A Chest protector will save you a sore boob!  Just saying!  I am not using one because I’m not hitting mine very often and so I’m good without one.

Last night I hit the field for a little bow practice of my own.  Nobody else was with me and so I had the whole field to play in.  Of course I only needed the 20 yard line to work with.  But my main objective was to adjust my brace height on my new limbs.  When I first put the limbs on my riser the string I have only spanned to 7 inches of brace height.  I thought I would see how that worked out even though the makers suggest a brace height between 7 1/2 to 8 1/2 inches.

What I found was that the bow was noticeably noisy!   I made a comment to Weasel about that when I shot it the other day.  So, at home I took the string off and twisted it until I got it up to 8 inches.  Figuring half way in between the recommended brace height was a good starting point.

So, with that I began my shooting last night.  BOY HOWDY WAS IT HOT!!!!  Well into the low 100 degrees at 5 pm!

I took a practice end and didn’t take a picture of that but I did for each end after that.  End one ended this way:

I’m shooting 6 arrows that are the same and two odd balls.  The odd balls are Carbon Express Predators in 3050 weight and uncut, so they are 30 inches in length.  From what little I know about arrows, 3050’s should work with my 55 pound limbs with my draw length of almost 27 inches.  In the above picture those two arrows are pretty much right in there with the rest of them, hitting nearly in the same spot.

So, end one contains the 16th arrow I have shot tonight.  All but one arrow are within the rings.  My goal at this time is all arrows within the rings and so I’m feeling pretty good about my shooting so far.

End 2:

Two outside the rings on this end.  And so I decided I best check my brace height during a break.  These are arrows 17 through 24 and I can feel “the pain” of the extra draw weight.  Low and behold my brace height had changed by 1/2 inch…only 7 1/2.  The string had stretched!  That was an unexpected finding.  I really thought that after Lynn Hayes had pushed down on my bow last spring, I figured he had stretched that string as far as it could go!  Well, I took the time to unstring it and twist it 4 more full turns and then restrung the bow.  I have to tell you that stringing up the bow is very tough for me to do.  First off I’m stretching myself to the max to reach out to the tip of the bow, while all the time pulling up on the riser to compress those limbs.  But I got it done and sure enough the brace height was back to 8 inches.

End 3:

Maybe coincidental, maybe just me, but at 8 inches the bow seemed quieter and the arrows seemed to fly flatter…5 of 8 within the rings and the two odd balls are hanging around each other counting 2 out of the 3 outside arrows.  I checked the brace height after this end and it was still at 8 inches.

End 4:

Only one outside the rings.  With end 4 I was really concentrating on my form and especially my anchor point(s) and follow through.  The pain of holding the bows weight was taxing to say the least, but I need to build up my strength and how better than to draw back to anchor and hold.  My bow arm did not shake like it did the last time out.  The pain actually feels good in a way.

End 5:  I’ve shot 40 shots up to the beginning of this end and I can feel my muscles being worked out.  But I’m determined this time to anchor and hold the weight like I do with my 30 pound limbs.  I have to push myself to the limit!

Even though my muscles are feeling tired I think this group of shots is a good one.  I felt good about holding the bow weight for each shot and following through with the shots, trying my best to hold the bow up and my release hand near my ear until the arrow hits the target.  That is what I’ve been taught.  AND all 8 arrows are in the rings!  Goal achieved!

End 6:

Well folks!  It’s time to head for home!  I’ve managed to beat myself up enough for today!  Only 48 shots today but one of these times I’ll be up to the 60 minimum I need to be shooting!  I’m going to feel this in the morning!  Sweating and pain!

Luckily, no farm animals were hurt during this archery practice session and only a couple of beers were consumed!  The temperature went from a scorching 102 at the beginning of this session down to a cool 100 by session end.

Bears Butt

June 27, 2015