The Think Tank

Nothing super special to report here. I was shooting the bow in the 31″ draw slot still. I set it there at Sylvan the other day because the draw felt really too short with the new, high-wrist grip I’ve set up using a wedge of wood under the Spot Hogg grip cover. The 31″ draw feels really nice and I think it is easier on my shoulder, because the straighter arm uses more of the back side of my shoulder instead of the front where it is injured.

Other things of note: I was using the large thumb knob on the release, nestled into the second knuckle on my thumb. (I adjusted it throughout the day until it finally felt really comfortable.) And I turned the rear stabilizer mount around, which allowed me to get the stabilizer closer to the bow and changed the angle so that the adjustment was primarily vertical instead of horizontal. I set it so it was angled down fairly steeply, and that is where the bolt is stuck (and now stripped) so it won’t be moving any time soon. Fortunately, it felt like it held really well in that position, so that is good!

Last night I fletched up 6 of my new Gold Tip Ultralight 400’s, cut to 29 inches, and I went to broken arrow to tune them up.

I started out by changing the launcher to a Standard width .010 blade.  Then I shot it through paper.  Surprisingly, the tear was perfect up and down and was about .5 to .75 inches to the left.  I tried adjusting the rest, but I wasn’t able to take the tear out, so I put it back where I had set it on Saturday afternoon.

After that, I decided to just give it a shot and see how it grouped.  I shot for a few minutes, expecting to have some side-to-side variance because of the tear, but after 5-6 site in arrows everything was in a dead straight vertical line.  I got sighted it, and decided to shoot a score.

Remember my discussion from the day before about my shoulder humping up, I paid a lot of attention to really extending my shoulder out after I set my anchor.  When I did that my bow arm came almost straight and I could feel a difference in my hand as well.

The new arrows were shooting really well.  I started out with 3 x’s and then 2 x’s, all very solid arrows.  By the half way point I was thinking that I could be onto a really good score.  I finished with 300 and 25 x’s, the second highest score of the year, and with arrows 1/3 the size of my XXX’s.  That’s kind of crazy good. I’ve never shot a 300 with outdoor arrows before.

Arrow number 2 seemed to hit a little low.  It hit the same hole (literally) at 7 o’clock on the 10/x line about 6 times in a row.  I eventually switched it for arrow #5 and starting drilling it.  (I forgot to make the change in iArcheryScores so it is not reflected below).

Day One:

I hurt my shoulder putting things in the attic on Friday night, so it started out more sore than usual.  I also went out the night before for Joel’s birthday, so I did have a fair amount to drink on Friday.  I did not have a hangover, but it is something worth mentioning.

I felt pretty confident coming into the day, having shot a 58X on Wednesday.  I started out really strong, cleaning my first 4-5 ends, and I was down 1 at the half.  I started struggling more and more as the day progressed, and the shots got weaker.  I started struggling through my shots, holding a long time, my form started breaking down a little bit.

I finished the day down 5, not terrible but nothing to write home about.  My arm was quite sore by the end of the day.

After shooting Sectionals, Debbie and I went over to Archery World to shoot in the Charity Shoot, which was another 40 arrows plus practice.  I shot alright, dropping 5 again (on a birdie target), but I had several disappointing shots in the last 10 or so arrows.

All day long it  felt like I’d been grouping wide, from one edge of the X to the other.  After the charity shoot, I made a minor adjustment to the rest, moving it out 1/2 of a mark.

Day Two:

My shoulder was more sore starting out today than it was yesterday.  I shot a few practice ends and I was having trouble already.  I told mom that I thought it was going to be a rough day.

In the end, it wound up being almost the opposite of yesterday: I started weak and finished the last few ends pretty good.  After I dropped five, I really did not want to finish lower than 110 X’s total.  That extra bit of nerves helped me come through my shots stronger than I had been, and my final end was all inside-out; the only inside-out end I shot all day.

Around half-time I told mom that my shoulder was hurting and that I must have been rolling my left shoulder, so she was paying attention.  She started paying special attention, and after we were done she told me that it looked like it was humped up.  In talking with Debbie and Mom, I decided that I needed to adjust my pre-shot setup by making sure to relax my left shoulder and ensure that it doesn’t hump up while I’m aiming.

Aside from target 3, which had no discernible pattern, I punched out solid holes in the other four targets.  It looks like the adjustment to rest had an effect.

Since I started shooting again last year, I have wanted to build myself a target that I could use to shoot at home when I don’t have time to get to the range.  I have several different places where I can shoot: Inside the garage I can get about 6 yards, enough to practice form and do paper tuning, etc; Across the back yard (North-South) I can get 13 yards, shooting toward the concrete wall between our yard and our neighbors; And along the side of the house I can get about 30 yards depending on where I stand.  This last option will require me to get some kind of a back drop which could stop an arrow should I suffer an equipment malfunction, which I haven’t come up with yet.  So until I do, I can still use the other two options.

A long time ago I had a foam target which I used, but it got shot out pretty fast and eventually started letting arrows pass through it, which of course is unsafe and made my neighbors unhappy.  I needed something that would last a long time, be fairly cheap to build, and could be portable enough to move around wherever I wanted it in the yard or garage.

The first thing I needed to do was to decide on the material for the bale itself.  Eventually I settled on phone books under pressure.  When I was a youngster, The Nock Point up in Seattle used phone book bales and I remembered them working really well.  Plus, phone books have the added benefit of being free!

I found some good instructions for building the compression shelf here, and then I more or less made up the stand as I went along.  Total cost for the project was about $60, not counting a few bits which I had left over from other projects.

I started shooting at it on Friday and put the finishing touches on it today.  I have to say, it works great! It stops the arrows dead in five inches (at six yards, less from farther away), yet the arrows pull out easily, and   since I’m shooting into the books from the end (toward the spine), the pages more or less separate and do not get damaged.  This means the they should last for a long time.  The arrow holes almost completely close up after about thirty minutes, and even when I put the arrows in the same holes over and over again (which happens a lot at six yards) it still stops the arrows dead.

Click through for full instructions and building materials if you are interested.

(continue reading…)

Mom and I are up in Seattle this weekend so I can shoot in the USAA Indoor National Championships, the first Indoor Nationals ever held in the Pacific Northwest.  I signed up late, so the only shooting time available was 5pm both days, so I shot later in the day than I usually do for tournaments. That was pretty nice though, because I was able to lounge around the house and relax most of the afternoon.

I warmed up 4-5 ends downstairs on the practice range, then shot the two official practice ends.  I started out very well, felt really strong and like I was executing really well.  In fact, I felt like I actually shot better than I scored.  I finished the first thirty arrows with a 290, and I felt like I shot around a 293-294.  I had three or four arrows that felt really good, I held well, I wound up in the proper post-shot form, and the arrow missed by the tiniest sliver imaginable.

The first end of the second half was good, all 10s, but the next three were all 28s.  That was rough.  I did not feel I was holding well, I was holding longer than I like, and my form was feeling stiff.  My shoulder was also getting pretty sore.  Around the 15th end, I started feeling a little better, but it wasn’t until the last 2-3 ends where I thought I was actually drilling it again.

I had been bouncing back and forth with Justin Carver all day (up a point, down a point, tied… ), but coming in the final stretch I was up one point and I really wanted to stay there.  I got just a touch nervous, which gave me a little extra boost in the energy department, and I came through my shots much faster and stronger and I drained three inside-out X’s.  I also used my new trick, thinking to myself “You can’t miss.”  Several weeks ago, I started reprogramming myself so that whenever I say that, I execute a perfect shot.  (In the past that always preceded a missed shot, but a few weeks ago I started turning that weakness into a strength.  Now whenever I think that, I double down on my form and make damn sure I drill that shot.)

I finished with a 579.  I really think I should be more along the lines of a 585, and I really don’t like dropping below 580, but all in all I’m not too disappointed with this score.  Last time I was up here (for the WSAA Indoor FITA Championships) I shot a 1156.  I would really like to get into the 1160s this time around.

I do not know where I placed overall, but I was the top spot in my group by two points.