marking distance on riser?

[nightowl1]

does anyone make marks on their riser for distances. I have been playing with a lot of different methods, gap, instinctive, and sight pin. This one is sort of a mix of all three. I instinctively know my left right, and use the mark on the riser to establish elevation. It is really quick and working great for me. First time i have consistently held groups past 20 yards.

Any one else try something like this?

[zetabow]

I have suggested this for people wanting to learn Gap, once the gaps learnt and you have sight picture programed in you head you can take marks off.

The other fast way is to put a bright dot on the target face for your eye/arrow point to line up with, close range it's quite low and as as you get further back the dot gets closer to the centre, again once learnt you can shoot pretty accurate. :-)

[mczilla]

I did that for awhile. At first it was helpful, but when I realized I was putting too much attention on the marks I took them off. I guess I'm a purist.  Sights, elevated rests, plungers, release aids, etc. - they all help and it's hard to know when to stop. Someone's gonna reinvent the compound bow ;-)

[Jason R. Wesbrock]

Originally posted by mczilla:
 Sights, elevated rests, plungers, release aids, etc. - they all help and it's hard to know when to stop. Someone's gonna reinvent the compound bow ;-)

All of those things were around long before the invention of the compound bow.  

[zetabow]

Originally posted by mczilla:
I did that for awhile. At first it was helpful

It just a very fast way to get a feel of the Bow or try Gap, a couple of days should do it.

[nightowl1]

i could care less what accessories i have on my bow... if it helps me effectively hunt then that's what I'm going to use.

I like it alot so it may stay semipermanent

[strcpy]

In the dictionary definition of "traditional" it was common to have a piece of tape on the front of the riser with push pins, toothpicks, or other similar marked items used for sights. People also string walked and face walked for many many years. It's not like a sight was invented in the last 30 years of humans many thousands of years with a bow  

In the current definition of "traditional archery" that is a big no no. I've always felt that "traditional" was a bad term yet I could never really think of a better one.

Unless you are shooting competition it is really up to you. I've seen people with a "traditional bow" using a release (I've also goofed off doing this. I shoot compounds some too and it is interesting to use a hinge release with the holding weight of a recurve - nice way to send a bow *really* flying through the air if you do not use a sling), sights only , elevated rests only, heck Ive seen (and played with, but really felt it was more a novelty) a wooden risered off the shelf bow with sights and a long rod with v-bars  

Still, I come back to either "traditional" (wooden riser, off the shelf, no attachments, and single anchor/finger touching arrow), "barebow" (any riser, elevated rest, no attachments, and can face/string walk), or "open" (no release/peep in the recurve world) making sense as far as competitive classes go. More divisions than that tend to fracture the shooters too much and are really only trying to help edge cases - most recurve/longbow people fall into those three classes almost to a T.

Unless you are trying to compete or are looking for advice the main thing is that you have fun. Competitive venues require that people adhere to classes - it is really the only way keep a good even playing field where skill matter most. Of course if you are looking for advice then you either need someone who shoots that method or is knowledgeable about it (and best if they do both).

Otherwise why have less fun because someone else doesn't like what you are doing? I go to a shoot with what I want to have fun with that day and let the tournament director stick me where they thing I belong. There have been times I've been put (by the rules - no complaining here about it) in a class I have no hope of winning in. Lets face it, ASA or IBO has *no* class for an Olympic Recurve setup and if I bring it out I tend to be put into the open compound classes - only the top end Oly people are going to compete there and I'm not remotely one of them. However all is good as I'm there to have fun and I do (I'll even DQ myself in the competition if I feel like shooting from another stake - not gonna place/win anyway so shoot what I want), but were I looking to truly compete there I would have to change equipment (or rant at the governing bodies of that group).

[reddogge]

If you don't think sights were around for the first "tradional" go around in the 40s-70s just look at all of the older bows being sold with sights or sight holes on the trader now.  They were as tradional as apple pie.  Use them without remorse.