Hello everyone! This is Tracy writing, not Bill.
First off, I want to thank everyone for their well wishes and congratulations. Traditional bow hunting has a great community of people and I am lucky to be a part of it.
Second, I want to share a little back story. Many people do not know that I had all but quit shooting my recurve for the past 2 years. I broke my right arm several years ago at the elbow and wrist and do not have full range of motion of it. I cannot turn my palm up further than 90 degrees, fully extend or flex my elbow. Loss of range of motion has gotten worse over the years due to scar tissue and arthritis. I lost about 1 ½” of draw length due to this and had to anchor at my cheek bone. For those of you that have seen me, you know I have prominent cheek bones. Anyway, I started to hit my cheek bone with every release causing a bruise. After about 5 shots my face would be sore and my anchor and release would vary causing me to shot horrible.
Needless to say I was very frustrated and so was Bill. He didn’t understand what was going on or how to help me fix it. Many people would say just hold the bow with your right hand. Well that didn’t work either since I can’t extend my arm fully or rotate my elbow out of the way of the string. So I started shooting my compound bow again which isn’t much fun and I felt as though I was letting Bill down as well.
At Kalamazoo this past January we ran into Joel Turner, Elk Calling Champion and traditional archer. He showed me how he shoots using his thumb. Excellent I thought! My knuckles are nowhere near my face and the arrow is closer to my eye. Joel also said I could gain another couple of inches of draw length by anchoring at my ear since I wouldn’t have to rotate my wrist when I drew. Even better!! Down side was I would have to retrain myself and he thought this would take about a year to become proficient. No good I thought, I don’t have a year I have 6 months before my bear hunt.
Technique: The string is held by the tip of your thumb distal to the meaty part. Your index finger then hinges over the tip of your thumbnail for support. There are 3 nock sets on my string; one for the arrow, one for the knuckle of my index finger and one for my thumb. Pick a spot, pull back to anchor and release. Sounds simple enough.
As most of you experienced, this winter was a long one and I was not comfortable learning a new shooting technique in the house. So it was March before I got outside to practice. I started out with limbs that were 26# so I would be comfortable and not develop bad habits. Let me tell you, 26# is more than enough weight on your thumb when you’re not conditioned for that. I did gain about 2 more inches of draw, but these pesky cheek bones kept getting in the way of the string. I went back to anchoring by my cheek since I was changing to avoid pain and inconsistency.
I was fairly accurate at 10 yards right away and was I ever thrilled. I was shooting every day. Lifting weights at the gym and eating protein smoothies to help increase my bow weight quickly, down to 2 months now. Everything was going great until 3 days before we were to leave for Manitoba. I started shooting low and left, way low and left. Like missed bear low and left. I couldn’t figure it out and Bill didn’t have any idea either since he doesn’t shoot this way. I wasn’t dropping my arm, form was the same as well as follow through. Man I really did not want to try to shoot a bear with my recurve the way I was shooting, but I really didn’t want to take my compound. I went to work on the second day of bad shooting and realized my thumb was not hurting. The next day I noticed I had been rolling the string and tucking it behind the pad of my thumb which was causing low and left shots. Hallelujah I figured it out. I paid great attention to were my thumb was at on the string and shooting was perfect. Come on bears!!
Topic: Manitoba bound Tracy's story is started on page 5 (Read 2589 times)
