Our Tidbits... Magic in the Real World!

TIDBIT NUMBER ONE

Remember when we announced that we had found a bow that had near perfect nock travel. That is, that the nock had almost no perceptible up & down or left & right movement as the bow delivered the arrow. We have been modifying bows for years trying to get this kind of truly straight nock travel. (We call it fixing them).

The shooter of the above-mentioned bow is shooting better than ever. Of course, he has been working very hard to improve his shooting…maybe the bow really didn’t help that much. Still, he doesn’t want to shoot any other bow, he thinks the bow has magic.

In an effort to find out how much difference the bow made, we took a real serious look at another bow that was the same make and model as the “magic bow”. It was setup with about an 1 ½ “ longer draw length. But, this one did not have perfect nock travel. The up and down nock travel was straight, but the left and right nock travel was not so good. It was better than some of the bows we’d looked at, but it still wasn’t very straight.

So, we fixed it. The major fix we believe is that we shimmed the limb pockets, this eliminated all the play in the limb pockets. This caused the limbs to be more inline with the riser and resulted in less limb deflection by the cable guard. We also fixed the crooked axle holes by filling the axle holes with JB WELD and re-drilling them. (Unfortunately, we did not get them perfect, but they were a lot better.)

Bottom line, we got another bow with near perfect nock travel. This is only the second time we’ve got this close to so-called “perfect”. The second bow has just a smidgen more left and right nock movement when the arrow is delivered.

The second bottom line is the shooter of the second bow says it is awesome. He is grouping better and scoring better than he has in a long time.

Whether the bow is actually more forgiving and therefore more accurate, or the shooters just have more confidence in their equipment (which they both do), they are both shooting better. Then again, maybe they are just naturally getting better and it has nothing to do with the equipment.

TIDBIT NUMBER TWO

Many of us know that straight arrow flight is a good thing to have. But, with today’s fast bows, it is sometimes difficult to know just how straight the arrow is flying. We have found that when we are able to see the arrow in flight and it is pretty much just a dot going away from us, that no shooting machine or slow-motion camera can make the arrow flight any better.

However, if we can see the arrow kicking when it comes out of the bow, we can make arrowrest adjustments until we get the straightest flying arrow possible. This is why we are such fans of the micro-adjustable arrowrests. With a fully adjustable arrowrest, (that is, micro-adjustable horizontal & vertical) it is much easier to find optimum arrow flight. Being micro-adjustable, the arrowrest is moved to different locations while monitoring the effect on arrow flight and then returned to the location that gives the best arrow flight. We have never had a bow that the center shot turned out to be the best location for the arrowrest.

Many bow manufacturers will give you the distance to center shot of the bow. Some will even tell you that it is a good place to start, and that is exactly what they mean “A START”. Most of our bows are set up with the height of the launcher located even with the arrowrest mounting holes. However, the arrowrests are set 1/16” inside the manufacturers suggested center shot distance. We know that as bows are drawn they torque, so you can imagine that with an overdraw on your arrowrest, you will have to be in even further than manufacturers center shot. The shooters adjusted these bows, by personally shooting them, and with the aid of the slow-motion camera. All of our bows are setup to have the best arrow flight that they are capable of shooting.

We have found that the arrowrest is actually closer to its final resting-place if we ignore the center shot idea. We visually line up the string with the center of grip (not the riser) and then adjust the center of the arrowrest launcher to align. Sometimes putting on an arrow will help you align the string, grip, and arrowrest. If an overdraw setup is used, we find the launcher has to be a little to the inside of our alignment to get the best arrow flight.

Again, this is only a “STARTING PLACE”. Then, at the first opportunity (and no wind), we shoot 40 yards and farther. We adjust the arrowrest until the arrow flight is as straight as the bow and our shooting form will allow. Sometimes we will get someone to stand behind us as we shoot and watch the arrow flight.

TIDBIT NUMBER THREE

A while back, we were spending most of our time trying to be consistent in how we shot. We would try to do everything the same, over and over.

Part of this process was to let the pin float around on the target and then to just let the shot happen. It seemed like we were trying to catch the target as it flew by the sight pin. It was kind of like what a drive-by-shooting must be like.

Then one day while messing around with some experimental gizmo, somebody noticed that they were holding steady on the target for at least 1 to 2 seconds.

NOW WAIT A MINUTE!

“You are not suppose to be able to hold steady on the target. You are suppose to let the sight pin float.”

Amazingly, none of us had ever really been able to hold steady on the target. Occasionally, we would lock into that rock steady holding, but could never do it consistently. We could never do it when we tried. So we figured we couldn’t do it.

But once we saw that it could be done, we decided to check it out. We found that we needed just the right draw length and some experimentation with how the shoulders and arms are lined up with each other. It wasn’t really all that hard to hold steady.

Mostly it is just waiting for the sight movement to die down and not be tempted to take a drive by shot at the spot because its coming back your way and you are getting tired.

Being able to hold steady has opened up a lot more possibilities for us. We have learned that just because somebody else can’t do something doesn’t mean we can’t do it. We never know if we don’t check it out for ourselves.

As a result, we are always looking for a way to improve what we are doing.

Good Hunting!