OK guys been doing this blog for a while now and I know people out there are reading it but I am not getting much feed back. So either I am covering everything and getting it all right first time or I am really failing. I will publish all comments as long as they are suitable for my son to read and not blatant commercial adverts. So come on lets have some input, even if it just to say "your blog stinks I hate it".
Saturday, 11 January 2014
Friday, 10 January 2014
OK lets sort out this grip (Part One)
So let's see if this works, the first thing I did was remove the grip by undoing the single screw that holds it on, I then cleaned the area of the risers under the grip to remove any grease. I then applied a layer of Sugru about 2mm think over the area.
Next I covered the area with a layer of cling film to stop the handle sticking to the Sugru (it is fairly easy to get of non porous material but can be a real pain on wood the like) so that I can still remove it when I want. Next I put the grip back on and pressed in down firmly to form the layer of Sugru and line up the fixing screw, which I then put back in.
So in theory that's it job done, the Sugru will normally take about twenty four hours to cure (2 mm thickness if it was thicker it would take longer) and will then be like a layer of rubber firmly fixed to the riser. Well I did that last night so tonight when I get in from work I can have a look and see how it is doing, I am expecting it to take a bit longer to cure because it is tucked away under the clingfilm and the grip but we will see and I will report back.
Thursday, 9 January 2014
That ********** grip!
Ok so as the title says I am going to have a look at the grip on my Revo', it is one of the things that bugs a lot of owners as they always seem to have quite a bit of movement. Well I have been thinking about it for a while and have now decided to do something about it and my solution is Sugru. If you have not heard of it, it is a bit like silicon but comes in small sachets and can be used for lots of thing. What I will do is take off my grip apply a layer of sugru then put some cling film over it and refit the grip. The idea is that when the grip goes back on it will form the sugru to the correct shape to take up the gaps and stop the grip moving but as it stays flexible it should act as a cushion, the cling film is to stop the grip sticking on and will be removed once it has cured. I will post some images as I do it and report back on how well it works.
Saturday, 4 January 2014
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.
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.
Tuesday, 12 November 2013
What's happening?
Anyone have any ideas why suddenly I am getting more views from Germany than anywhere else when it has always been about the third highest.
Monday, 11 November 2013
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........
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........
Saturday, 9 November 2013
Training off the range....
Well I did say a long time ago that I was going to do a little post about training off the range (at home indoors) but never got round to doing it so here we go.
With the British weather and just life in general I often find that I cannot spend as much time shooting as I would like and know from last year how badly that can affect my form, stamina and shooting in general. So I try to be good and do a little bit of training at home each evening when I get in from work, even if it is just ten or twenty reversals, using your bow or a stretchy band go through you shot cycle without an arrow knocked but DO NOT release, instead hold as if you are on the gold for 5-20 sec, roll your shoulder back and then come down slowly (I will talk about this in a little bit). It is very handy if you have a mirror that you can see your whole body in when doing reversals as you can check that you are keeping a good form and that you have a nice line from the bow hand all the way back to your string arm elbow. How long you hold for depends on what your are trying to achieve and how heavy the band/bow is, when I have time I will do maybe 10 sets of six with a medium band and hold for about 10 seconds each time with a 10 second rest in between each reversal and 20 seconds in between each set. I am not going for a cardio workout with this I am just reinforcing my draw cycle and each time I come up I am going through the same mental checklist as when I shoot.
If I want to look at my form I will use a light band so that it takes very little effort to hold full draw and I can take time to look and feel where my hands, shoulders and elbows are. Knowing exactly where your hands and shoulders etc are is a big part of having a good form but many archers struggle with it, I have seen people being coached and being told to anchor their string hand under their chin and they are insisting that it is when everybody watching can see it is along side their jaw. They are not lying, it really feels like their hand is under the jaw, this is because they have not learned how it feels when the hand is under the jaw, the same goes for the draw arm elbow, lots of archers have a high elbow but when told about it say no I can feel it is down (they mean it feels 'like' it is down). Standing in front of a mirror allows you to see exactly what you are doing and to 'feel' what you are doing.
To build strength and stamina I use a 'custom' training aid, I have a spare grip from an old bow with which I use a medium and a heavy stretch band so that it is like holding my bow I have then put a 2 kg dumbbell into the grip and used some tape to hold it in place. Now i have a training aid that I can use to build strength into the muscles that draw the bow and also the ones that hold the bow up. I don't do much other training as I am quite a keen cyclist and rely on that to maintain my core strength, but if I did not do that then I would need to be working on that.
One other thing that I think helps with my form and shot cycle is to mentally go through it during the corse of a normal day, just take twenty seconds a few times a day and go through your shot cycle in your head 'feeling' the shot as you do it. I think it is all to do with the fact that when you just think about moving your arm for example, your brain starts to send small signals to the muscles that you will use even before you have made a conscious effort to move it.
With the British weather and just life in general I often find that I cannot spend as much time shooting as I would like and know from last year how badly that can affect my form, stamina and shooting in general. So I try to be good and do a little bit of training at home each evening when I get in from work, even if it is just ten or twenty reversals, using your bow or a stretchy band go through you shot cycle without an arrow knocked but DO NOT release, instead hold as if you are on the gold for 5-20 sec, roll your shoulder back and then come down slowly (I will talk about this in a little bit). It is very handy if you have a mirror that you can see your whole body in when doing reversals as you can check that you are keeping a good form and that you have a nice line from the bow hand all the way back to your string arm elbow. How long you hold for depends on what your are trying to achieve and how heavy the band/bow is, when I have time I will do maybe 10 sets of six with a medium band and hold for about 10 seconds each time with a 10 second rest in between each reversal and 20 seconds in between each set. I am not going for a cardio workout with this I am just reinforcing my draw cycle and each time I come up I am going through the same mental checklist as when I shoot.
If I want to look at my form I will use a light band so that it takes very little effort to hold full draw and I can take time to look and feel where my hands, shoulders and elbows are. Knowing exactly where your hands and shoulders etc are is a big part of having a good form but many archers struggle with it, I have seen people being coached and being told to anchor their string hand under their chin and they are insisting that it is when everybody watching can see it is along side their jaw. They are not lying, it really feels like their hand is under the jaw, this is because they have not learned how it feels when the hand is under the jaw, the same goes for the draw arm elbow, lots of archers have a high elbow but when told about it say no I can feel it is down (they mean it feels 'like' it is down). Standing in front of a mirror allows you to see exactly what you are doing and to 'feel' what you are doing.
To build strength and stamina I use a 'custom' training aid, I have a spare grip from an old bow with which I use a medium and a heavy stretch band so that it is like holding my bow I have then put a 2 kg dumbbell into the grip and used some tape to hold it in place. Now i have a training aid that I can use to build strength into the muscles that draw the bow and also the ones that hold the bow up. I don't do much other training as I am quite a keen cyclist and rely on that to maintain my core strength, but if I did not do that then I would need to be working on that.
One other thing that I think helps with my form and shot cycle is to mentally go through it during the corse of a normal day, just take twenty seconds a few times a day and go through your shot cycle in your head 'feeling' the shot as you do it. I think it is all to do with the fact that when you just think about moving your arm for example, your brain starts to send small signals to the muscles that you will use even before you have made a conscious effort to move it.
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