Sometimes, it is the bow.

Over the last few weeks as the weather has turned wintry I have started shooting indoors and I have had a problem. While shooting outdoors my arrows have been tending to drift to the right (but still hitting gold when I should ), which I have put down to switching from freestyle  to barebow and the changes to my form, anchor and release that has led to.

But coming indoors I found that I could not get in the gold without aiming off and that is not right, if I didn't aim off I was shooing a nice line from 2 o'clock red to 5 o'clock red, so I have been really working on keeping my form and release tight but it didn't help and I have adjusted my centre shot and button every which way but to no avail. A couple of times arrow spine has come up in conversation, but these are the same arrows I was shooting freestyle and I had 40lb limbs then as I do now.......but when I got these arrows I was using my old Uukha EX1s and now I have the EVO2s , which have the same draw weight but defiantly "feel" faster, then I though if my arrows are tending right that would indicate a slightly weak spine. So  last weekend I started of buy letting off both my limb bots by 2 turns (which should be about 1.5-2lbs), then setup my bow and shot a Portsmouth. Well so far I had only managed a 433 and straight off I shot a 504 and then after a short break I managed a 532!

So a lesson f'or me, I usually start looking at the archer is there is a problem and then the bow. in this case I was so sure of my equipment that I did not think to question it.

Just a little post to show off our new indoor range, which some of our members have built, the whole of the right hand side can be removed to allow shooting from under cover. 

While I am on here I will update on my new limbs as well. I shot them on Sunday in a frostbite and I still like them a lot, I also had the first chance I have had to weight them on the bow and I got a bit of a surprise. My Kaya Tomcats were rated as 34 lb @ 28" and with them fully wound in I had weighed them at 37.5 lb, now the Uuhkas are rated at 40 lb @ 28" so with them wound out I was expecting a small overall increase in weight, what I got was 42.7 lb nearly five pounds more, no wonder they feel like hard work! Guess I need to spend more time building up my strength. I will have to see if there are any funky training aids at the European Festival on Saturday.

I got them and they are..................

OK so Christmas has been and gone and  have my nice new shiny Uuhka EX-1s. With the filthy weather and the need to be sociable over the festive season, it was not until the 31st of December that I managed to get up to the club and have a proper got with them. I did have a rather stupid go in the back garden on Christmas day (yes I know I always so don't do it unless you have a proper safe area to shoot), I just wanted to try them so shot two arrows into the lawn, or that's what I meant to do (you know it's not going to go well don't you), the first one was fine and felt nice the second one went a bit further up the garden and embedded itself in one of the sleepers we have setup in front of the throwing board (my son has no interest in archery but instead throws knives and now axes) it is only about twenty feet away and you heard the shaft fracture as it hit, when I tried  to pull it the pile and about one and a half inches of shaft stayed in the sleeper and the rest came away.
Anyway I did get to the club, had my first go in our new indoor range and shot my first indoor round. I had done a bit of setting up before hand and as I have gone up fair bit in weight from my 34lb Tomcats to the 40lb EX-1s I moved the limb bolts from all the way in to all the way out ( I am planning on getting the at least halfway back in by the time the summer season starts......where are those bands), so at 28" I would in theory be going from about 36lb to 38lb. Spigarelli recommend an 8-9" brace height and Uuhka say about 9" on a 68" bow for the EX-1s, when I first strung it up it was at 8.75" so I started there. The limbs are a little bit tight on the limb bolts so it is hard to settle them before you shoot and my first shot had a nice loud crack to it as did my second, third and forth, hmm that string is slapping on those limbs (they really do have an impressive recurve on them), time to look at that brace height. I took it up to 8 and seven eighths and it was a bit better but still there so up it went a bit more and a bit more until it hit a sweet spot at 9 1/8".

  On to shooting and how they feel, well my first impression once the brace height was sorted is that they feel quite a bit heavier than the Tomcats, after just two and a half dozen arrows I felt just about done, they also feel faster than the Tomcats with more of a snap to the shot. But of course all of this is very subjective, I don't normally analyze how my bow feels I just shoot it so when I am looking for a difference I'm going to find one even if it is not there and until I weight the bow and maybe see if I can borrow a chrono I can't really confirm anything. One thing I can say is that they feel very smooth through the draw and seem very stable to shoot even if it did seem harder to hold at full draw while settling on the gold.  I shot a Bray, my first indoor round and my first round with my new limbs, I scored 205, no records there but no too bad as that included working out a sight mark and then 2 days later shot a 220 so heading in the right direction.

  One thing I have noticed on the limbs is cracking on the decals on the back of them obviously due to the outside edge stretching as they bow is drawn and something I have seen mention by others. I did try a few shots outside from 30yrds out to 80yrds and even wound in there is a big improvement in sight marks, they went up when I changed from Skyart Sapphires to my ACGs but are now better then they were wih the Skyarts, whether I can hit 100yrds will have to wait until I work up to getting them wound back in and we have some better weather.

Now I just can't wait till Christmas.

A few months ago I was talking to my wife about stuff and she said that we would have to start thinking about what we would like for Christmas. I said "well the only thing that I would really like would be a new pair of limbs" and told her that as I was pretty much at the edge of my range at 80 yards with my current ones that a new pair with a bit more weight would be a good move. I had been looking at the Uuhka  EX1s, my current limbs (which I have been more than happy with) are a pair of 34lb medium Kaya Tomcat Carbons (labeled as K3 since 2012). As I have said I am right at the bottom of my sight with it pulled all the way in at 80 yards and in a strong head wind I have to aim a little bit high on the gold. I am holding about 38lbs with the limbs all the way in and a 29" draw, so I thought I would go for the 40lb EX1s and wind the limbs all the way out so I think I will start off at about 40lbs on my fingers. Then I saw that Uuhka would be a Telford for the European Archery Festival in January so decided to wait until then and go have a look at them there.......and then ordered a pair without even trying them out (like I always do).

The on Thursday last week they arrived and guess what? My darling wife has taken them away and said I will get them back on Christmas day! grrrrrrrrrrr........

European Archery Festival.

I have been thinking of getting a new pair of limbs, as I currently can't go much beyond 80 yards with my Kaya Tomcat Carbons, I don't want to got much higher weight wise so I was looking at something a fit faster maybe and the Uuhka EX-1s caught my eye. My current limbs are 34lb so I was thinking of maybe going up to a pair of 38lb EX-1s at the end of the current season (could be a christmas present) so I don't mess up my progress. Then I noticed that the European Archery Festival is coming to the UK in January (http://www.europeanarcheryfestival.com/) and Uuhka will be one of the exibitors along with many other top manufactures. So guess what I am going to  do that weekend, I think I will travel up to Telford by train from London after work on the friday stay somewhere overnight ( maybe a hedge as it would seem most hotels are already getting quite busy) and then go to the show on the Saturday.