Plinking and Yardage Estimation

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“Plinking” with the bow can help your shot execution and range estimation skills.

Dad was sitting on the back steps plinking at cans near our burn barrel with a .22 rifle. I remember picking up a spent casing and burning the heck out of my fingers. I was just a little, little, boy with hot fingers but that ever pervasive wonderful aroma of burnt cordite lingers in my mind when thinking of that event and I still feel the life-long love of plinking. Even though my primary focus has shifted from firearms to bows it doesn’t mean I can’t or don’t plink any more.

A judo-pointed arrow sailed through this can from 20 yards.

For the majority of us when we shoot at a paper target on a back stop we will be successful. By that I mean regardless of where the arrow strikes we’ll likely hit the back stop. When was the last time you totally missed a 3D target? It has only been once for me in a long, long time, but that doesn’t mean my hits were “successful”. I think our brains consider these events “successful” even if the result wasn’t a 12 or an X. However, if we stick an old aluminum arrow in the ground a 20 yards, shoot at and miss it, we have clearly failed. A miss is a failure. We have to concentrate extra hard not to fail. We have to want to not fail.

Good targets for the bowhunting plinker; a large tennis ball, a green bean can and a filled water bottle.

The same goes for shooting at a bean can, beer can, soda bottle, tennis ball or what-have-you. Whatever you like to shoot at with your rifle or handgun makes the same excellent target for your bow. You can even go advanced and make it more fun by implementing some things you may have seen at novelty shoots; playing cards or balloons on sticks, charcoal briquettes hanging from strings, spent shotgun shells, etc. If you can hit an empty shotgun shell or charcoal briquette at 20 yards you’re likely ready for whitetails. If you can hit a bean can at 50-60 yards you’re likely ready for mule deer. Including a friend while wagering ten cents a shot makes it even more interesting.

The same targets shown above are now 30 yards away. It is hard to even focus on the bean can.

Even from 40 yards this bean can didn’t stand a chance against the judo points.

Want to work on yardage estimation on a deer-vital sized target? Grab an old Nerf or soccer ball, screw on the judo points and head afield. If practicing for eastern game head to the woods, if practicing for western game head to open meadows. Kick the ball as hard as you can. Guess-estimate the range and take the shot. Then range the ball with your rangefinder. Were you short, long, right on? Go advanced and write your guess-estimate down on a small piece of paper and compare that to the actual range. If the difference is consistent then you can adjust your estimates in the future.

Shooting a water-filled bottle with the bow is just as fun as with a firearm. This 30-yard direct hit went through the bottle like it was hot butter.

Note: Whole articles are written on yardage estimation techniques. I’ll just throw two out here. The first method involves 10-yard increments. Simply estimate 10 yards plus 10 yards plus 10 yards plus the remainder, say 3 yards, and you shoot for 33 yards. Or, alternatively, use 20 yard increments. Another method involves simply guess-estimating the entire distance. My friend, Super Slam bowhunter Gary Martin, uses this method with scarily accurate results typically within 1 and ½ yards out to 50 or 60 yards, but he verifies with a rangefinder.

Judo-pointed arrows won’t snake under the grass like field-point tipped arrows. These two arrows won’t spin true and aren’t what I normally use, but they were good enough for hits out to 40 yards and if they are damaged I won’t care.

So work some plinking into your practice routine for concentration, confidence building and range estimation. You’ll have some fun and improve your shooting at the same time.

happy hunting, dv

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