The Think Tank

I shot this round with Mom, after having adjusted the rest a little bit and installing the knurled knob on the release.  I did not write a report at the time, and I don’t really remember anything substantial about this day.  I finished with a 270, which was 6 point better than my previous best on the same course, but it was 11 X’s better, which is significant.

I felt I was holding really well, and mostly I felt like I shot very well.  However, when I missed I missed pretty big, which was a bit concerning.

Additional information: —————————————

Start date: Apr 20, 2011 6:04 PM Target: NFAA/IFAA Field Total score: 270 33 X’s

— Sent from my iPhone

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

The weather cooperated nicely today by being overcast but dry, so I took my bow out to Sylvan this afternoon to start getting it setup for the outdoor season.

I forgot to transfer my T-square to my new quiver (which I got as a birthday present from Mom and Mo), so I wasn’t able to really measure anything before I started messing around.  Still, for the 2613’s I had the nock point at zero when I had the T-square in the center of the launcher fork, so I should be able to get it back there again easily enough.

Since I didn’t have the square I just had to use the level to find the right spot for the rest.  I also had to level out he rest, because I had it tipped a little bit toward the strings (not on purpose, that is just how it wound up when I set it up the first time).  I leveled that to the cable guard – since there isnt’ really a good, level spot to measure on any where else – then I brought the rest up until the shaft was more or less level as well.  It was a little hard to know if it was dead level, since I had to jury-rig a system with my limb-pod and stabilizer to find “level”, so the setup was basically a rough starting point.

I started out shooting at 20 yards and it grouped pretty well, all X’s so I figured that was good and moved to 40.  I was a little bit wiggly, but more or less things seemed pretty good.  Good shots were mostly X’s or just out.  I wrote down my sight mark and moved on.  (I wasn’t using my new Archer’s Mark app because I didn’t have anything to get the measurements/weights that I need for the initial calibration).

When I moved out to 60 I noticed some left and right variation in the groups, and I also noticed that I was having a great deal of difficulty holding well.  I’d been planning on putting the Kudlacek stabilizer, so I went out to the car and grabbed the old 4 shaft stabilizer with the black weights.  I think these weights are heavier than the silver weights on the other bow.

It felt quite a bit heavier, but man what a difference the extra weight made in the aim.  At 60 yards I was holding pretty much inside-out spot, and the groups closed in to just a little bigger than the X ring, unless I did something that I knew as going to put it out.

I took a guess at the 80 yard mark, and my first shot hit 3 O’clock X line.  My next arrow was a little low left in the 4 (where I aimed it), and my next 3 were all spots: 1 X, one low five, and and one at 12 O’clock on the line.  My next end was about same.

I moved back to 40 for a few minutes, and I was holding inside-out X ring and slapping arrows together.  I doubled checked my 20 yard mark, and again I was holding very well and slapping arrows.

All in all I felt pretty good about how things went today.  I like the added weight and general feel of the Kudlacek stab, so I’ll probably stick with that in the future.  I want to shoot at distance a lot more, but I was pretty confident after shooting this afternoon.

We tried to shoot outside today, we even went out to Sylvan, but by the time we got there it was pouring rain so we went over to Archers Afield and shot there.

The first 4-5 arrows were pretty shaky on the aim and scattered a bit, but I got things under control by the time I started scoring. (I adjusted the left-side v-bar to stick out away from the bow a little more, offering some off-center balance to see how it felt. I think it may have steadied me up a little, but I’m not sure how much if really helped.)

I cleaned the first 5 ends, mostly shooting 2x’s and a pretty close miss, although I did have some legitimate fat-shafters in there too. All in all I felt I was shooting very well, and the v-bars were still helping to keep my aim under pretty good control. I do think I want to add a little additional weight to the v-bars though. Tonight I added 5 stabilizer weights on the bow behind the stabilizer, which helped to steady things down.

The first five ends were really easy, my aim was good and my shots were coming off clean and smooth. In fact, things were so smooth that I forgot to go through my mantra of focusing on form, feeling where the bow and release will end up. Instead I was just sort of blanked out. End six started with two almost perfect X’s, and when I was aiming the third one I distinctly remember thinking to myself “you cant miss”. Naturally, I proved myself wrong instantly by shooting a six O’clock 9.

Fortunately, that woke me up and I tried to focus on my form to finish up from there. It took a few arrows to get back in the swing and I was struggling just a bit, but everything was very solid 10 ring, but only 1x 30s on 7-9.

I knew I had a good round going, and I really wanted to stay clean the rest of the way, so each end I got a little more nervous/excited. By the last one I was fairly amped up. No butterflies or anything, just a level of excitement and a feeling that if I dropped a point here I would be very disappointed in myself.

I used that excitement as motivation. While I was aiming I made sure I was staying strong, doing my push-pull routine and going through my mental mantra of focusing on form. I literally told myself “shoot your form and you will hit x’s. All that matters is your ending form position”. The first two were solid shots,  both nearly inside-out x’s. That left me feeling very confident on the third and final shot. Although, not overly confident like before. Instead, while I was aiming I told myself “I don’t care where the shots goes, I am going to hit my final form position”. The shot went a second later and landed a dead center, inside-out, hair-splitter X.

Round 1: 299 19x

I still had an hour before the shop closed, so I decided to shoot another round. I really thought I could clean it and get the 300 I’ve been waiting for.

I started out OK, but I could tell I was getting tired, struggling a lot to get through my shots, and holding a long time, even though I was still going through my mantra of form first. On the second end I drilled the first arrow, fought through the second, let it down, and fought through it again, and shot a horrible, weak shot which went skirting out into the tomato patch. (As it turned out, it actually broke into the nine ring by about a millimeter, but it was still ugly.) I tried to recover on the third shot, fought it as well, let it down, and shot another horrible, ugly nine, though this one was inside-out gold at least.

I took a breather and drank some soda pop, then came back sort of fired up and shot 3 solid X’s, though I was still fighting through every shot. Ends 4 and 5 were both difficult again, and I dropped a nine on each one. At that point, I was very frustrated and contemplated going home, since I was struggling so hard, shooting bad shots (something I don’t really want to practice), but I really hate to end on a bad note, so I solidered on. I took a look at my trigger tension and discovered that the setscrew was loose again: instead of being 1/2 turn from firing on its own, it was 1.5 turns. I readjusted the tension to where I normally keep it, and started shooting again.

Now that the release was not so hard to pull through, I started coming through my shots pretty easily again. After a couple arrows, everything was feeling pretty natural again. Since I wasn’t holding each shot so long, my shoulders started to recover a bit and my aim settled down again to almost perfect, which in turn made it easier to concentrate on my form, which I did a good job of.

One thing to note: especially when I get tired, I have to make sure that my bow arm stays strong through the whole shot. Working a very subtle push-pull thing seems to work very well. Usually I envision a rod extending between the back of my bow hand and the knuckles on my release hand, and then I see that rod extending out a little bit, pushing my hands away from each other. I have no idea if that is at all representative of what actually happens, but when I think that my bow arm winds up with a little forward movement after the shot and the shots are solid. When I forget to do that, or lose track of my bow arm, it tends to stop the forward motion and things get ugly fast.

After that I shot 3x’s, 1x, 3x’s, 1x and then another 3 solid x’s to finish out the round. The arrows that missed the x were all solid tens, mostly just out at 3 O’clock but still solid 10. Except for one. I had one arrow sneak out a long way at 3 O’clock, barely fat-shafting through the line on target 2. I hung to the right on #2 all day, despite changing arrows.

I finished that round with a 296 18x, and a total of 595 37x for the pair.

I actually feel better about the shooting than the score makes it look. For the most part, I felt very solid and composed today, and even though I went through the one rough patch, I definitely feel I can build on this sort of shooting. I need to cement my mental process in place, watching myself to ensure that I am thinking about my form and feeling it in my mind before I actually release. One promising trend is that whenever I start to feel anxious at all, that mantra comes through loud and clear, and when that happens, I drill the x. That is very encouraging.

Technical note: I took the old chrome stabilizer weights off the riser and them on the V-bars after I got home today. This will put a little more weight down low on the bow, which I think will make the bow balance out a little better.

Additional information: —————————————

Start date: Mar 23, 2011 6:05 PM Target: FITA Total score: 595 37x

Sent from my iPhone

I shot the Contender today at Archery World.  I did not track my shots in Targetmate, so I don’t have an arrow plot for today.

I shot at least 120-150 arrows yesterday, so my shoulder was tired when I started today.  Still, it wasn’t too bad.

The first hour or so went very much like they had gone yesterday at Archers Afield: Pretty good but only about 3/4 of the time.  One consistent factor in both days is that I could not aim well at all.  My dot kept dancing all around the yellow, and unless I shot a spot on perfect release the arrow either missed or fat-shafted a 10.  There was very little consistency.

I mentioned to Mom that I was having a very hard time aiming, and she suggested that maybe we should try a V-bar setup.  We had spotted a stabilizer/V-Bar combo in the consignment case for $200.  We went and took a look at it today, and it turned out to be a pretty impressive set: A 34″ Doinker long-rod, a stabilizer weight for the long-rod, a Doinker adjustable V-Bar bracket, some other kind of down-angle fixed V-Bar bracket, two 10″ V-Bars with weights and an additional 5-rod Kudlacek stabilizer with a down-angle quick-release.  All said and told, when new, these items probably cost $600 bucks, so the $200 price tag is quite fantastic.

I bought it and put the long-rod and v-bars on the bow, with the v-bars pointing straight back at about 45 degrees out from the bow.  The inside rod poked me uncomfortably in the belly, but I gave it a few shots anyway.

The results were less than impressive.  I still couldn’t aim for sour owl bowel and any shot that was less than perfect was a big stinky nine.  Needless to say I was very disappointed.

I adjusted the the v-bars so they were pointed down at about a 45 degree angle and pulled them in toward the bow so they wouldn’t poke me as much.  This resulted in a much better aim and three solid X’s.  Unfortunately, the rear bar was still poking me uncomfortably, and this time it was in the junk.

I adjusted the v-bars to about a 60 degrees down-angle, and pulled them in as close to the bow as I could and tried that.  The result was a rock solid aiming on the first arrow and a dead center X.  The next two were a little bit shakier, with some movement in the sight, but it was very controlled movement, if that makes sense.  Two good shots and two solid X’s.

The bow felt very well balanced, and after the shot the bow did not move much at all.

I kept shooting it that way, and things kept going well.  The aim was greatly improved, and even when I had to hold the shot longer than usual or struggled a bit, the shots just kept finding the 10 ring, with about half Xs, maybe a little more.

With the aiming thing settled down, I was able to spend more energy focusing on my bow hand and my form.  Both things came together much easier without having to pay so much attention to aiming.  Even on the shots that I struggled through, the arrows still were solidly placed in the 10 ring.

I shot one 8 at nine O’clock, but it was off of a shot I really fought through.  My aim was pretty much 10 ring solid the whole time, so I kept fighting.  At the last second, the sight slipped out to nine O’clock and it fired.  I hit pretty much where I aimed.

I dropped one other shot after that, again at nine O’clock, again off of a struggled shot.  Aside from those two, everything else was an X or a solid 10.  After 4-5 ends, I started feeling pretty confident and then even when I fought through shots, they still hit X’s.

I ended on 6 solid X’s off of 6 shots that were held almost dead solid.  And my arm was very tired at that point, having shot for almost three hours again today.  (With very few breaks.)

For the first time that I can remember (since I started shooting again), I left the range feeling very confident and encouraged.  I’m very excited to shoot tomorrow.

One other thing to note: I switched the points on the three arrows I shot today, using the 75gr points.  I think they were working better than the 100’s.