The Think Tank

Shannon and I took the Z out to the range last night for a little shooting.  I knew that I would probably need to make some adjustments to my new cable guard after the original one broke over the weekend up in Seattle.

I shot primarily at 80 yards.  The first thing I did was move the V-bar back down under the String Stop and angle the bars upward two notches.  I had been shooting it down there for a couple weeks prior to the weekend, but decided to move it back to get some perspective on how the two positions felt.  I really think I like it down lower.  It seems to hold better, level faster, and feels more like I’m accustomed to.  I’ve always liked weight low on the bow.

I shot maybe 6-7 ends (6 arrows apiece normally, sometimes 7-8, 11 later in the day as it got dark) and once I’d established some decent groups and the same wider-than-tall group pattern, I moved up to 10 yards to see if I was getting any kind of drifting.  I was grouping on the right edge of the 5 at distance, and at 10 yards I was right in the center.

I started messing with my cable guard at that point.  At first, I moved it in about half an inch so that the cables were about 1/3 of an inch away from the vanes when the bow was at rest.  I figured this would reduce cam tilt and eliminate drift.  Turned out I was wrong.

I sighted back in (strangely, moving the cables IN – to the left from behind the string – the arrows move right), and then went out to 80 yards again.  Instead of eliminating the drift it made things worse.  The grouping was a lot worse as well.  So, I went back to ten yards and moved the cable guard OUT this time, just a little bit.  Resighted in at 10, moved out to 80, and repeated that process a few times until it felt like I had a good horizontal group at distance and and no drifting between 10 and 80.

At 80 yards though  I noticed that my group was about X-ring wide but a little bit taller than the 5 ring.  I was getting tired and it was starting to get a little dark, so I moved up to 55 yards to see if I had the same thing.  I did, so to solve that, I tried some tiller tuning.  I put a half turn into the top limb and shot my whole quiver.  The group ranged from about three inches under the spot to about a shaft in at 6 o’clock, which was still too tall of a group, maybe even worse than before.  So I took that half turn back out, and then another half turn out so that I was half a turn less than I had started.  Strangely enough, taking turns OUT of the top limb (thereby lowering draw weight) moves my sights up.  I figured out that 1/2 turn = about 6 clicks.

That group seemed better, but it still a little tall, so I took another turn out.  I did that a couple more times, finishing (I think) with 1.5 turns out total, though it may have only been one full turn.  I kind of lost track.

I shot one really good 6 arrow group, with 4 X’s, a solid 5 and then a 4 at 7 o’clock that I aimed there.  I really wanted to get a good 6 arrow group, so I stayed and shot a few more ends, but it was almost too dark to see and kept winding up with two groups: one group with about 7 arrows in the center, and one with 3-4 between 1-2 o’clock on the line or just out.

I think that the bow is shooting better, and I know that it is holding pretty much rock steady, even with both shoulders being sore.  I’m not sure why my right shoulder has been hurting lately, but it has been, similar to how it felt around the first of the year but it actually gets sore while shooting which wasn’t doing before.

I’m not sure if I’ll get to shoot again before the RSVP ride since I have to work on the van tonight, but hopefully I can follow up on Thursday.