no idea what prompted this, but looking on google, i see a bunch of people who have had this problem - both on console and PC.

essentially, when i pull back on a bow to shoot, the arrow only shoots a few feet out in front of me. yes, the arrow is pulled back all the way.

ive tried everything at this point, dropping all bows and arrows, repicking them up, reequiping, etc, etc. nothing seems to work. i created some bows in console, tried equipping them, with created arrows, and nothing.

has anybody else had this problem? if so, how did you resolve it?

not sure what to do; the game is essentially unplayable..especially since im heavy into archery :{

This Has happened to me to. Is it enchanted? That was the reason was happening because my enchantment on the bow lost the effect so I had to put black soul gem and it was all ok. It's annoying how you stretch out but flies a meter

I've had this problem a couple times, the arrow would fly far, but not do any damage to the person I was trying to snipe. My bow has a low charge, so I probably had used them all up without realizing.

It happens to me sometimes, but not very often. Maybe once in 200 shots. It may have something to do with the collision boxes of the objects between you and your target.

In rare cases my arrows only fly as if the bow was only pulled half way back. This isn't very often though and don't really know why it happens

Just happened to me last night. The bow my character uses isn't enchanted. Dropped 4 arrows in a row right into the water I was shooting over. I unequipped and re-equipped the bow and it started working.

It happens to me too since last year, never figured out what was the cause. Happened to all sorts of bows, enchanted, not enchanted, depleted, full, so I guess the source is not the bow itself.

I figured it was a typical game glitch. Some lost 0 floating around your cpu somewhere.

I have that problem with my old character. Any bow, any arrow I equip isn't helping persistently the arrows fall a few meters away.

I have a second character, that is an archery master, have no problems there. So it isn't the point and shoot technique, or any issues with the PC.
What can I do to solve this problem?

This is probably a longshot (pun intended ) but double check under active effects and make sure you don't have some disease...

On release day, I installed the game and started an archery character.

I picked up a bow soon after leaving Helgen, but my arrows only flew a few feet before falling on the ground.

Four days later, another player told me the solution.

What happened is that when the game installed itself (from disc), it assigned letters randomly to different actions, and the wrong letter was used for pulling the bowstring back to it's maximum.

Once I went to the page where you can find game details, etc., there's was a button on the bottom that reset the letters to default. When that happen, everything worked as it should.

The strange thing was, when I went to in-game help, it told me to use what was the wrong letter. After resetting the letters to default, the help section changed to the correct letter.

I don't know if you just installed the game, whether you're on the PC or another platform - but I figured I tell you what happened to me and what the solution was, in case it might help you. BTW, I'm on the PC.

Good luck.

Yeah I've had this as well. Very frustrating if you're playing a pure archer. Feels like the Skyrim version of the paralympics.

I had this problem aswell and came to conclusion that it was because of the quick shot perk. With the perk your bow draw animation is 30% faster, but you still need to hold the attack button for as long as you need without the perk for the arrow to fire at full power.

Is that a confirmed bug? I am planning to get quick draw as soon as my archer character reach 70 archery.... So the actual drawing time remain the same and the animation run faster? Sounds like a big big problem...

No. I have had the quick shot perk for a long time, and yes it does speed up your drawback and release time, and no, I have never had this premature limp-arrow problem with it, ever. Not sure what's going on with them, but the perk works just fine.

Your bow's cracked. Get a new one. Either that, or it needs to be restrung.

I haven't had this problem, but I've had issues with the bow not resetting, that is, ready for the next shot despite squeezing the trigger button. I've also had arrow after arrow pass right through targets without them being damaged. The arrows disappear altogether, too. I know some of it is a timing issue, as this game is getting laggier for me. Otherwise...

That's nice to hear that, my archer is quite looking forward to quick draw perk. Is critical shot also worth taking? Is the damage increase is noticeable? thanks!

10 feet?... well if they are very big feet it shouldnt be a problem. But if they are like baby feet than it is a problem.

Well, with three points in critical shot, you get a crit every fifth arrow- which is pretty nice, statistically. Sometimes you notice when you get a crit, but most of the time I don't, because I'm focusing on aiming and laying out the arrows until a target's dead, more than watching what their individual effects are. If you are making archery your main skill, then it would be stupid not to take it, frankly.

i've had it happen a few too many times, as well. it's as if all of a sudden the arrow runs out of gas and just nosedives into the ground.

as well, like many others i've hit a target dead-on and it goes right through them with no damage.

bugs. i reload.

Actually, this may be a good one. I had a disease of reduced stamina.... Prior to finding out, I had arrow plopping way short.... So yeah, maybe a disease....

I have a similar issue. 2 arrows are shot. One flies the correct distance and one arrow goes about 5 feet.

I almost always experience a miss fire when I run out of one arrow type and the game automatically switches to the next. The arrow just drops out of my bow even though I pulled the string all the way back. Sometimes twice in a row.