Beginner - Train at the dolls at the companion, and step back everytime you hit it. that way you will know the reach of your arrow. try to hit the bullseye from a mile away! Really helps on hunting or mobs running away cause you can calculate where they stop. Want to make this harder? Try it from behind the wall!

Medium - Fish salmon with your bow! you can fish Salmon with your bow. Just look at any low waterfall, and you have a nice chance that they are there. They are steady but quick, so this really helps with your timing. Good luck!

expert - Hunt rabbits! Rabbits are quick, unpredictable, and out of sight easily. No better training then hunting rabbits for a day! Want to make this harder? Spook them first, wait till they are almost out of range, and then try to shoot it.


General tips:
1. - Arrows make a noise when they hit walls and items. You can use this to draw enemy attention away fom you, allowing for sneak shots at an enemy's exposed back

2. - If you have drawn an arrow, but do not wish to use it, there is a 'release' key (R default on PC). Use it to save arrows and to avoid making unneccessary noise.

3. - You can easily capture souls by enchanting a bow with the shortest duration soul capture spell (1 sec). Even with petty soul gems, you can get many uses from the enchantment.

BONUS TIP: Get the arrow craft mod! I am not a fan of too much mods in a game, but i thought it did not make sense at all that you cant craft arrows. You can get it here: http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=490


Thought this should help.

Ps: most awesome shot: shooting an air arrow after the bunny got away, and landed on top of him underwater. Came up floating a few seconds later. Yay <3.

Crap, not one time did I think to use the dolls for target practice!

Thanks, give these a try. Love using the bow.

Lol will never be as good as you at hunting
But i do take pride in the fact that i have killed several bunnies....
Mainly because of that "unpredictable behavior" such as....
Laying next to me while i aim straight at it....

just curius, those shooting the dolls actually increase the in game skill value? Or it′s just literal player skill?

Most welcome everyone

You do not gain archery skill for shooting the dummies. It is good practice however. If you want to make dummy shooting pro, try shooting them from behind the wall.

Note: if bunnies are too easy for you, spook them first and wait a little. see if you can hit it when it gets out of range ^_~

just player skill I think. the best way to learn the flight paths of arrows at long ranges is to do what the op suggested.

I think the poster meant player skill.

I am pretty sure archery experience is gained by damaging enemies with arrow, More dmg more experience.
In Oblivion its the number of shots taken on a live target though I vaguely remember dummies do give a little exp.

I shot dummies for several hours and did not notice any change in XP.

Nevertheless, it is still awesome for practice indeed.

Shooting the Lightning Bugs or what ever they are called at night is awesome too.

does stronger bows have More range than others ? atleast when i changed my Orchis bow to Deadric one it felt like the Deadric bow shot more upwards than the Orchis.

I think the range gets further when you get to a higher level, though i am not sure. Also the zooming in helps alot for with aiming.

You can zoom while aiming?

tip #4 - turn off the crosshair. Archery is much better with no crosshair.

Yes! Unfortunately when you are sneaking the stupid sneak icon turns into a crosshair!! blahhh

I stumbled across a nice Lady that trained me a bit for free in Archery.

I agree archery is handy without a crosshair. Also it gives you a more realistic feeling, looking over the arrow.

I never used trainers myself. I prefer leveling without trainers and spend the gold on houses.

And yes, there is a perk in the skill tree that allow you to zoom in while holding the right mouse button if your aiming. It is called Eagle eye.

Tsk, beginer.

I can shoot an arrow from High Hrothgar and stick the arrow in the thief guilds vault keyhole.

I did not realize i was holding a competition Jajusha. Luckily it was not a spelling bee.

Ontopic: I added some general tips about bow usage.

Why would anyone shoot dummies? You get no XP and there is no real life skill with the bow in this game, unlike Oblivion (not complaining, just saying).

You would get a similar level of practice by setting your desktop icons to small and clicking on those.

The only reason you would want to practice would be to A ) gain XP or B ) a moving target.

Actually, having said that, remind me - does the bow reticule move about at lower levels? I'm something like 85 with the bow now, with all perks apart from the final one and it's stationary when aiming. It's been so many (in game) weeks since I first picked one up I have forgotten the mechanics at the lower levels.


ALSO - JAJUSHA: Chuckle, impressive. I can fire a catheter into the Jarl of Markarth from the college of Winterhold. Beat that!

The bow gets more stationairy at a higher level, but the arrow is never in a complete line with the crosshair.

Dummies are actually very suitable for beginners to learn the path/flight of the arrow. Life is about more then Xp rage.

Of all the posts on this topic, yours is the least constructive. The point of practicing with the bow is to learn how to adjust to the new flight path of the arrows. They are automatically vaulted above the reticle and arc downward. Thus, practicing on dummies would help a person learn how far above or below the reticle the arrow will be at varying distances.

*dies laughing* that's the best thing i've read on here all day

Mankor, it not to level bow skill it to learn the in game arrow flight mechanics so you can land hits from any distance (this is because arrows don't fly flat), it more useful vs moving targets though read spooked dear elk etc).

As for training in game skill number .

Revenant, thank you for correcting me. I shall endeavour to more constructive in future.

I am fortunate to belong to a community with such a spirit of mutually progressive personal development.

Actually - you're clearly a person with a much lesser degree of perceptiveness and reasoning than most people. I questioned someone's post (Minamo99), with a caveat based upon my own faulty memory. My question was then satisfactorily answered, albeit with an unnecessary use of the word "rage" (unsure why referring to desire to level up in a game where one of the main aims is to level up is akin to "rage")

If you believe that challenge and question is unconstructive then you have no place in any give and take society. Nevertheless, thank you for your clarification on arrows. In my experience if you pull the bow back far enough the arrow hits whatever the reticule is over, every time, at any range.

I will tell you one thing about this forum though. If I had sent you my initial response I would possibly have received (another) official warning, so it's a good thing there are rules in place that protect the frailty of..... [self edit]

What's wrong with you? Always, no matter where I go, there is one person (just one) who insists on having beef with me. I reviewed the posts again, there was no fault with my comment. I did not personally attack you, yet you retaliated by accusing me of being essentially ["developmentally hindered in regards to mental faculties"].