A Beginners Questions

[grandpawrichard]

Well, I finally got the chance to fletch up a half dozen PSE Carbon Force 100 XWeave arrows last night and today I went out to shoot (bare fingers....dang my fingers are burning! :eek: ) I have 2 tabs coming in a few days.

I tried one finger over and two below, but I get my cleanest release with 3 fingers under.

1. I fletched my arrows with a strong Left hand Offset.
2. The vanes are 5" Duravanes.
3. I installed 75 grain points.
4. My nock point is a tied on nock that is set at Zero Nock height.
5. My Brace height is 8 inches.

If I cant my bow to not quite 1 o'clock I can group my arrows Dead center on a line with the center of the target, but I am consistantly 12" to 16" above the target. I am shooting instinctive and aiming straight down the shaft of the arrow.

I am pulling thru the shot using Back Tension, so the string rolls off my finger tips. I'm hooking the string in the meat of the finger tips, Not the joint.

Several of my groups were so tight that the arrows rattled and one arrow got a ding in the new vane, so I guess I'm doing pretty good with my shooting for a beginner. :)

Now that I have layed out the foundation for my questions, I'll get right to it.

1. What can I do to bring my groups down to the target?
2. Is there an adjustment to the nock that I can make?
3. Will lowering the nock height a little bit bring the impact point downward?
4. Should I go to a heavier tip, say a 100 grain tip? (I don't think I want to mess to much there because the spine of the arrows seems about perfect).

I sure would appreciate some input here, it's a lot of fun shooting a recurve! :) And I want to keep it that way! :)

Dick

[Black Bull]

first of all,try one arrow with feather,feather will leave the rest smoothly,the vane will have tendency to jump on the rest cause vanes are stiffer than feather.if nothing change,try raising or lowering the nock
Taureau noir

[Tuffcity]

Question: are you shooting off the shelf or off a rest? Either way feather fletching is still probably your best bet, especially if off the shelf.

You should start your nock height 1/2 to 3/8 above 90 degrees.

If you are sighting down the shaft you are using a technique called "gun barreling", if shooting instictive all you would see is a small spot on the target were you want to hit. Nothing wrong with gun barreling, especially if it helps your accuracy but you'll probably have to play with hold over/under to get your arrows on target where you want them. Also you'll have to be aware of your yardages to determine hold. With "pure" instictive (the term could be an oxymoron in itself :smile: ) you pick a spot and the old brain quietly and quickly determines how high to hold your hand, no conscience yardage estimating.

What make of bow are you using? The brace is probably a good starting point (& I don't know if you have fiddled with it to get that point) but going up or down will tell you where the best place is. Generally speaking, when the bow is the quietest it's at the right Brace. That spot might not equal the fastest height, don't sweat it if it doesn't. Take quiet over fastest.

Only fiddle with one thing at a time. Adjust brace first, then nock point.

Left or right off-set shouldn't make any difference ( just have all the arrows the same- but I suspect you know that :smile: ) and neither should cock feather in or out.

I'd try different weight tips just to see effect- might surprise yourself.
There, that should keep you busy for awhile. :lol:

RC

[grandpawrichard]

Thanks for the very informative posts. I sure appreciate them!

My arrows are PSE 100 XWeaves (Full length due to my draw length).

My vanes are 5" set on a hard left hand Offset.

I am using a stick on flipper rest( it's a super cheap rest that came with the bow, so I'm buying a better quality rest with a plunger button).

I have since this post started to reaise my nock height a little bit at a time to find the sweet spot.

I have now gone to 100 grain tips and am thinking of going to 125 grains.

I have some tabs coming in a couple of days. I sure hope they get here soon! ;) :)

I have been told that I am not hooking the string deep enough (just using the meat of the fingertips), so I'll be working on learning to hook deeper and also working on a nice smooth relaxed release.

I have now been able to drop the impact point to about 10" high. I didn't think about aiming lower because of the way any bow will shoot high without using a sight. I figured this is a low powered bow, so at 20 yards I need to aim dead on using the tip of the arrow. That was a dumb mistake on my part! I knew better, but wasn't thinking straight. :oops:

At the time I set these arrows up I didn't have any feathers, so I had to use what I had on hand. :( I'll be buying some feathers as soon as possible.

I must be doing something right, my groups were extremely tight and I managed to ding a few vanes. :) After I started aiming a foot low, my arrows were all in the target and quite a few were in the gold on a vegas target. :)

Occassionally I will get a definite flier, but that is due to a bum release. I really need to work on this aspect and I'm sure the deeper hooking and a good stiff tab will help me out here.

Dick

[petew]

You will get the best results with feathers.
Arrow weight should be a minimum of 8 grains per pound at your draw length.I shoot up to 350 grains point weight on carbons with a total arrow weight of 630GR on my 54# ACS longbow.
More weight is better.
Shooting off the shelf is prefered by most trad shooters.{arow never falls off and it can't break off.}Most cant the bow about 30 DEG. +-
Bare shaft tune the arrows to the bow, see O.L adcocks site for a very good tuning guide.
www.bowmaker.net.

Shooting 3 under set the nock at 3/4" to 1" high. split fingers set it at 3/8" and tune from there.
Have you tried a glove?


trad shooting is FUN.

[Tuffcity]

Sounds like you're having fun! :smile: Don't get to carried away with establishing a really "deep" hook. For me the string sits just at or slightly before the first finger joint ( 1st in from the finger tip). If you go much deeper than that you might start torquing the string on release.

Also you don't need a really stiff tab. I've run the gambit of gloves to tabs and have settled on a calf hair tab (1 layer of thin leather, 1 of thin rubber and 1 of hair), it seems to give the best release, for me anyway.

Depending on what style the shelf on your bow is (flat, radiuses, etc), you might want to try shooting off the shelf when/if you go to feather fletching. If nothing else, it's one less thing to accidently rip off if you're out stump shooting. :smile:

RC

[grandpawrichard]

I played with my recurve again today and things are starting to steadily improve. :)

Here's some photos to help me show off: :)
http://www.hunt101.com/img/292082.jpg

http://www.hunt101.com/img/292085.jpg

http://www.hunt101.com/img/292088.jpg

http://www.hunt101.com/img/292091.jpg

http://www.hunt101.com/img/292094.jpg

http://www.hunt101.com/img/292095.jpg

Remember to be kind, I've only been shooting a recurve for a few days! ;) :) :D

Dick

[toxo1cjb]

You srer getin good groups......Do what feels comfortable and works for you... Really A Trad shooter usually starts the nocking point at 3/16 " high of the rest...but that is only a starting point. for that matter everything is a starting point.....Gun barreling is usually good for about 25-30 yards which should be good enough for hunting.....3 fingers under and looking down the shaft is called Apache style....One over 2 under is called Mediterranian style as that is what was used in Mideval times in that area of the world....(King Arthur, Robin Hod) type. Pick a spot, release never moving anchor, or the bow.....everything should stay on target until you hear the arrow hit.......Like throwing a baseball. Frank Addington wrote to me saying do not worry about form or anything just concentrate on a small spot never taking your eyes off of it.....and it works, but takes time......You are doing SUPER, KEEP IT UP!!!!!!!!
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