Hi all,
Here we are again at the beginning of another season and I have come to the sad conclusion that I am going to have to stop shooting bare bow for as long as I am captaining our summer league team. I just cannot shoot two different styles well and as I have made a commitment to the league team that will have to take precedence over my bare bow aspirations.
I know there are lots of people who shoot more than one style but how many of them can honestly say they are shooting both as well as the could, I was finding myself using the corner of my mouth, where I anchor for bare bow when I was shooting target when I should be under my jaw. I am going to shoot bare bow but it is going to have to wait until I can either pass on the summer league hat or until the team is at a point where my score is not so important, so I have anew goal....get the summer league team up to scratch.
We have a problem with target archery at Noak Hill that I think I have mentioned before, unfortunatly it is also one of our greatest assets, we have our own record status ground that we can use from an hour after dawn till and hour before dusk 365 days of the year. "Big problem!" I hear you all shout, we should try only having a field for one or two day a week, when everyone wants to shoot at the same time and there is our catch 22. Because we can use the club at any time people are not tied shooting at set times and so they come whenever the can/want to. I see other clubs in the area with a busy shooting line with 20 or 30 people on a Sunday morning and then I look at us with five or six archers on the line, the difference is that there will be the same number almost everyday of the week and field big enough for two independent shooing areas with a safety line in the middle we don't all have to shoot at the same time, which again splits us up. This is not a huge problem for established members as they tend to come over in the same group on the same day. For beginners it can be more of a problem as once they have finished their course passed their assessment and paid their membership they are left to their own devises, don't get me wrong we have lots of people ho are more than willing to give help and advice. But with on set shooting schedule they do tend to end up just shooting at a boss with no real aim other than shooting.
So we are going to try and get back to a regular Sunday shoot, using rounds that have several options for distance we will be able to accommodate anyone who wants to shoot and start giving some direction to their shooting. The initial aim will be for archers to work up through their classifications and we will also have the odd week when we do not shoot a round but just spend the time working on good shooting maybe by pairing up a novice/improving archer with a more experience archer. I am also playing about with the idea of a sort of informal mentor type set up where each new member will have a go to person who will help them with their progression, this will I hope stop the old problem of being told six different thing by six different people. It will also mean that if you see a novice doing something not quite right you can tell their mentor and then they can deal with it with them.
So that is where I am going this season hopfuly I will be able to report back on good progress as we go forwards, but time will tell.
Good posting.......
ReplyDeleteAt our club, which I have recently found myself Ass.Chair, we currently have NO outdoor shooting facility, although we are looking at one or two sites. So we are currently shooting once a week only, which is no good, and possibly contributes to why I am a member of 2 clubs!!
Your club sounds fantastic and I like the follow on plan for mentoring novices.
I have just bought myself another bow without really having a justifiable reason for doing so, except that it is to my eyes, stunningly different and beautiful, and it is a KG Osprey, clear finish. It will keep my longbow company!
Alas, the timing is poop as I won't be able to shoot it for a while, or the Spigarelli, as I am (today) due an enforced stay in hospital.
The Spig. has been shooting as beautifully as ever, more so with the Spigarelli 30 carbon sight with which I replaced the Decut, but I am suffering still with the clicker, and more so with target panic: when I shoot bare boss, I shoot faster and group nicely.....
It would be great to hear from other Spigarelli Rev. users on how you are getting on and find this riser? As Tony has asked before, let's see your bows!!
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DeleteNice to hear you are still having fun when permitted, I know I tell everyone who has a problem with a clicker to take it off, well keep yours on. But try not using it for a few weeks, just work on shooting at say 30m you could even use a training bow and really try to keep you anchor solid, like you have a magnet in your jaw that pulls your tab/hand to it each time. Then once you have that really sorted make sure you are rolling that shoulder back for release, for me it is a case for almost pulling my fingers off the string rather than consciously letting go. All this time you are shooting on a boss with a face at short distance, when you are happy with your anchor and release get someone to watch you shoot with your revo'. Draw the bow up to your anchor and get them to check where the end of the pile is, then set your clicker so at that point it is just on the pile. This should give you a nice set up where you can come up to anchor, settle on the target and then as you role your shoulder back the clicker should go just before release, if it does not go then come back down, if this happens a few times in a row move the clicker out about 1/16th and try again until it clicks as you roll your shoulder back. This should give a set up where you are not shooting to the clicker but just after it goes, allowing you to confirm your draw/form before release.
DeleteOk I think that make sense.
Hi just got a revolution (barebow version black/white/black), I am loving the feel and the look of it. Just wondering if you find a lower brace height than a "normal" riser works in your experience ?
DeleteHi Pete, welcome to the club.
DeleteIf you read some of my earlier posts you will see that for me and most Revo' owners a higher than normal brace height works, most people seem to be in the 8-9" area. I am actually about 9.25" atm but then I have a pair of Uukha EX-1 limbs which like a high brace height as well.
I have found that easiest way to work out the best heigh is to set up a boss at about 10 meters,remove everything from the bow (sight and longrod/stabs) and then set the brace height to the lowest recommended height (about 8" for the revolution) and shoot 2-3 arrows, I can almost guarantee that you will get a loud slap (bang) from the limbs as the string hits the ends. Then add 2-3 twists the the string and repeat until the bow is quiet, the revolution is one of the quietest bows when well tuned (and you are tuning it just like a guitar too loose and it will buzz too tight and it will twang). Once you are happy with the brace height MESURE IT AND MAKE A NOTE, then put you sight and long rod/stabs back on and now you should find that it is much quieter and will feel smoother through the shot. The reason for taking off the sight ans long rod is to eliminate any vibration from the sight and to stop the long rod from dampening any vibration from the bow.. I hope this makes sence.
Nice to see someone new on these pages, welcome Pete and let Tony/us all know how you get on?
ReplyDeleteHave just starting shooting again post surgery, and have shot a dozen or so with the longbow and new field bow (KG Osprey) over the last couple of weeks, but today was the first with the Revolution, for I don't know how long!
It was good to reaquaint my self with how smooth the bow can be to shoot when one gets it right, but I very soon fell in to waiting for the clicker and target fear, for when I shot bare boss things grouped very nicely, but I only managed a couple of dozen arrows before it starts hurting..........oh well, plough on!! (I did shoot a few arrows with the Osprey too!!)
Laurie, nice to have you back and to hear that you have started shooting again, hope things go well. I still really think that once you are shooting rounds again you should take that clicker off for a few weeks and see how that effects the whole panic, pulling through thing.
DeleteIf i take it off.....it'll stay off!!!
ReplyDeleteInterestingly in Archery GB was a piece on using the clicker, and the guy said in part, it's use was to PREVENT target panic.....ho ho....that did make me giggle!
Hard practice, as the head will allow, and it slowly allows more and hurts less !! lol!!
(Its the shock through the bow arm on release.....)
When you shoot barebow (with the Revolution) do you take the sight off????
Sorry Laurie, I don't get the question, you have to take the sight off to shoot barebow.
DeleteWhich sounds reasonable.....its just I have seen someone on use a just a sight on a take down recurve, and also where would that leave those that use elastic bands on their longbows???
ReplyDeleteAh, now you are entering the murky waters of bare bow archery, with a long bow you are allowed a band as that is a traditional method of sighting and longbows shoot in a separate class to bare bows. With bare bow you are not allowed any sights or protrusions in the sight window that could be used as a reference point (which is why the original revolution bare bow was deemed to be illegal), nor are you allowed to have any reference on the upper limb which includes any logos, which is why most upper limbs are plain on the underside (facing the archer).
DeleteThen we come to me, as stated above to shoot bare bow you have to remove the sight, then with the revolution you have to cover the inside face if the riser because all those cut-outs that lighten the bow can also be used as sighting references (the bare bow version does not have all the cut-outs). But I also really like the shoot the revolution with just a sight on it (no long rod ect) and out to 60 yards I can shoot the same score with and with out a long rod but at 80 yards the extra stability does make a difference.
Ah thanks, that explains it....I think......!!!!
DeleteThe bit about taping off the inside seems a bit silly, as a wooden bow could use any mark or grain in the wood as a reference point?
"Lacky" bands on wooden bows I can understand because they are MOVEABLE reference points. (I don't use them, seems incongruous?)
It's certainly a murky area as you say. As far as my Revolution is concerned, I am now coming round to contemplating stabilisers......
If a wooden bow had a mark in the grain that was usable as a sight reference then it is possible that it might be deemed illegal for use under bare bow rules.
DeleteAre you really struggling with your target set-up?
As I have said before I am no longer shooting bare bow while I am still involved with the Summer League as I cannot shoot both styles. I keep finding my bare bow anchor point while shooting target and even when I try not to I seem to end up at a point in-between them. So maybe that is an issue, might be an idea to try just shooting target for a few weeks and see if it improves.
Re target rig: I think a lot of it is the old problem of frequency, and becoming both target shy indoors and clicker anticipation. Because of the brain surgery I haven't shot until recently.for about 3 months....and then I go and complicate all by adding the KG Osprey thing, which I love! Just get it out and shoot, but better and faster than my longbow!!
ReplyDeleteI couldn't as yet shoot a Portsmouth? (60? arrows)
However, have just had my first little 80x shoot on my own outdoors, lost a ACE :-(
but really had fun and have been convinced to add stabilisers......
The only way I think to sort this, is practice and more practice........but life and a choice of bow can get in the way!!!
Have now got to shoot again a couple of times outdoors at 50x and 80x....that seems to ease the clicker/target fear, getting enjoyable again...even if it does take an age to set the bow up and then dismantle!! ( and yes stabilisers now added....)
ReplyDeleteGood to hear that you are moving forwards again Laurie, how are you finding shooting with the full stab' set-up ?
DeleteSend in a pic' when you get a chance on show us your revo'