The Think Tank

I picked up Shannon and we went out to Sylvan today around noon.

I shot for about 45 minutes or so on the practice range to get new sight marks (I had made some adjustments to my rest the last time I shot), with marginal success.  I started out shooting at 80 and thought I had a pretty good mark, although it was hard to tell for sure because I seldom got two arrows to land next to each other.

I started out shooting the Doinker stabilizer, but it just feels too light, so I switched it out for the 4-rod Kudlacek with the silver weights.  I had tried the other 4-rod with the heavier weights before, and it felt good, but it really hurt my shoulder after a day of shooting so I went with the lighter weight one to see if would be a little better, since it was heavier than the Doinker by lighter than the black 4-rod.

I also was using the knurled knob on my release today, which I just purchased from Lancaster.  For the first part of the day I had it in the inside hole on the release trigger, but eventually I moved it to the outer hole on the trigger.  I liked it better on the outer part.

After I got what I thought were pretty decent marks, I decided to walk the the A1 course.  I hadn’t shot a field course is probably 10 years, and I really felt it on a few targets.  The uneven footing and side-slanting hills were unfamiliar to me and translated into some missed shot, especially left and right with the side slopes.  I rarely ever look at my level, but I was trying to keep an eye on it today because I would level to the terrain which often times led to my bubble being buried in one side of the other, and naturally that meant arrows out the right or left, accordingly.

I also had some issues with my sight marks.  For the first 7-8 targets, my first arrow was low every time.  I eventually started adding a yard or so to everything over about 40 yards, and 2-3 clicks for everything between 25-40.  That helped a lot, but that is also when I started missing more from side to side thanks to the leveling situation mentioned earlier.

All-in-all I felt pretty good about the field course.  I only shot a 262, which is not really very good, but several of those points that I dropped were good shots that hit low because of poor sight marks.  262 puts me on pace for a 524, which is about where I expected to be based on the practice range shooting, and I actually think that without the sight marks problem I would have been in the 530’s somewhere, which isn’t really all that bad.  As I recall, low 540’s is about the best I ever did before, so this wasn’t a bad starting off point, all things considered.

After the field course, I went back up to the practice range and tried to get better marks.  I’m not sure what accounted for the change, but 80 yards was off by almost 2 full lines, and 20 was off a little bit too.  Both low.  Since 20 and 80 are the fixed distances that all the other calculations are based on (using Archer’s Mark for iPhone), it makes sense that everything would be off if those two were wrong.  And, since 80 was significantly off, it makes sense the longer distances were off more than the shorter ones.  After I got those marks shot in and re-entered them into Archer’s Mark, my calculated marks were much better.  I tested them by shooting 40 and 60, and both seemed pretty much spot on, although maybe just a click or two high.  Still top of the X ring at worst, though.

Since my shoulder was a little sore,  I decided to remove one of the silver weights on my stabilizer.  I chose one of the silver ones because they are lighter, and I only wanted to remove a little weight.  I’m hoping for a nice balance between being heavy enough to help me aim well, while being light enough so it doesn’t hurt my shoulder too much.

I also monkied with the knurled knob on my release at this point, moving it further out and rotating it up, so that it really got into the fleshing part of my thumb.  I really, really liked this.  Its a little twitchy, so I have to keep my thumb off of it the whole time I am drawing and settling in, but being able to get a good amount of my thumb on the release makes me get through the shot fast and easy.  It is really great.  My shoulder actually felt less tired and sore after 30 minutes of shooting this way than it did when I started that segment, which is fantastic.

Plus, it just makes my form feel natural.  I pull up, settle in, let the dot get into the spot, then I put that knob into the webbing on my thumb and about 1-2 seconds later bam! The shot goes.  Everything feels controlled, I’m not struggling or fighting my way through.  My form felt all around better too, more controlled, bigger explosion on the release side.  No fighting to keep my dot on the spot while I’m pulling through.  No craziness in the bowarm, where it explodes wierd, or collapses, or just feels crappy as soon I release.

This way it just feels smooth and simple.

I’ve had flashes of that feeling here and there since I started again, but this was the longest period I have gone feeling like it was pretty easy to hit spots.  And I was slapping arrows all the way out to 80 yards, on good shots.  I shot one 25 at 80 yards, and a couple 25’s and 24’s at 60 yards, with the misses coming off of shots that I knew were going to miss when I shot them because of aiming problems.

I feel very encouraged tonight.  I didn’t break any records today, but its another one of those performances that feels like something I can build on.  Although I do feel a little apprehensive as well:  So far, every day that I’ve left the range feeling encouraged has been followed up by a day that was just thoroughly frustrating.

Hopefully today will be the end of that streak.

Additional information: —————————————

Start date: Apr 17, 2011 2:27 PM Target: NFAA/IFAA Field Total score: 262

— Sent from my iPhone