Archery
I’ve been an archer since at least the 7th grade. I started even before that with a baby traditional bow when I was very young. Today I consider myself pretty good at bow recurve and compound bows. I’m not going to be in the Olympics any time soon, but I can hold my own. Anything at least 2 ft square within 40 yards will be hit with a bare recurve. That will shrink to 1 ft square with my sighted compound. Anything outside of that, and we get a “maybe” and an “I’m working on it” with my compound and an “eventually” with my recurve.My first bow was a recurve. I still have it today. It’s a AMO 58″ Mamba which is 40 pounds at 28″ draw. I have an arrow rest on it and have it nocked at just about 1/8″-1/4″ above the rest. I shot off the shelf for a little while, but decided against it and put on a rest because the arrow slides around a little too much.
From that I taught myself how to be an archer, with a little help from the people at the now extinct KC Archery in Lee’s Summit, to shoot. With that bow I shot no sights and shot finger release, at distances of about 10-30 yards in my backyard. This was a little more than unsafe, but it worked out well as no one got hit… but it was close a couple times. I was able to hit about anything milk jug sized with that within 30 yards, and still can after a couple shots. It’s a little small for me now, but I can still shoot at 20-30 yards pretty darn accurately. Further than that and it’ll take me a 2 or 3 tries.
My new(er) bow is a 55-75 pound Golden Eagle compound called “PREDATOR 2 CLI ASPEN- WHL” on the bottom limb. I have no idea when I bought it… sometime in high school I believe. It’s set to about 65 pounds or so. Just enough so that I can draw it and hold it with a little “unf” but that I can do it about 50 times before I get a little tired.
My draw length is 30″ and I think that’s perfect for me. It came out well before the new greater-than 50% letoffs, so it’s a beast. For a long time I shot fingers and with brass pin sights and a normal, plastic, stuck on the bow, rest just like my recurve rest. Sights were a little hard to get used to, but coming from a fingers background I think that really helped me be a better archery than someone starting with a compound and sights. I got pretty good with that too.
Then about 5 or so years pass and I didn’t shoot very much. I ran out of people to shoot with.
So then I started shooting again. I went out there to shoot starting at 10 yards just to be safe. Still was easy. Back to 20. Still ok. Back to 30 pretty ok, little rusty
Then I looked at all the new and crazy developments in the 5 or so years I was away. Sights now come in neon colors, just about everyone shoots with a release now, and rests are almost always overdraws too.
So I started on a release, a SplitFire release, and I really like it. It helped me shoot right down the line instead of thinking “archer’s paradox” and shooting a little down and to the right to “compensate” (even though that’s the problem 
). Now I can just aim with the site and shoot. I’ve broken down and installed a peep sight on my bow. After 40 yards I think it’ll really help me a lot… but inside that, I think that just any forward point is good enough to come within a foot of center… and if the more you are used to your bow, I think the closer to center that will get… but outside of 40 yards, windage matters a lot and an even more measurable (not just a feeling) consistent center is absolutely necessary or a small margin of error creates too huge of problems to get a reasonably consistent result so to be able to adjust properly… still… I believe peep sights and kisser buttons and all that stuff are like training wheels for a bow… but I think that outside of 40 yards that one needs a little help anyway or you’ll be loosing arrows left and right while you figure out those distances… at least… in this point in my archery career.
I added the little string loop on the back of serving area around the knock. I guess others like the release loops “bolted” to their servings, but I’m not down with that cuz a string should be a string. I also took off the “regular” rest and put on the exact same Golden Key Futura overdraw/rest. It takes 2 alan wrenches to adjust, but coming from a recurve background… once it’s set “right” it’s not the rest that adjusts.. but I spent so long on tuning the bow, I think it is close to good. It seems to be shooting pretty straight without much waggling from the arrows.
What is a “correct” bow setup for me? Correct nocks are 1/8″ to 1/4″ above the rest on the serving. Correct rests are such that the nock doesn’t create any windage in the arrow when leaving the bow. Thus, at a resting position, a nocked arrow can be eyeballed to be in the center of the string all the way down the arrow looking down the shaft from behind the nocking point. This point I can find just about nothing about… tip on how these overdraw sites should be centered. I’ve also heard that you can tell if it’s centered by standing the bow on the ground on the bottom cam and looking down from the top cam. The bow’s cable guard should be parallel with the arrow… I don’t think this is right because that guard can be kinda hooked. A PDF that I think is helpful in this is here. I think it’s a little overboard, and it’s in metric, but it’s got all the tests I’ve ever heard of plus more in it.
The most important thing, I think, in archery is getting used to your bow in relation to your body and how you release. It’s a feeling. It’s not a magical feeling or some sorta voodoo, but it’s not something that you can measure exactly. There are tons of adjustments that can be made to your bow to make it better, but it STARTS with YOU. The bow must be adjusted to you and you to your bow…. your bow is an extension of your body. Your bow will change very little, if at all, during a session or even long periods of time and so you must find a consistent way of shooting, but relaxed too. This is also very important. This finding of both a consistent way of shooting and a relaxed way of shooting are important. Shooting should be an easy feeling. If you are tense… call it a day and rest and start working out your arms and shoulders during the week. You are gonna shoot like shit if you keep it up. You’ll end up pulling your back shoulder during a release (a miss to the far right) or your front forearm will get tired (inconsistent grouping).
Couple tips that have helped me a ton (all self taught )
- Keep your shooting eye open on the follow through. I know this should be obvious but there’s a marked difference between keeping your eye open or not. Not both, just the one will do, until the arrow has completely left the bow. This is part of “freezing” during the follow through”. If you keep your eye open, you’ll see your arrow and exactly where it goes. Don’t blink.
- Stance. Stance should be comforatable. Yes, you’ll read “stand perpendicular to the target” and some interpret this as “completely perpedicular” like toes pointed at a 90 degree angle and stuff. I say no. Don’t do that. Your grouping will be erratic because your follow through will suck. Hard to explain, but that’s what happens. I went back to standing like I did with my recurve… just relaxed… almost like a fighting stance, but feet still basically perpendicular to the target, but front foot a little more turned out… also front foot a little ahead of the back one… so just almost standing there normally… halfway between a shiko dachi and a nami dachi but standing up pretty straight to use BK terms… that helped the most… grouping was way better. This is for ME though… you might be different and that is ok. Find a stance that works for you and keep it. It should never be forced though… think perpendicular, but natural, when it comes to standing.
- First is grouping at various distances with your bow. This is a common misconception with beginners. Not hitting the bullseye can be fixed if you have good grouping with your bow. If you can hit the same point, but not the bullseye, from the same distance (well at least 20 yards ) 50 times in a row, you are really good with that bow at that
distance. Notice the qualifications there. To the beginner: Don’t try and fix your bow before you have good grouping. Not having good grouping means there is something REALLY wrong with your bow setup or fundamentally wrong with you during the shots. Most likely it’s you and not the bow. I’ve never seen a bow fuck up shots anywhere near as many times as I’ve seen the people screw up from just being new at it or just occasionally “boofing” and arrow… and that’s ok. Getting good takes practice, it’s normal. But once you get good grouping, fix your sights and/or adjust your aim, but not until then. - Second is being able to judge distances and shoot “between the pins”. You won’t have a pin for every single distance. You need to be able to guess distances well… at least sitting behind your bow. This goes back to feeling and being used to your bow. You will begin to see the world in terms of 20 yard increments and fractions thereof. You must be able to judge distances… much like how you judge distances when throwing a baseball, but you have the added ability to have some visual frame of reference… ie, the other pins of which you know their distances.
- Third, and this is something everyone in every sport must work on, being calm. Was you last arrow you shot a piece of shit that went flying out to no where and you probably bent the shit out of it if not lost it? It happens and it’s ok. Be calm.
When should one get a compound bow with sights and start shooting for the gold? My answer, after you shoot a barebow recurve and can hit within a foot of center of the target at up to 40 yards but at least 20. Getting good (within a foot) at 20 to 40 yards with a bare recurve is graduation time I think… time for compound and sights… still though… one should keep their recurve skills in a “pretty ok” state such that one is able to hit a diameter of 4ft (Olympic size target) at AT LEAST 20 yards at really up to 40 after a couple shots.
Some links:
[1] Great article on no-sights, traditional bow or recurve shooting. A must read.
[2] How a compound works in easy to understand language.
[3] Different sighting systems.
[4] Olympic Archery.