I shoot my bow in my driveway. It is the most convenient place I can shoot. In fact, I imagine passersby see the numbers painted in silver on my gray concrete driveway and wonder what the heck they are for.
When I measured out the ranges on my driveway, I used a yardstick till I reached the street, then I paced off the street.
This year, I set my top pin on 20-yards, second pin on 25 yards, and third pin on 30-yards.
Or so I thought!
I found out something was wrong when I qualified for a special archery hunt. This required my going out to the designated archery range and hitting a paper plate two out of three times at 20 yards, then again at 30 yards.
For some reason I was shooting high, but managed to qualify. I watched as another hunter, who had also by then qualified, shoot at 40 and 50 yard targets.
"Funny," I said, "My 30-yard target seems more like that distance."
"How did you measure off the yards?" he asked.
"Paced," I said. He was shaking his head.
"Try using your rangefinder."
I went home, used my rangefinder, and my supposed 30 yard range turns out to be 38 yards.
No wonder I was shooting high!
