The Think Tank

During the week between the last NW Shootup and this one, I had creep-tuned my bow and managed to take out all of the unexplained up and down misses by removing one half twist from the control cable.

I had ordered a new release, a Stanislawksi Shootoff, and it arrived on Friday morning just before we went down to meet Debbie in Lebanon.  We got there around 3:30 and I started shooting the new release.  It felt really nice in my hand and after I got everything adjusted, it felt like I was much more consistent for time and hand position.  I also felt like I was aiming better.  The only thing that bothered me was that I kept hitting the right side of the target, just in the 10, over and over again, especially on my second arrow.  There was a big hole there, so I just thought I was being pulled into as sometimes happens.

I decided to shoot it on Saturday.  In the end, that turns out to be a mistake.  I felt that I shot pretty well as far as form went, but I kept getting side to side misses that I could not explain.  I dropped three points in four ends, and my X’s were sucking.  I was very frustrated and disappointed and started to lose my mind a little bit.  I don’t remember exactly what I was thinking, but I kept trying to nail my form, and the arrows kept edging out side to side.  By the 8th or 9th end, I was more or less resigned to the fact that this score was in the toilet, and I calmed down and started really analyzing my shots, and even under critical examination, I thought I was shooting pretty well.

The eliminations went much the same, with me missing three arrows out of my six, all sprayed left and right, the last of which was off of what I really thought was a dead perfect shot.  The frustration and disappointment were back in spades, I went outside and shot in the rain for 45 minutes trying to figure out what went wrong.  Then I came back inside and shot another several hours, until my shoulder was just dead.  In the end, I figured out that the new release just dropped arrows out the right.

After dinner, I went out into the garage and discovered that the new released had a pretty big left-high tear.  The old release was almost perfect, but it too had a high-left tear.  I did some work on the rest and go the left/right taken care of, and it even looked better on the Shootoff release, but I didn’t trust it and decided to shoot the Avenger, even though I tend to struggle with that release as the day wears on.

Qualified 8, finish 9.