The Think Tank

The weather cooperated nicely today by being overcast but dry, so I took my bow out to Sylvan this afternoon to start getting it setup for the outdoor season.

I forgot to transfer my T-square to my new quiver (which I got as a birthday present from Mom and Mo), so I wasn’t able to really measure anything before I started messing around.  Still, for the 2613’s I had the nock point at zero when I had the T-square in the center of the launcher fork, so I should be able to get it back there again easily enough.

Since I didn’t have the square I just had to use the level to find the right spot for the rest.  I also had to level out he rest, because I had it tipped a little bit toward the strings (not on purpose, that is just how it wound up when I set it up the first time).  I leveled that to the cable guard – since there isnt’ really a good, level spot to measure on any where else – then I brought the rest up until the shaft was more or less level as well.  It was a little hard to know if it was dead level, since I had to jury-rig a system with my limb-pod and stabilizer to find “level”, so the setup was basically a rough starting point.

I started out shooting at 20 yards and it grouped pretty well, all X’s so I figured that was good and moved to 40.  I was a little bit wiggly, but more or less things seemed pretty good.  Good shots were mostly X’s or just out.  I wrote down my sight mark and moved on.  (I wasn’t using my new Archer’s Mark app because I didn’t have anything to get the measurements/weights that I need for the initial calibration).

When I moved out to 60 I noticed some left and right variation in the groups, and I also noticed that I was having a great deal of difficulty holding well.  I’d been planning on putting the Kudlacek stabilizer, so I went out to the car and grabbed the old 4 shaft stabilizer with the black weights.  I think these weights are heavier than the silver weights on the other bow.

It felt quite a bit heavier, but man what a difference the extra weight made in the aim.  At 60 yards I was holding pretty much inside-out spot, and the groups closed in to just a little bigger than the X ring, unless I did something that I knew as going to put it out.

I took a guess at the 80 yard mark, and my first shot hit 3 O’clock X line.  My next arrow was a little low left in the 4 (where I aimed it), and my next 3 were all spots: 1 X, one low five, and and one at 12 O’clock on the line.  My next end was about same.

I moved back to 40 for a few minutes, and I was holding inside-out X ring and slapping arrows together.  I doubled checked my 20 yard mark, and again I was holding very well and slapping arrows.

All in all I felt pretty good about how things went today.  I like the added weight and general feel of the Kudlacek stab, so I’ll probably stick with that in the future.  I want to shoot at distance a lot more, but I was pretty confident after shooting this afternoon.