Lesson Learned (A not so tuning story)

[Trumpkin the Dwarf]

Arrow tuning tends to be a recurring topic of discussion around here. And for good reason, straight flying arrows give us confidence and help us shoot better. But I ran into some tuning issues recently that have given me pause, and I thought I should pass along my lesson learned.

I was shooting the same arrow I've had set up for 5 years, and noticed they were acting far weaker than they should have. I've been blank baling mostly, and assumed my draw length was a more consistent length (and longer) than the last time I'd tuned. So I set out to weaken these arrows enough to fly straight. With 250 grains of point weight I thought it'd be a cinch...    :rolleyes:  

Over the last couple weeks, I've tried taking 100 grains off, which helped, but didn't do enough to be happy. So I raised my brace height. That didn't do much either, except eliminate a pesky string slap induced forearm welt. So I dropped another 25 grains, and doubled the thickness of the side shelf. Unfortunately that didn't help at all!


Finally it hit me last night... none of my blank bale work has been focused on my release. I have been putting effort in to back tension, back tension, back tension, and because my string hand was flying back at the shot I thought my release was fine. Frustrated, and out of ideas, I decided to just try and achieve a super smooth release to prove that it wasn't the problem with my arrow flight last night... Holy smokes!                

That did the trick!!! Arrows were suddenly flying straight and free, like the missiles they were made to be! Anyways, all that to say, before you get all caught up in adjusting the gear, make sure the blockhead behind the apparatus is doing the job the right way. Cheers!

[moebow]

Seems like someone around here has taken that position for quite a while.        
Arne

[McDave]

I think you raise a good point, Malachi.  People don't pay enough attention to their releases.  It has even been removed as a separate step in the execution of the shot.  But you can have good releases or bad releases, regardless of what happens with the rest of the shot.  If you read archery books of 50-100 years ago, release was the main thing they talked about.  There's got to be a happy medium between having it be the main thing everybody focuses on and eliminating it from the shot sequence.

[Trumpkin the Dwarf]

I think the most interesting thing to me in all this, is that I did have some tuning issues. As I've been working at it again today, I've climbed back to 175 grains of point weight. That is still half of what it was before. Its sometimes a compounding of multiple issues, and we need to be willing to address archery without a 'magic bullet' mentality.

[Lonehowl]

My #1 problem has been my release. I have driven myself mad with all of the tuning variables over the years,spine, length, weight this and that... and finally one day I realized that my hand/fingers were just not positioned quite right. My hand was cocked a little in towards my face when I pulled the string back, and I was plucking and torquing the string a lot. My natural hold was my problem. I trained myself to straighten my hand up inline with the string and I immediatly started shooting better than ever.

Mark

[batbow]

If you want too see how much your fingers affect arrow flight, throw on a mechanical release for a couple shots!
When I first got back into trad shooting I was having release issues, And I could not get an arrow to tune to save my life.
I was pretty sure it was my crappy release form.
So I grabbed the mechanical release I use on the compound bow, and man the bare shafts flew so perfect I almost gave up on trying to learn how to have a clean finger release!
I have perservered and now I have a pretty decent release.

[Shadowhnter]

I've said for years...whether folks realize it or not the #1 problem archers have is release....and it's also the #1 most over looked under emphasized factor.

[Rick Richard]

I believe if you have proper back tension and control of the bow arm then the release is much better.

[Trumpkin the Dwarf]

Originally posted by Rick Richard:
I believe if you have proper back tension and control of the bow arm then the release is much better.

Hey Rick! I was/am operating on this belief as well. IN my case, my subconscious associated a hand flying back on release as part of having good back tension. This led to me yanking/plucking the string out and rearward at release under the mistaken assumption that it was part of good back tension. I think back tension and the release need to be treated as separate parts of the shot now, you need both to be good.

[David McLendon]

Release is something that I have had to become more conscious of over the years. Thirty years ago I was shooting an 83# bow and considered 65# my lightweight bow. With that poundage generally comes a very clean release, but now at 60 y/o and much wear and tear of life later I am shooting 55#. I find that I need to be aware of my release as I have a tendency to rotate my draw hand out thus torqueing the string and lower limb out of line.

[moebow]

Get relaxed David.  IF you are twisting the string then you are also forcing the bow to stay at the angle your are used to seeing.  So you are twisting the string one way AND twisting the bow in the opposite direction.  A formula for inconsistent arrows on target.

Relax the string hand and arm, don't "grip" the bow to prevent rotation.  Relax, passive pressures.  That will help with the release.

Arne

PS. For MOST, if you get a "better release" with a heavy bow, your release NEEDS WORK!! The bow is just masking a form/execution flaw.

Arne

[longbow fanatic 1]

In the past, I've tried to focus on my release and open my hand to let the arrow go. As many of us know, you cannot open your hand fast enough to cleanly release an arrow. I've since learned that if I focus on back tension with every shot, a smooth release (involuntarily) will occur.

[Medley]

Another learning point here- keep a bareshaft in your quiver. Shoot it every once in a while to make sure everything is as it should be.

Thank you Ken Beck, for improving this archer tremendously with this little piece of advice