if you're used to wood, increased bow mass weight making it difficult to stay motionless when caught in an awkward position, bow limb clearance if you're using a longer bow than in the past, remembering to hold the bow vertical if you're used to canting, and keeping the arrow on the elevated rest if that happens to be new for you.

I think in the long run I'll find that I may miss out on some quick shots that I could have "gotten off", but that when I get a "gimme" I will blow it less often.

For tuning, I tend to tune for the best vertical arrow flight at the shortest distance crawl where most of my kill shots will be (although they're still coming out a little stiff on my current setup), figuring that the broadhead will have more time to straighten out on the longer more out of tune shots (plus I won't be shooting at long ranges until I'm more confident).
bob