It turns out.... that if you fully draw a bow and fire (and at least come NEAR) the target, the next bash you throw will do "hit" damage (within a set time. Roughly 5 seconds it seems).

By "hit" I mean as if you shot the target.

It does not need to be the same target you fired upon, and it's connected to archery and the archer perks. Meaning (I believe) it levels archery, and the critical shot perk can trigger, doing a "critical" bash.

I tested this with a mace and a shield also, and it seems to not work.

I'm tired, and need sleep, but I plan on seeing if any bash perks can be applied, on top of the bow perks. I doubt this, since I don't believe any of them work on normal hits with a bow bash.

I've tested this with "real" bows and Bound Bow, and it seems they both work.

Tested on PS3