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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Greenfield" data-source="post: 7435838" data-attributes="member: 6669384">There's a technique for shooting called "Sting Walking" that gives many of the benefits of sights, without actually having sights.Consider normal "Gap Shooting" style:  Gap shooting attempts to compensate for the "gap" between where the arrow is when drawn, and where the eye is.The nock of the arrow (the point where it grips the string) when drawn is typically about three inches down and to the right of a right handed shooter's eye.  You typically anchor to the ear, chin or cheekbone.  That means that if you're trying to sight along the arrow it's actually aiming up and to the left of where it appears to be pointing.At close range, using string walking, you grip the bowstring several inches lower than the nock-point.  This puts a slightly unbalanced strain on the limbs, but it puts the arrow right at the shooter's eye.  You can actually look down the full length of the shaft and see exactly where it's pointed.As range increases you move your grip up, which effectively tilts the bow upward at point of release.  Normally you would lower your sights (presuming you have them) to get the same result.  String walking uses the arrow/shelf intersection as the sight, or perhaps the arrowhead.I have a small wrap of red thread on my bowstring, and use it as my guide:  Which finger is on the thread determines the range I'm accurate for.Now, onto the original topic:  Compound bows.Modern archery technique resembles ancient technique the way a bowling ball resembles a pogo stick.  Which is to say, not at all.The compound bow's advantage is that you can get the flat trajectory and power of the heavy bow, coupled with the low strain and steady aim of a much lighter draw.  You can have, as noted previously,  bow with 80 pounds of pull at take off point, yet only have to hold 14 pounds of strain at full draw.  Your hand doesn't shake from strain, and you can hold the draw for an extended period while you bring everything into line to shoot.Ancient hunters and warriors often relied on a snap-shot.  With a heavy bow (up to 200 lbs of pull on an early Renaissance war bow) you would often start with the draw-hand already back at "anchor", and the bow aimed straight up.  Instead of drawing the string, you would simply hold it in place while the other arm brings the bow down, essentially pushing it away from body by about the width of the archer's shoulders.As the arrow came to bear, it was released immediately.  No draw-and-hold at all.In battle you could seldom pick out individual targets.  Instead archers fired as a group, simply pouring out arrows into the mass of enemy forces.  Speed and power counted.Consider that they were firing at a group, which in D&D terms had a serious size penalty to AC, rather than trying to target an individual.  In real world, arrows don't magically vanish once they miss and pass the individual target.  They keep going until they hit *something*.The point of all of this is that the main advantage of the compound bow is rendered meaningless when the archer isn't trying to hold the shot until they line up with the target.  The target is always moving, so you shoot quickly.Medieval war tended to operate much like modern war when it came to missile weapons:  Over 90% of bullets fired in modern battles aren't aimed at anyone.  They're used to force the enemy to stay down, denying them the opportunity to get a clean shot at you.In both settings, you shoot a lot and count on the odds to say that something will hit someone.  The only real difference is that in the ancient setting ammo got reused: You had scavengers out retrieving spent arrows so you could shoot them back.</blockquote>

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