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.

I felt pretty confident coming into this shoot, but after only 21 arrows my cable guard on the PSE broke off.  I grabbed the Hoyt and switched the sight bar and stabilizers over, but the Hoyt wasn’t sighted in and my first arrow was a 6.  I aimed my next two in the blue and pulled an X and a 10 out of them, but moving forward I continued to have left and right issues at the two longer distances. I wound up shooting a 3 and a 8 on the next end because I moved my sight the wrong direction.

Mom took the PSE to the Nock Point and got a new cable guard, but she didn’t get there until the lunch break.  I switched everything back and shot 50 and 30 with the Dominator, but things still continued to go left and right all day that I didn’t really understand.  I started getting pretty frustrated by the time we started shooting 30 meters.  I dropped three points in the first two ends, and that really ticked me off.  I took my binoculars off and started just shooting for form.

I decided that I wasn’t going to let anything down and I was only going to focus on hitting my form.  I only broke that rule once, when my sunglasses slid down my nose and blocked my ability to see the target.  I also decided that I wasn’t going to move my sight any more.

I cleaned the last four ends and actually shot some decent groups, although it felt like I grouped in a different spot every end.  I finished with a 1342 on the day, which wasn’t too bad I guess given the issues, but I was still disappointed, especially with the 334 I shot at 50.

I had high hopes for Sunday, but those hopes were quickly quashed.  We shot the 50m OR round, and right off the bat things were not working well.  Almost to a tee, every shot that I thought felt good would miss – hitting four cardinal points and most of the ones in between – and every shot that I struggled through or crept on would hit tens and X’s.  Four or five ends of that, and I got really frustrated.  I’d been trying to keep my attitude good, but I finally lost and acted a bit of an ass, I’m afraid.  Everyone could tell that I was unhappy, which is pretty much the opposite of what I want.

During the eliminations, I shot OK for the first few ends, but by the gold medal match I was pretty much all over the place.  I remember one end in particular, around end three of the match, that I thought to myself that all I really needed to do was just stay in the gold.  Immediately, on the very first arrow, I bobbled, collapsed and damn near shot a 6 on the first arrow.  I backed that up with a 9 and an 8 for a whopping 24, which completely wiped out every bit of the lead I had to that point.

That really ticked me off, but I didn’t know what to do to avoid it in the future.  I was so frustrated, and every time I tried to hit my form, the arrows avoided the center as if there were a force field over the ten ring.  When I can’t buckle own and shoot good form and get results, I don’t know where to go.

In the end, I won the Gold Medal match by shooting only two tens and a 136, which pretty much tells the whole story.  On that day, against those people, it was good enough for the win and that it is all it was.  I can’t imagine ever winning another round by shooting 136, and certainly not a medal match.

After everything was all done, I lined up the string with the center of the bow, and I noticed that my scope was way off center, about 1/2 inch outside of the string.  I do not remember it being that way prior to the cable guard issue.

I made a minor adjustment to the cable guard, and shot some arrows at 70 meters.  After sighting in, I put 8 of 11 in the ten, with two of the three misses coming from shots that I knew were going to miss when I shot them.

I figured there would be additional tweaking of the cable guard required.  I felt a little better after I figured that out, but all in all, I was still disappointed in my performance this weekend: both mentally and physically.

Here is the elimination bracket:

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.