Welcome, and when did you start (or try) stringwalking?

[bobferrell]

This may amount to a confession thread of sorts, ha ha...

(Hmm...should it be stringwalking, or string walking?)

I first tried it in August of 2007 or so, when Ty Pelfrey and Scott Anczak put out their wonderful "Modern Traditional" DVD.

I'd tried all the other aiming methods over the years, and had always gone back to split finger instinctive, which still works ok for hunting within 15 yards, but isn't so hot for the field range or for longer shots.

I'm still a work in progress (switched back to split to shoot my first deer in September), but I find it to be very addictive, and loads of fun for some twisted reason :)

Often I have difficulty finding answers to tuning questions or bow setup questions or other various ponderings (like tiller) on the various forums, so perhaps we can use this forum to post links to stringwalking discussions or tips that we stumble across in addition to exchanging thoughts of our own...

bob

[toxoman]

I started about 5 years ago, before that it was split always. My style has evolved to an anchor/string walking combo. I use 3 anchors combined with string walking. What I use depends on distance and bow/arrow combo being used.

One thing I noticed is that negative tiller didn't help me much with trying to even out the tiller over the walk distance. (Thought it might). Have had much better luck with even to 1/8" positive tiller.

-mike

[Scooter]

First tried, but didn't like it after watching Modern Traditional. Maybe spring this year. Since then I have played with it off an on. For some reason when I first did I had issue with hitting my nose and lip HARD. Not sure what was going on then and maybe I'm just getting off the string cleaner but I don't have that problem now.

I decided to really give it a go in the laste summer and ordered a new bow that I chose just because I think it will be good for stringwalking. 27" Luxor with Inno medium limbs for a 70" bow. My tiller is set even and right now the bow is set up for indoors only with 32" 2314's (I draw 29.5").

I want to get good and really confident at longer ranges. I have shot out to 70m with my Moon gapping the distances in between, but always struggled some with the various gaps. I always seem to do better when I had a point of aim (flower on the ground, piece of paper etc). so I thought stringwalking might suit me. We'll see.

[Martin Farrent]

I think it was in May 2007, when I finally got sick of the fuzziness involved in my split vision/pointy-style system.

First day stringwalking, I was perfect out to about 35 yards and saw myself heading for glory. But after a couple of weeks, things began to fall apart again. The reason, as I later discerned: form. When you're using a split-vision site picture, you have a visual barometer of good alignment built into your aiming system. That barometer glows much less brightly for stringwalkers - so I needed to invest some time in all aspects of alignment before things came together again.

But I never looked back or considered switching to another system.

Ty was very helpful regarding some equipment issues. Perhaps you can find his contributions via the search function.

Best,

Martin

[bobferrell]

Hey Mike - I still owe you a visit (but hunting season is here now and I'm on the road most weekends). Tiller continues to baffle me somewhat (in fact, it seems to me that if you're putting more pressure on the bottom limb, then you'd want an even stronger limb, like on those Yumi things, but I always see "even tiller for 3 under"). I've got bigger problems than tiller at this point, so I usually just set it somewhere close to zero :) I go to split finger gap on the long NFAA targets anyway, so I'm abusing the limb balance to the max.

Scott, I also bought one of those wonderful Luxor's recently. It doesn't take much of an excuse for me to buy a new bow, of course, but my reasoning was that 68" might be better than 66" (28.5" draw or a tad less), and most of my limbs are shorts (so look at all the money I saved, ha ha). Mine's blue. I also ended up with a blue Nilo 25" this week and won't try to explain how I justified buying that one. Before it's over I'll probably try a 23" riser with long limbs just as an excuse to buy another riser, but I suspect that as with the tiller thing, I won't be able to shoot well enough to discern any difference!

Martin, I think I've found most all of the posts on string walking at one time or another, but when I have a slow day I hope to find some of the better ones and build a thread with links to them. With so many Europeans shooting that way, it seems there would be more info than there is (and there may be if only I could read something besides English!).

bob

[barking mad]

I caved in and joined the group, lol.

Tried stringwalking the first time perhaps 25 years ago, but settled for facewalking back then. Now that I'm almost grown up, I did try it again last summer, with varying results. Seems that my head is shaped differently now and I just cannot get facewalking to work at all.. Being frustrated with the huge gaps I have shooting POA with a single anchor point, I'm willing to give this one more swirl.

Bob's and Rusty's posts have been a great inspiration. I'll try to tune my hunting rig the "Rusty way" with one set crawl and gapping from there. You shalll hear many dumb questions from me.

-bm.

[blue_ridge]

For some reason when I first did I had issue with hitting my nose and lip HARD. Not sure what was going on then and maybe I'm just getting off the string cleaner but I don't have that problem now.


Funny thing, I had the exact same problem. Never figured it out 100%. I thought maybe I needed to turn my head more in line with the target. Can't say for sure that fixed it, but, it doesn't happen anymore.

Tiller continues to baffle me somewhat (in fact, it seems to me that if you're putting more pressure on the bottom limb, then you'd want an even stronger limb

Bob, I had the same rationale as you. Here's one thing to ponder though. The final balance of the bow, is the energy it imparts on the arrow when you've released the string. Experts say with a 3 under release, the index finger touches the string last. So, in that case, measure your string length from each tip to the point on the string where your index finger touches it normally. For my Sky Conquest with long limbs, my measurement was 31.25" for the top half and 34" for the bottom half. That's a difference of 2.75". So I could conceivably move down the string half that distance, 1.375", and be pretty close to the having my index finger release the string right at the middle point.

Of course, you have to take into account the balance at your grip and how you hold the grip and many other factors, but I think this at least illustrates why string walkers may often be near a zero tiller.

[blue_ridge]

Hello, my name is Jonathan and I'm a string walker. :) are there 12 steps to recovery? I got started string walking this past fall. I had shot instinctive for 20 years. A friend of mine got into FITA target recurve, with a sight, and shot some indoors tournaments last year. I decided to give it a try, so I bought a Hoyt Gold Medalist. I learned a lot about my shooting form because I had been shooting a 70# Brackenbury, then switched to a 38# Hoyt. It opened my eyes. I really enjoyed the control I had with it. Wasn't long before I had ripped the sights off that bow and was shooting it barebow. I guess it's just what I like to do. But I found out, with all that control over the shot, I needed a better aiming method. Tried gap for a day. I'm not knocking it, but I didn't take to it right away. Then I read about string walking, tried it for a day and was hitting everything within 30 yards as if I had a sight! Like Martin, I came back do to earth eventually, but I really do think I can shoot my best this way. Now I just have to learn how best to tune the bow for different crawls and which arrows work best.

This string walking group is a good idea, because, of all the shooting methods there is not a ton of info out there on string walking. Ty Pelfrey seems to be the only one teaching the methods publicly. His information has been a huge help.

[SteveGabriel]

I just started about 6 weeks ago. I tried face walking for over a year, but was told by a coach that my anchor was too inconsistent and giving me problems. He's competed in several FITA world championships shooting oly recurve and he suggested string walking as a way of having 1, maybe 2 consistent anchors.

I've been pleased with the results so far. Just shot the Big Apple FITA indoor last Saturday and got a ho-hum 376. Still I won first place in barebow ( there were only 2 of us). Interesting how I had 6 or 7 people behind me, some with binos, checking my performance. Everyone else was either compound or Olympic recurve and they wanted to see someone actually shooting without a sight.

[Desert Archer]

I'm more of a lurker here, but then there's no group for face walkers (LOL).

In 2004 I shot in my first competition and realized just how bad I was. On the advice of Harold Rush (one of the top string walkers in the country a few years ago) I figured I needed an aiming system. Tried string walking first as that was what Harold recommended. The out of tune nature of the long crawls bothered me and the feeling I didn't have control of the arrow never went away, despite a number of shooting sessions giving it a try.

The lack of success led to my developing my face walking/point of aim system. Sometimes I think I would be better off back among the string walkers but every time I try it, the results are the same.

Still, best of luck and good shooting to all of you,
Dave

[SteveGabriel]

The most important point that Dave brought up is that he tried several methods to develop an accurate shooting style that worked for him.

I may need to face walk for my longer distances, since my max at the current anchor is around 60 yards. Split finger might work ok, but I get a smoother release using 3 under. Still I'm still shooting so-so scores. When I break 375 in a field round, I can be more 'authorative' about what is a better method...

[Hank D Thoreau]

Just found this group recently. I started string walking in earnest back in January and saw immediate improvement in my shooting. I had tried it previously with an Gold Medalist but the bow detuned so badly that my shots sprayed in unpredictable directions. Since the beginning of the year I have obtained a Best Moon for indoors and a Best Zenit for outdoors. I returned to string walking with greater success. Now I am committed to the technique and cannot imagine shooting any other way.

I am currently shooting against freestyle shooters in a local recurve league and am preparing to begin FITA events; I need to work out aiming points for the longer distances and get more outdoor practice. At 90 M I have to put the shelf on the gold and then raise vertically until the shelf is on the top of the bale and release blind (bow blocks the target). I am working on my equipment to get more arrow speed so that I can simplify my aiming method for longer shots.

Looking forward to learning more about this aiming method from the folks in this group.

[Esquire]

I tried it today for the first time. Beat heck out of my nose and lips but I see potential. I'm going to keep at it.

Got some readin to do...

[Greysides]

Hello All. First post here.

I started string-walking about 4 months after doing my beginners course last Nov. Quite a help it was too!

An exchange of PMs with the 'arid area archer' was a help too. With the enlightenment he offered, my experimentation started. My aiming point at 50 metres is at the bottom of the target with a split finger anchored to my mouth. A split finger hold under my chin in Olympic style will get me onto the butt at 70m with a huge amount of refining to do. I was delighted to find I could reach that far with a 28# KAP Prostyle and a 30" draw even if accuracy meant not walking to the 90m butt to collect my arrows............yes they do reach there also.............cutting the grass as they go...............!

I find 30m is point on with my fingers all together under the nock. 25m is about 1/8" further down. The other shorter distances were within reach using the stitching on the Black Widow tab to its split for the Mediterranean hold.

Then I discovered tuning........................

After some recent tuning I recently have set the bottom of my upper nock point to 5/8 to 11/16 of an inch above the height of the where the arrow sits on the arrow rest. Previously the same point was 3/8 inch above level.

As I sit here fiddling with my brace square it doesn't seem like it should make the difference it does but now from 18m down all my string-walking points are going to be at the U shaped split or lower and its a nuisance......I haven't worked them out properly yet as I've been measuring from the bottom of the masking tape I've been using as a temporary nock locator rather than the top of the locator where the nock sits.

I'm not sure the alterations are worth the hassle. Before, all the distances down to 5, were catered for by the stitching down to the U-split.

Is the benefit of tuning worth the hassle? What advantages will there be to arrow flight? Will less porpoising and more energy to expend with the arrow flying 'at ease' give me greater distance?

Any thoughts?.......................other than possibly pointing me to the correct forum for these comments............................;)


PS: DA, I've been mightly tempted by an acquaintance at the club possibly selling his Spigarelli 650 Club, pity its not red instead of grey. Forgive me Father, I may be about to sin.............................

[Greysides]

I started string walking in earnest back in January and saw immediate improvement in my shooting. I had tried it previously with an Gold Medalist but the bow detuned so badly that my shots sprayed in unpredictable directions. Since the beginning of the year I have obtained a Best Moon for indoors and a Best Zenit for outdoors. I returned to string walking with greater success. Now I am committed to the technique and cannot imagine shooting any other way.



Since my previous post I have become the happy owner of a GM and a Best Moon (Thanks BM, appraisal pending).

Hank, I 'm curious as to the differences you might find between the Moon and the Zenit. Is one just a better made version or differently weighed? I'm curious as the 25" Moon and the 23" Zenit seem to look a lot in common.
Have you a particular reason why one is for indoor use and the other for outdoor?

The GM with a 350g weight seems to shoot nicely enough for me but it's early days yet as I'm still setting them both up, with the Best taking priority. One thing I notice with the GM, but not the Best, is that my arrows while going where they're pointed seem to take a side-step just before the 18m butt. I'm putting this down to the bow needing tuning.

What sort of problems did you experience with the GM?

Thanks.

Aidan.

[blue_ridge]

The final balance of the bow, is the energy it imparts on the arrow when you've released the string. Experts say with a 3 under release, the index finger touches the string last. So, in that case, measure your string length from each tip to the point on the string where your index finger touches it normally. For my Sky Conquest with long limbs, my measurement was 31.25" for the top half and 34" for the bottom half. That's a difference of 2.75". So I could conceivably move down the string half that distance, 1.375", and be pretty close to the having my index finger release the string right at the middle point.

Of course, you have to take into account the balance at your grip and how you hold the grip and many other factors, but I think this at least illustrates why string walkers may often be near a zero tiller.

I'll add that this is the reason long risers coupled with long limbs give more forgiveness for string walkers. You can move down the string farther without causing as much imbalance to tiller (in ratio to the overall length of the bow and string).

Fine for target pursuits. But when it comes to hunting, say from a tree stand, finding a short enough bow to be practical AND stringwalking, becomes a challenge. If anyone has find what they think is an ideal combination, I would love to hear it. Especially for draw lengths over 28"!