feeling OVERWHELMED
05-12-2003, 11:43 AM
#11
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Pittsburgh PA
Posts: 947
RE: feeling OVERWHELMED
I try to keep it simple, but I also do like the technical aspect of the sport. I like to tinker with my bow, changing this or modifying that. But only go as far as I can fix myself. I paper tune at 6 feet then at 10 yards and if its good then I walk away. I never bare shaft tuned or group tuned my broadheads. I' m just not that experienced to do that. Hell I' m lucky to hold a pattern at 40 let alone group tune at 50. My advise would be to only do what you can handle. If it gets to confusing or frustrating then leave it and have fun shooting.
05-12-2003, 01:45 PM
#12
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: East Yapank NY USA
Posts: 3,457
RE: feeling OVERWHELMED
Shooting is the easy boring part[:-]
If I don' t have an allen key in my hand I am not having fun
I don' t know whats more fun -
screwing up a perfectly good set-up with useless junk
Or trying to fix it after you have screwed it up
If I don' t have an allen key in my hand I am not having fun
I don' t know whats more fun -
screwing up a perfectly good set-up with useless junk
Or trying to fix it after you have screwed it up
05-12-2003, 02:20 PM
#13
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Memphis TN USA
Posts: 3,445
RE: feeling OVERWHELMED
Archery can be as simple or as hard as you want it to be. You are fairly new to the sport so don' t wory too much about getting wound up into all of the hoopla. The best advice that I can give you is to just settle down and concentrate on you and not what everyone else is doing.
05-13-2003, 11:54 AM
#14
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Stratford CT
Posts: 80
RE: feeling OVERWHELMED
Get yourself a used recurve. It' s medicinal. When you' re feeling overwhelmed by the technical aspects of the game, pick it up and just go fling some arras. Not only is it a heck of a lot of fun and damned good exercise for building back muscles needed for back tension, but it helps you appreciate just how accurate your compound is and will help you appreciate the ease of accuracy you get with your compound. The downside is that you might end up liking it so much you eschew the compound completely.
05-14-2003, 06:14 AM
#15
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: crawfordville florida USA
Posts: 1,251
RE: feeling OVERWHELMED
I know how you feel. Ive been bowhunting for 20+ years and the tuning process gets to me too. Just when my bow starts shooting good, all of a sudden something goes out of wack. STring stretch, loose part, serving gives and nocking point slips,
cam timing off, aaaaaagggghhhhhhh!
To make matters worse. These so called pro shops alot of times are filled with no it alls who definately dont know what they are doing. Instead of setting up your bow correctly to get you close where you need to be, they do everything BY EYE and you end up having to make major corrections instead of minor adjustments.
Todays lightning fast bows seem to make fine tuning even more of an art.
Anyway, I' ll quit rambling on. Try to find a good book on compound bow tuning and learn as much as you can. Good luck and dont give up. [:-]
cam timing off, aaaaaagggghhhhhhh!
To make matters worse. These so called pro shops alot of times are filled with no it alls who definately dont know what they are doing. Instead of setting up your bow correctly to get you close where you need to be, they do everything BY EYE and you end up having to make major corrections instead of minor adjustments.
Todays lightning fast bows seem to make fine tuning even more of an art.
Anyway, I' ll quit rambling on. Try to find a good book on compound bow tuning and learn as much as you can. Good luck and dont give up. [:-]
05-14-2003, 07:00 AM
#16
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Baltimore Maryland USA
Posts: 1,385
RE: feeling OVERWHELMED
To show you that you' re not in this boat alone, I had a unique experience with my personal bow yesterday. One of my shooters, who is a 4 time National Champion and just set new State and National records (Atlantic City), makes the best strings I' ve ever used.
He made me one and said it was the best string he' d ever made. I was anxious to put it on. Now that it is on, I' ve got to go through the whole tuning process again. When you want it right, you have to start from ' ground zero' - resetting the yoke, the ATA, the BH, and then the entire tuning process.[:@]
It was shooting perfectly and I had to go and change it.
He made me one and said it was the best string he' d ever made. I was anxious to put it on. Now that it is on, I' ve got to go through the whole tuning process again. When you want it right, you have to start from ' ground zero' - resetting the yoke, the ATA, the BH, and then the entire tuning process.[:@]
It was shooting perfectly and I had to go and change it.
05-14-2003, 08:59 AM
#17
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia USA
Posts: 226
RE: feeling OVERWHELMED
heres a few parts of an anothers archers thread I found which really kinda hits home to me....
a rather well seasoned archer once said. The problem with many " potentially" great archers is that they become so technologically knowledgeable about archery that they become dysfunctional. their knowledge of archery forms a barrier between them and their target. " my initial thought was " how can you become too knowledgeable about anything and how could it be a barrier ? I thought knowledge was a vehicle to success."
Then a few days after a very poor performance at a local 3 d shoot as i sat on my couch reflecting on my performance the seasoned archers words came back to me and I understood.
There was a time not so very long ago when archery was simple to me, aim hard, and do everything on the last shot as you did on the first, have faith in your equiptment and dont count an arrow out till its hit its target. During that time I didnt even know squat about draw force curves, efficiency, limb tip travel, brace height, cam timing, arrow parralax, sight paradox, KE ,FOC, hysterious, tiller tuning, bare shaft tuning,plumb bob tuning,float testing shafts, 3rd axis, helical/ offset fletching,target panic,or back tension and you know what? I did pretty darn good anyway. At present I do know about all those things and you know what?
Im not near the point I wish I were as an archer. See ,I have let my technical knowledge form a barrier between me and my target. Due to all my reading , learning,and experimenting, I have become an archery Idiot. Sure I can be an asset to many archers when it comes to assisting them in bow set ups and tuning but I want to be a good archer Not a renowned bow mechanic! During the process of my archery education I have probably tried every process and gadget know to man... The result being that I have wasted many prime years believing that if I could perfectly tune a bow, understand bow function, find the ultimate release, and learn the techniques of the most sucessful archers, I would be a contender.
The fact of the matter
is , there is no such thing as the single ultimate tune, bow function is best left up to the engineers to worry about, the ultimate release is the one that works best for the individual,and the only successful technique is the one that works for you. We allow archery to become rocket science! Manufactures bank on us to believe that the next gadget we purchase is the answer to our prayers and archery magazine writers prey on our desires to find a magic solution to keep them in business.
This may sound like bad mouthing the archery industry to some or the technilogical aspect of archery, but my intention in this thread is to share with some of you a revelation Ive had to some who may be in my shoes. The moral of this story is just this: Keep the basics basic, do what works for you, focus on the aiming and repeating the shot process, and forget all the hoopla. All the information and gadgetry in the world will not help you like perfection of a natural form, technique and shot sequence will.
From this point on I plan to focus on what works for me. I have now gone back to my natural grip, not the one recommended by Joe Pro- I have gone back to my favorite release,not the back tension release that some designer/guru claims to be the only right way to release an arrow, and I have gone back to what works for me. I plan on keeping my tinkering to nothing more than elementary tuning....
Keep It Simple Stupid ! Aim Hard and miss small! If archery were rocket science NASA would have a label on your bow.
a rather well seasoned archer once said. The problem with many " potentially" great archers is that they become so technologically knowledgeable about archery that they become dysfunctional. their knowledge of archery forms a barrier between them and their target. " my initial thought was " how can you become too knowledgeable about anything and how could it be a barrier ? I thought knowledge was a vehicle to success."
Then a few days after a very poor performance at a local 3 d shoot as i sat on my couch reflecting on my performance the seasoned archers words came back to me and I understood.
There was a time not so very long ago when archery was simple to me, aim hard, and do everything on the last shot as you did on the first, have faith in your equiptment and dont count an arrow out till its hit its target. During that time I didnt even know squat about draw force curves, efficiency, limb tip travel, brace height, cam timing, arrow parralax, sight paradox, KE ,FOC, hysterious, tiller tuning, bare shaft tuning,plumb bob tuning,float testing shafts, 3rd axis, helical/ offset fletching,target panic,or back tension and you know what? I did pretty darn good anyway. At present I do know about all those things and you know what?
Im not near the point I wish I were as an archer. See ,I have let my technical knowledge form a barrier between me and my target. Due to all my reading , learning,and experimenting, I have become an archery Idiot. Sure I can be an asset to many archers when it comes to assisting them in bow set ups and tuning but I want to be a good archer Not a renowned bow mechanic! During the process of my archery education I have probably tried every process and gadget know to man... The result being that I have wasted many prime years believing that if I could perfectly tune a bow, understand bow function, find the ultimate release, and learn the techniques of the most sucessful archers, I would be a contender.
The fact of the matter
is , there is no such thing as the single ultimate tune, bow function is best left up to the engineers to worry about, the ultimate release is the one that works best for the individual,and the only successful technique is the one that works for you. We allow archery to become rocket science! Manufactures bank on us to believe that the next gadget we purchase is the answer to our prayers and archery magazine writers prey on our desires to find a magic solution to keep them in business.
This may sound like bad mouthing the archery industry to some or the technilogical aspect of archery, but my intention in this thread is to share with some of you a revelation Ive had to some who may be in my shoes. The moral of this story is just this: Keep the basics basic, do what works for you, focus on the aiming and repeating the shot process, and forget all the hoopla. All the information and gadgetry in the world will not help you like perfection of a natural form, technique and shot sequence will.
From this point on I plan to focus on what works for me. I have now gone back to my natural grip, not the one recommended by Joe Pro- I have gone back to my favorite release,not the back tension release that some designer/guru claims to be the only right way to release an arrow, and I have gone back to what works for me. I plan on keeping my tinkering to nothing more than elementary tuning....
Keep It Simple Stupid ! Aim Hard and miss small! If archery were rocket science NASA would have a label on your bow.
05-14-2003, 09:41 AM
#18
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Crosby TX USA
Posts: 2,599
RE: feeling OVERWHELMED
Amen to that!!
I' ve wanted to wrap my bows around the nearest tree also.
A co-worker of mine got in and out of archery in 6 months time, he said it was " too" hard. A simple vane contact issue was his demise.
I' ve wanted to wrap my bows around the nearest tree also.
A co-worker of mine got in and out of archery in 6 months time, he said it was " too" hard. A simple vane contact issue was his demise.
05-14-2003, 10:35 AM
#19
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: uniontown,pa
Posts: 881
RE: feeling OVERWHELMED
just do what you were doing before, if your arrows are grouping good why mess with them on the the hand ,like rack attack said whats more fun ,screwing up a good setup with useless junk or trying to fix it after you' ve screwed it up?
don' t let it get you down and if you' re not into the technical stuff ,thats why there are pro shops ,you can pay someone to fix the mess you or i call a bow! hang in there[:-]
don' t let it get you down and if you' re not into the technical stuff ,thats why there are pro shops ,you can pay someone to fix the mess you or i call a bow! hang in there[:-]
05-15-2003, 03:43 AM
#20
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Vinton VA
Posts: 2,978
RE: feeling OVERWHELMED
I am sort of an odd ball as I love to tinker, but I agree sometimes it can get a bit overwhelming. I think you may be a little hard on yourself though. I have seen you shoot, and yes you have some room for improvement, as do I and 99% of the rest of us here, but for only being in the sport for a little over 2 years and alreay killing several deer I think your on the right track!