I have a question

[dispatch 510]

I am about to take delivery on my first trad bow. Is learning how to shoot, and arrow selection and tuning it as complicated as it sounds. I have been douing some serious reding on here and man it really sounds hard. Or am I just reading more into than there really is?

p.S My bow is a Bear Grizzley 56 28"@ 43 pounds.

[Dittybopper]

Often times things sound more complicated than they actually are.

Consider driving a car:  If you had to learn it mostly by reading a book, you'd give up before you even started!

[Broken Arrow 1]

I think youre thinking to much about it! I have been using trad gear for about a year now and I have not had any problems tuning anything,however I have been fortunate enough to have two good friends who have been shooting trad gear their entire lives. Do you plan on making your own arrows?

[bigbuckmalik]

Having tradgang is gonna make it alot easier.  Everytime you have a question post it on here and someone is gonna tell you the correct answer.

[Flints]

There is a comment used in refering to trad bows:
simple but not easy.
 I've learned many things here and found out some others on my own. The one thing I noticed immediately was how much damn fun they are. Don't beat yourself up about not shooting well (a subjective term) quickly. It takes time and I enjoy it as a way to relax. If I get frustrated, I chuckle at myself, and put the bow away for an hour or a day. It's like being with a friend. You aren't going to get along all the time - mostly but not always and what friend will let you hang 'em on your wall when you get pissed at them?
 You'll get lots of advice here. What works for some may not work for you. It's a fun gradual process. Get arrows that are close to what you need, 1916's cut to 29" with a 125 grain point should be close to what you need. Pactice getting good form and decent groups. Then you can fine tune your bow/arrow combination to hit center. Others will probably chime in and may correct what I've said. That's okay. Take your time, choose what info works for you and don't take it too seriously.
 

[Killdeer]

Relax and enjoy. Take it as it comes.
PS, loved you on Hogan's Heroes!
Killdeer  

[John3]

Use this chart when your bow comes, it will get to a good starting point.

 http://www.arrowsbykelly.com/Spine_Charts.html

If your right handed and test spine with bare shafts--- try to hold the bow vertical and shoot into a soft target... shafts flying nock left is weak, nock right is stiff.

[john1271]

my nephew bought a recurve and brought it over and had him shooting real good in 10 minutes ,set the brace height , knock point ,and try a few different arrows and point weight.its not hard ,its fun.

[NightHawk]

not sure where lake city is but there are alot of trad guys around nashville. Mark Baggett (Pappy) lives close to nashville

[Dick in Seattle]

you've got a good bow, with a good cutout to the shelf.  I doubt you'll have much trouble.   Start with a good arrow spined for 45#.... either wood or aluminum (1916 would probably work fine).  The aluminum arrow offers the advantage of a screw in insert, so you can do some fine tuining by varying point weight easily.   Bareshaft tuning helps if you fletch your own arrows, but it doesn't sound like you're there yet.   Unless your arrows are really kicking one way or the other, showing you for sure they're wrong, you'll be surprised how much adjusmtment you can get out of your "mental sight".

[Shawn Leonard]

It is actually simple but takes some experimenting. I agree with Dick that a 1916 should work well cut to 29"s, if ya draw 28"s. Sipsey river has Vapor 2000 on sale and cut 29"s with 145-175 grains of point weight would do ya well too! Relax and enjoy your new bow, with a little experimenting you will learn a lot and have fun doing it! Shawn

[Soilarch]

Hello, I'm new here but have spent several years shooting compounds, and believe it or not one of my favorite parts of archery has always been the "tuning" of bows and arrows.

So, assuming there's quite a bit of carry over even though the equipment is different....

Is it "hard"? No.  Can it be frustrating? Yeah.  This site puts you at such an advantage it's not even funny.  Getting a setup to shoot well or even great doesn't have to be that hard.  

Do you understand the basics of what's happening to the arrow when it's released and flying? If not, that's fine...but go back and read everything you can on "archer's paradox".  The reason being that if you know what your asking the arrow to do it makes it a lot easier to diagnose what exactly it's NOT doing.  Then you can fix it!!  lol


The short answer is:

Relax, you'll more than likely enjoy it, and either way bring your questions here, and you'll get the answers.

[dispatch 510]

Thanks for all of the replies and votes of confidence. I guess i was reading more into than I should have.I can't wait till my bow gets here and I can get started.I have been waiting along time, Had to put things on hold for awhile,Havung a baby will do that sometimes but i would'nt trade her for nothing, Hopefully she will be a future archer. Evenmy wife has showed an interest in shooting with me. Might just turn this into a family affair. Thanks again.