If the Custom V1 option is set for bow animation, then the player aims to the side when shooting the bow.

Just tried recreating it on 1.21.4, there it seems fixed (at least I cant reproduce the issue).

You are probably using some camera f5 mod? At least that caused this issue in the past.

Yes, I use Shoulder Surfing Reloaded. And yes, I checked, and without this mod, this issue is not present.

I checked version 1.9.1-1.20.1 - Forge. The issue is still here. It occurs randomly, maybe that's the reason why you haven't encountered it.

Ah, that gives me an idea to test, possible that Shoulder Surfing Reloaded doesnt normalize the head direction or something like that. Will give it a test.