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Weak side shooting from saddle

Mschmeiske

Mschmeiske

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SH Member
Joined
Sep 4, 2017
Messages
1,950
Location
New York
What tips do you have for shooting on your weak side? Does a longer bridge or by having the tether higher help?
 
Shorter bridge and lower tether make it easier. Mostly, just practice. It’s not hard to accomplish. If you stink at shooting and never practice, you’ll stink at shooting off side. If you practice and are good with your equipment, nothing to it. This is assuming you’re flexible and coordinated enough to perform the movement.
 
There's a couple of moves to make depending on what the deer is doing, ie which way he's moving and from which direction. If he's moving away from you, say from 6 to 1 or 2 let him pass and lift your bow over your tether( this is where the short bridge and low tether comes in handy) and get him quartering out. Most of your movement is behind the tree.You can go off the strong side of the platform and shoot him from the backside of the tree.if you see him coming from 6 and can turn to face him like on a treestand it's no problem tracking him the whole way around. That's the beauty of a platform that's big enough to move on like the Predator.Say he's coming in from 7 and passes behind you and your leaning on the tether so you could shoot him passing at 6 but you can't get one in him and now you have to track him to the weak side. With little movement you can dip down by bending your knees(this increases the angle of the tether downward and gets your ass over your legs,centering your balance)this is where a high tether helps, now hook your right elbow on the tether and press down. Then stand up and track him around to the weak side where you put a dynamite shot on the buck of a life time. Really what you need to do is get in your saddle at ground level and work some of this stuff out for your self. Just because I can do some of these things don't mean you can. Not because I think I'm some kind of saddle superstar but because we are all built different. we have different centers of gravity, and we have different comfort levels in the tree when we're leaning hard on our gear off the platform. Lot of videos on utube for shooting out of a saddle. Good luck out there and be safe.
 
Just practice. With my recurve I have found I can shoot my 11:00-3:00 easier from my weak side than I can 12-9:00 on my strong side.9:00 back to around 5:00 is easy enough. That 3-5 is a little tough without some footwork. Just practice
 
I just get comfortable with moving around (from hunting out of the saddle a bunch) and either bring the bow over the bridge or stand up and turn around depending on what works better. This doe was on my weak side but I just leaned over and slipped an arrow right through the backstrap (almost a straight down shot).

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The public hunting guys had Ernie demonstrate the mantis and predator platform in a recent video.

Ernie shows how to go under your bridge with your release arm, spin around and shoot weak side. This was on a platform. Your bridge and tether will hold and support you.

Pretty slick move...check it out.
 
I dont necessarily agree with the "shorter bridge and tether". You can pass your non-bow arm UNDER your tether and pivot on your platform 180 degrees (pivot TOWARDS your strong side). Your tether will run over your shoulder and become a support. Shot a doe at 18 yards on my weak side on Monday with this technique. Two things though, this is more for a platform, not a ROS, and I practiced this quite a bit off season.
 
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With my platform, the right diameter tree with good back cover, and my compound bow there is no weak side.... With little movement and quite i can swing from 3o'clock 360 back to the 3o'clock giving me 360 strong side shot. More trees you climb and set up the better you'll be at choosing them in the future.

Edit.....so far this first saddle season I've been able to find trees like mentioned above pretty consistently but not always
 
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huntin_addict said:
I dont necessarily agree with the "shorter bridge and tether". You can pass your non-bow arm UNDER your tether and pivot on your platform 180 degrees (pivot TOWARDS your strong side). Your tether will run over your shoulder and become a support. Shot a doe at 18 yards on my weak side on Monday with this technique. Two things though, this is more for a platform, not a ROS, and I practiced this quite a bit off season.
Click to expand...

That’s it, exactly what Ernie was showing. I’ve practiced it a few times.

It’s also a good way to take some pressure off for a few minutes if you get uncomfortable in your saddle.
 
Just get up and practice. You'll find a technique that will work for you and your setup. I wouldn't adjust my bridge tether for the potential of a weak side shot vs all day comfort. Set them where you want to and move around to see what works.

While I was practicing I had to get used to a full lean back and pivoting the hips (bridge sliding through tether biner), now im like circ de sol a up there. In 2 sits my weak side group went from probably 10-12" back to 1-2" range.

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