In the first video your aim is off vertically..
In the second video your aim is too far to the left..
Simply put, you svck at aiming man.. What is your archery skill.. The higher it is, the more accurate your aim is at long distances.. considering that looks to me like a [censored] Imperial bow, I have a feeling your skill isn't that high, though i could be wrong..
The answer? The combination of your skill not matching up with the distance you are trying to fire at, and your poor aim, is causing you to miss. This is no glitch.. Simple.

Please make a video of this. I've not encountered this, an would like to see what you are talking about.. OP's issue is obvious, whereas yours sounds more like a clipping glitch of sorts associated with the Mammoth..

I did not see any point in the first video where you aimed directly at the target. Test again - aim directly at the body, not above - and share the results. Also, use the zoom perk if you have it.

LOL this made my day. I agree, I was always aiming above like I would in Oblivion, but it's just not necessary in Skyrim. The arrows seem pretty straight and true.

It's not that hard to believe, but so far there's nothing but anecdotal evidence to actually substantiate it.

Exactly.. and It is hard to believe when the videos showing "the glitch" shows someone who doesn't know how to fire a bow just wasting arrows.. Someone who knows what they are doing, please make a video (with zoom) and lets see this glitch once and for all.. While this glitch MAY exist.. OP just blows at aiming..

Ok, I have now made one with mammoth and it is NOT good. I stand maybe 75m away and pounding arrows through them also fireballs go straight through and burns the ground behind them. It'll be up in two hours, since it's a bit large.

What worries me is that these mammoths and giants were walking around and pretty close to me, but I was still not able to hit them.

How do you know how far a meter is in-game?

What you guys don't see in this video, is the deer standing with it's back to me, I'm not aiming at the one on the right side which has it's side to me.
http://www.youtube.c...h?v=IPRsn1J7NQ0

You need "to lead" targets and calculate for arrow arching. I primarily use the bow and I have no problem with it.

Two hours? I smell [censored]. sounds like someone needs a few hours to recreate his claim and make sure it actually glitches instead of just showing a terrible archer.. Hilde, i'd believe you about this if everything you said wasn't bull. I'll be patiently awaiting for a video from LastCrown, whom I assume actually knows how to use a bow in Skyrim.. Also, no one sees a deer to the left because I really think that THERE ISNT ONE..

Ha, now I did this thing another guy was talking about. I hit an ice thingy through a giant and hit a mammoth behind him. It went straight through his stomach.

Post it please.

Sorry, I do not have the means to provide evidence on this. All I can do is give my honest opinion/findings on the subject. You can take them with a grain of salt if you wish, but I assure you, I am not a conjurer of lies. I would not be in this thread, sharing my findings with all of you if I did not honestly believe that there was some sort of glitch/bug present.

Now, hear me out, as this is my theory on this matter. Note, I am not a computer programmer, nor do I know a lot about game mechanics in general, but after pondering this issue for a couple days, this is what I've come up with:

As both archers and mages alike have been reporting this problem, it leads me to believe that this issue has to do with the fact that since the targets we're aiming at are at extreme distances, that they're not "fully" rendered into the game yet. The world of Skyrim cannot be all rendered at once, at it's extremely massive and complex. As such, only what you seen in front of you is rendered. That being said, these distant targets that are barely visible on our screens may not have their damage model rendered, only their actual physical model (if that makes any sense). This could be an area where Bethesda had to make "shortcomings" or adjustements to make such a highly detailed and complex game playable on the older technology that is consoles.

As I said, this is merely a theory.

There is something odd about archery... compared to OB.

I've not been making vids but here is a http://img810.imageshack.us/img810/8909/screenshot2da.jpg that I took about 100 shots at from this location.

I was playing around and testing this out and had already aggro'd him a couple of times, then retreated. I had already killed his buddy. In this shot he has lost interest in chasing me because of the distance (i suppose) and because I was in a rock crevice he had trouble reaching.

At this range, not one arrow hit. If I moved onto the rocks directly in front of me I had no problem hitting him... My archery skill is only ~40 with no perks.

I use FRAPS to record vids. It is 1.01gb and takes 2 hours to upload on YT. There is now precise 107min till it's done. Guess, I should have used the tfc command so you all could have seen the deer with it's back to me. I chose that one, cuz it would be easier to hit cuz I would have a bigger vertical margin of error.

I suspect then that they're disabling damage at a certain range when it should really allow damage if you can see a target at all. That's what I originally thought was happening, too, and that supports it. Maybe someone with a nice enough rig can get video evidence.

I too have experienced the can't hit a mammoth or giant problem. The only reason I use archery as a main weapon in a fight anymore is if can get a position that is hard for the enemy to get too, otherwise it is just to get a couple shots in before they close.

I really want to jump into this thread, but don't know where because there every other post says what I want to post. But here I am jumping into the pond hoping I don't land in a shallow:

considering long distance archery: why would you think that an arrow traveling long distance would hit a moving target? let's not consider wind conditions (which i doubt Skyrim does), if a target moves one step to the left or right, front or back, from the time you let go of the arrow, you miss. big deal. response? move closer...

considering archery skill level: if you are anything less then maxed, it will be harder to hit the farther you are from the target. that is just logical. if you are at a lower skill level and actually hit anything, that means you were lucky. higher the skill = the easier and farther you can hit your target. i haven't seen the video nor saw if you responded to the post questioning your skill level, but either way i don't think you can fully defend missing a target. you missed a target. raise your skill level and try again. move on...

and final point. this is a video game. physics in the real world don't always apply to the physics of the game world. if you "visually" saw it stick into someone's chest, then there is a possibility that the character you thought you hit had a missing pixel that the arrow passed through which caused you to miss. you were far away. it can happen...

I too have noticed this. At first I thought it was my aiming that was screwing me over, but after a while with the bow (One of two main skills, sneak being the other) I feel it is not a problem with my aim. At a long distance you can zoom in, and literally watch the arrow go through the chest of some monsters/people at times. I even had one freak instance where it happened to someone that was at my feet begging for his life. I play on the XBOX.

This has always been in the back of my mind. It is good to hear that I am not the only one experiencing this problem.

Honestly, I've no doubt that the glitch is plausible, but Hilde's videos obviously show him missing constantly.. He maintains that this is a "glitch" even though it obviously isn't.. This is what makes me doubt the claims.. In reality, I just want to see this firsthand.. Like I said, if there is a glitch, I wish you all the best.. But at this moment, it seems unlikely.. It's just very strange how before, it was that the aiming was glitched, then the accuracy was glitched, and now the clipping is glitched.. It's kind of like each time a glitch is proven non-existent (either by proof of bad aiming, proof of more accurate longer-ranged aim at higher skill levels, etc) a new complaint arises.. Seems to me some are actually encountering a glitch, others are protecting their egos, and others just like to bandwagon complain.. I just don't understand why all these "glitches" weren't brought up at once, instead of after the prior being proved incorrect.. See my point?

SO many people who doesn't really understand the problem.

I wouldn't break your backs (or internet connections in the case of a 1g vid) to try to 'prove' the bug to a bunch of e-disbelievers, it's not worth it.

The thread alone should be enough to get Bethesda to look into the issue and figure out the problem. There definitely is one, even if a few people think the game is flawless (and generally it is).

I've had the same problems with ranged bolt style magics. Just today while playing I saw a firebolt go right through the neck of a cave bear and hit the rock directly behind him. Personally i think at certain distances the actual location of meshes are not being rendered correctly to the players screen.

Edit: I guess i should have read the whole thread since someone already said exactly the same thing.

Yeah I just tried it my my PC. I need to get a video recording program to provide the evidence.

Anyway I just shot about 100 shots at a mammoth, both directly at it, and at various heights above it to correct for elevation.

Why correct for elevation at all is arrows shoot straight? Because I play with my resolution at 1920x1080 and all max draw distances. I can see the arrow fall in front of the mammoth when I aim directly at it.