This can happen even to the best shot. You draw your bow, perfectly aim and release your arrow, only to find it off to the side. While a one-off shot to the side just might be caused by some human error, a consistent drift should be looked into. In this post, we’re going to explore the main reasons why your shot might go left or right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The main causes your shot might go left or right:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n While these causes might sound simple, identifying the actual cause of your arrows drifting to the side can be tricky, and solving the root cause can be quite difficult. Here, we’ll consider everything you need to know to solve the problem. Let’s go!<\/p>\n\n\n\n While fixing your bow shooting off to the side can be quite simple, attending to the root cause is way more important. You may change your bow to account for that, but without knowing what the root cause of the problem is, it’ll always return, and you’ll always have a hard time being consistent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bow torque, introduced by your bow hand, can cause your arrows to drift off to the side. This happens when your bow hand is improperly placed on the grip, applying a twisting force. This can cause your bow to rotate, moving your arrows off to the side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If your bow or sight goes out of tune, it can easily cause your arrows to fly off to the side. For example, if your sight moves even a little left, it’ll cause you to move your bow to the right, causing your arrows to always land right. Some tuning issues in the bow can cause a similar effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While improper shooting form typically causes inconsistent shooting, it can cause your arrows to drift off to the side, well grouped or not. The main issue that might result in this is improper anchoring, which might add some side motion to the arrows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Having bad grouping will make it harder to identify the issues you’re having. You can work to improve your grouping by working on your bow stability, and I’d suggest going about it by first reading my post about bow stability<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The last thing that should also be considered is environmental causes. Is the area you’re shooting in tilted or has hard winds? The terrain can have a direct effect on your performance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Some of the reasons your arrows are landing on the side might also cause your arrows to go high or low. In a recent article about why your bow is shooting low<\/a>, I also mentioned some of them, but with specific instructions to prevent your bow from shooting low. If you also have that problem, I suggest reading that post, after you read this one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now that we understand, in a general manner, the main issues that might cause your arrows to fly off left or right, we’re ready to dive deeper into every issue, considering the causes and how to solve them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Torque is a rotational force, that causes objects to rotate along their axes. Bows naturally create torque, and great archers know how to combat it using proper technique. If you fail to handle it, it can easily move your arrows to the side, causing your shots to constantly be off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The most common causes of bow torque are improper bow grip and out-of-tune equipment. It’s quite easy to recognize: if you’re holding the bow and feeling that it wants to turn, this is probably your problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you’re shooting a compound bow, I would suggest you get your bow check first, because working with equipment that might be out of tune is just ineffective. Recurve bows are less likely to have torque caused by going out of tune.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eliminating torque is quite simple, and involves checking and improving your grip. I actually wrote an entire post on how to fix your shooting posture<\/a>, which I’ll definitely recommend, but I’ll shortly detail how proper bow grip should be done:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Following these steps, you’ll be able to completely eliminate bow torque and fix your bow shooting to the side. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Out-of-tune equipment is a common cause of your shots being constantly off. I can almost be any part of the bow or sight, so you can’t really overlook anything. I would actually suggest taking your bow to get tuned in any case if you feel it might be out of tune or tune it yourself if you know how to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you’re confident that the issue is with your sight, it might actually be useful to follow my step-by-step bow sight tuning guide<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you feel like your bow or sight might be out of tune, you might want to paper tune your bow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A great way to test whether your bow is out of tune, and actually tune it, is by paper tuning<\/strong> your bow. This is a process where you shoot through a piece of paper and see how to arrow tore through it. If your shooting form is good, this will be the way to check your bow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To paper tune your bow, all you need are a few pieces of paper, a frame (or something else to hold the paper), your bow and arrows, and a target or a backdrop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The process of paper tuning is quite simple:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Note that paper tuning will not provide helpful information if your shooting posture isn’t good. If you’re a beginner and you feel your bow might be out of tune, take it to a pro shop and save yourself some time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Compound bows are actually way more likely to go out of tune than recurve bows. That’s actually one of the major drawbacks of shooting a compound bow, as I’ve covered in my post about compound vs recurve bows<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\nReasons why your shot might go off to the side<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bow torque<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Sight and bow out of tune<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
How to paper tune your bow<\/h3>\n\n\n\n