I'm really wondering how our ancestors survived with only primitive equipment to gather food. We have so much to figure out with our modern equipment that it gives me a headache just thinking about it. I read the posts all the time about deep technical stuff, like Sid and some of the others post, and finally give up, because I can't understand half of it.
I've been shooting a long time, and in the old days about any old bow and arrows would do. Now, Lordy, so much to figure out? I bought a new bow from a friend of mine that is a bowyer, who told me that the bow is a 62" but it isn't because he measures different than most folks. He gave me a string I didn't like, as it had silencers on it, and it is a heavy string anyway. Measured it, and off to the shop to find a used string in my stash. So, I dug into my tool box and got the proper length, and strand count. He likes his bows at 9" brace, as he has a long draw, but I like mine around 8 to 8 1/2, as I have a short draw. So I set the brace at 8". Took it out and noticed that my nocks are too tight. Well, gonna shoot it anyway. Arrows all over the place, and that thing sounded like a gun going off. Looked everything over, yep, everything in it's place. Raised the brace height to 8 1/2. Arrows grouping well, and getting quieter. So now have to get a new string. I know what works from prior experience, so I have to wait for it to come in to further the tuning. Now to the arrows. I shoot carbons, and again from lots of experience, I have the right ones, with regard to spine, length, point weight, fletch type, and nock . I know the bow is centershot, so that helped in figuring out the spine.
Now last night, I was experimenting with my anchor. I shoot split with a corner of the mouth anchor. I found that if I drew to anchor, paused a second then let go, I was hitting the spot. If I tried to draw and hold with my thumb under my jawbone, I had a solid anchor all right but if I held that way for several seconds, I seemed to build tension, and the arrows would kick left. I thought hmmm, maybe those arrows were of the wrong spine? So I called my buddy the squirrel and he told me what I was doing wrong. Tonight, I took his advice and I'm back to hitting again.
The purpose of all this humorous grumbling, is to say that there is way too much stuff to figure out before one can even think about shooting well. And as you all know, I haven't even scratched the surface of the rest of the things that come into play when setting up a new rig from scratch. I wonder how someone completely new to the sport can even begin to get started. I was there once, about 1962. It's been a long learning curve, since most of my archery life I drifted over to compounds and forgot a lot about what I already knew long ago. Anyway, I have to thank Bob Littlefield AKA Graysquirrel for his patience, and advice on how to figure it all out. It is fun, but so much to learn at my advanced age! I hope I live long enough to sort it all out! LOL!
I've been shooting a long time, and in the old days about any old bow and arrows would do. Now, Lordy, so much to figure out? I bought a new bow from a friend of mine that is a bowyer, who told me that the bow is a 62" but it isn't because he measures different than most folks. He gave me a string I didn't like, as it had silencers on it, and it is a heavy string anyway. Measured it, and off to the shop to find a used string in my stash. So, I dug into my tool box and got the proper length, and strand count. He likes his bows at 9" brace, as he has a long draw, but I like mine around 8 to 8 1/2, as I have a short draw. So I set the brace at 8". Took it out and noticed that my nocks are too tight. Well, gonna shoot it anyway. Arrows all over the place, and that thing sounded like a gun going off. Looked everything over, yep, everything in it's place. Raised the brace height to 8 1/2. Arrows grouping well, and getting quieter. So now have to get a new string. I know what works from prior experience, so I have to wait for it to come in to further the tuning. Now to the arrows. I shoot carbons, and again from lots of experience, I have the right ones, with regard to spine, length, point weight, fletch type, and nock . I know the bow is centershot, so that helped in figuring out the spine.
Now last night, I was experimenting with my anchor. I shoot split with a corner of the mouth anchor. I found that if I drew to anchor, paused a second then let go, I was hitting the spot. If I tried to draw and hold with my thumb under my jawbone, I had a solid anchor all right but if I held that way for several seconds, I seemed to build tension, and the arrows would kick left. I thought hmmm, maybe those arrows were of the wrong spine? So I called my buddy the squirrel and he told me what I was doing wrong. Tonight, I took his advice and I'm back to hitting again.
The purpose of all this humorous grumbling, is to say that there is way too much stuff to figure out before one can even think about shooting well. And as you all know, I haven't even scratched the surface of the rest of the things that come into play when setting up a new rig from scratch. I wonder how someone completely new to the sport can even begin to get started. I was there once, about 1962. It's been a long learning curve, since most of my archery life I drifted over to compounds and forgot a lot about what I already knew long ago. Anyway, I have to thank Bob Littlefield AKA Graysquirrel for his patience, and advice on how to figure it all out. It is fun, but so much to learn at my advanced age! I hope I live long enough to sort it all out! LOL!