Three sight-free aiming methods compared: gap shooting, instinctive and string walking — and why most competitive barebow archers pick one.
„How do you even aim with no sight on the bow?" The honest answer: with one of three recognised methods — gap shooting, instinctive shooting and string walking — and most serious barebow archers end up combining two of them. All three are legal; none is „the one true way". But they differ fundamentally in how you hit your target.
A well-known community rule of thumb sums it up: instinctive shooting is like a shotgun at a flying dove — gap shooting is like a rifle at a standing deer. Instinctive is fast and reactive; gap shooting is slower but more precise at known distances and considerably easier to learn.
For starting out, that means: begin with gap shooting. It gives you a fixed system to work from, instead of aiming „into the blue" and hoping repetition sorts it out.
### 1. Gap shooting: your starting point In gap shooting you use the arrow tip as your aiming reference. Your point-on distance is the range at which the tip, at full draw, sits right on centre and the arrow lands there too. At shorter distances the tip sits below the target (the „gap"), at longer distances above it (called „stacking"). You build a personal distance table this way, step by step.
### 2. Instinctive shooting: pure gut feel In instinctive shooting there is no conscious aiming reference at all — you focus only on the spot you want to hit, draw and release. The community calls this the „mystical" method and describes it as taking years to become truly reliable. It comes from sheer repetition across every distance, not from a system.
### 3. String walking: the competition method Instead of changing your aim point, string walking changes the position of your draw finger on the string. The farther your finger moves down from nocking-point height, the flatter your trajectory becomes and the lower the arrow lands. World Archery explicitly permits string walking and face walking — in competitive target archery, many top archers combine a fixed anchor with different „crawls" (finger positions) per distance, because it delivers the highest repeatability.
### 4. Which method fits you? Start with gap shooting — it is demonstrably the easiest to learn. If you're aiming at competitive target archery with fixed 50-metre distances, string walking pays off medium-term for its better repeatability. For field and 3D with unknown distances, many archers blend gap references with a growing instinctive feel.
When your whole focus is on the arrow tip and the target, don't lose track of your surroundings — check the shooting line and the area ahead before drawing, just like in any other archery discipline. This matters especially with string walking, when you switch distances and are briefly distracted while correcting your finger position.
Build a simple gap table for your standard distances (say, 10, 15, 20 and 30 metres) in the very first weeks. Write down exactly where the arrow tip needs to sit for each distance. That table is your foundation — it gives you immediate, measurable progress long before you even think about string walking or instinct.
### What's the difference between gap shooting and string walking? In gap shooting your draw finger always stays at the same spot on the string, and you change where the arrow tip sits relative to the target. In string walking the arrow tip stays roughly on the target, and instead you change your finger position on the string.
### Is instinctive shooting really more accurate? Not inherently — it's mainly faster and more reactive, but harder to reproduce consistently because there's no fixed reference system. For fixed, known distances, gap shooting and string walking usually deliver more reliable results.
### Which method do most competitive barebow archers use? In target archery at fixed distances, most top archers rely on string walking with a fixed anchor, because it offers the highest repeatability. At unknown field and 3D distances, a mix of gap references and experience is common.
### How long does it take to master an aiming method? A workable gap system often comes together after just a few weeks of consistent practice. Real consistency — especially in instinctive shooting — takes considerably longer; the community often talks in terms of years.
String Walking in Depth: Building Your Own Crawl Chart