Survival UK Forums

For many people new to traditional archery the relationship between range and appearance of the arrow during aiming is confusing. Many archers, just through the amount they shoot will realise that certain aim points equals specific ranges. And from there they can adjust for different yardages. But there is a quicker and more efficient way that will give you a solid benchmark aim point for your bow. What you need to find is your "point blank" range. This is the range at which, when aiming, your arrow is directly aimed at the point you wish to hit. This range will vary with different bows, and anchor points.
Start at ten yards, ten paces, or five it's up to you as this is personal. Have a good sized target with a well defined Bullseye.

Aim at the centre of the bullseye, your arrow pointing in your vision right on the target, shoot. Your arrow/s at this range will be hitting high.
(do not focus on the arrow Grasshopper, only see target)
Now move back another five to ten yards/paces and repeat the process (without correcting your aim). As you move back keeping the same aim point your arrows will start to drop on the target, eventually you will find the range at which your arrows are hitting the centre of the target, whilst aiming at the same point. This is your point blank range. Once you get familiar with this range you will be able to judge the holdover etc for different distances more easily with a point of reference.

ta muchly pal will try that had a look for some flint for you mate

Excellent Barneyboy! I'm looking forward to using some good material. The flint in my area is in very bad condition as the underlying Geology is post Glacial "Boulder Clay". Any flint I find has been churned up and so is very fractured. When you do find a good large piece it tends to shatter like a Chocolate Orange into lots of bits when you try to prepare a platform on it. I exclusively use Bone points on my arrows for the above reason, but having some decent flint would be a bonus.

TH its a pity your so far away, I can get flint-not locally its a special trip about 100 miles round trip down towards the south coast so I only go about once a year but I got a couple of decent lumps last trip and also a few ready made scrapers.