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New bow day

When I was at the Black Widow shop 2 weeks ago a guy came in with his bow and one limb was all splintered.
He forgot it was leaning against his tailgate and ran over the limb. It was bad felt sorry for the guy...bet he wont do that again.
I wish I woulda taken a pic of it
 
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Updates. The string has stretched a bit and my brace height has dropped down to about 7 3/8". Surprisingly, I'm rarely getting arm slap now. Either I have subconsciously changed my form or the DROP in brace height helped, which seems opposite of what should have happened. This bow continues to surprise me. If I do my part, arrows fly where they are supposed to go. I am shooting the same arrow as I shoot with my recurve (Black Eagle Vintage 350 spine, 31" long, 50grain brass insert) on a 46lbs@28" bow. The longbow is 50lbs@28". I'm pulling closer to 29". I felt like the 150 grain heads with the longbow were flying a bit stiff (I assume due to difference in arrow shelf depth), so I swapped to 175 grain heads and they seem to be flying great. The downside, I only have two 175 grain heads from a field tip test pack I bought 2 years ago. I ordered more from fleBay, they should arrive soon.

Cold shot a few days back.

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I've been trying an arrow or two a day at 40 trying to hit my little groundhog foam target. Finally clipped his ass this morning. Lots of close calls before I finally sunk one in him.

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These two were from about 25 yards. Proof that if I do my part, it works. That hasn't always been the case in the last week. I had a few form breakdowns and the wheels started to loosen but I've got things back on track.

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Two this morning quartering away at 20.

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After a rare day off to go fishing, I shot really well yesterday with the China snake bow. First shot at 40 on old Chuck hit home. Such a satisfying feeling to hit that target at that range. A year ago I was missing the range bag half the time at that distance.

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Last two of the night from about 22.

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Chuck finally lost his head. I did surgery.

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I dropped a fresh bomb on him from 40. I was 1/3 from 40 on him but the one was pretty immaculate.

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I like Trad Vanes, but there's something about feathers that keep me coming back. I fletched up a few with fresh feathers, pink and barred yellow.

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Yep I like feathers also,just fletched up a bunch for when I get the new bow.switched over to Black Eagle arrows from carbon express...got tired of CE always discontinuing arrows.
Tuned my current widow to Black eagle 400s this weekend. Tried some gold tip but not a fan of the skinny arrows. Lol
 
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I may regret this in a day or two, but we had some expired eggs to toss out. I decided to take a crack at one. Popped it on the first attempt from 18 yards. Cool impact, wish I had filmed it.

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Not sure if anyone here listens to archery podcasts, but the Kifarucast episode with Dewayne Martin hit home for me. I had been getting inconsistent lately. When they were talking about allowing the arrow being on the target becoming a trigger to release, I knew that was what I was starting to do. For the past week, I have been doing drills a few times a day, drawing and holding on target 4 times, then drawing and shooting on the 5th. It has made a big difference for me. There were some bumps and bruises the first day or two, but I feel like I'm getting some control back. Groups like this remind me that I can shoot these things pretty well when I keep my shit together.

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I had been shooting this bow really well. Then a cluster of shots showed up on the target that represent: long tracking jobs, poor blood trails, sleepless nights. And those piss me off. I got back on track but I don't like seeing holes in that region.

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Creamer said:
I had been shooting this bow really well. Then a cluster of shots showed up on the target that represent: long tracking jobs, poor blood trails, sleepless nights. And those piss me off. I got back on track but I don't like seeing holes in that region.

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I don’t care how well you shoot a certain bow… Some days, some shots are going to be better than others. Don’t beat yourself up.
 
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I’m certain it is different for everyone, but having recently dealt with the same thing, I’ve finally found what caused my inconsistency. For me, it’s been how I hooked the string. It has to be exactly the same every shot. That is more difficult than it would seem and something easily overlooked. I’ll spare you the details of my process simply because it’s different for everyone but I do suspect you may be dealing with the same issue. You shoot as much as I do, any inconsistencies most likely come from a very small detail such as the hook. I say that because your “off” impacts are not off by much. Left and right impacts, for me, are always do to a slightly altered hook. Then again, anytime you concentrate on one part of your shot, something else will change. Like a dog chasing its tail. 😁
 
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I have not self-filmed in a while, but I was able to diagnose some minor alignment issues by doing that. Last year, I had an issue of my bow arm getting slightly closed off that was causing some issues for me. I'm wondering if that could be creeping back in, also.

I'm not sure if it's a good or a bad thing to be shooting more than one bow, but I have still been splitting time between the Stalker recurve and this longbow. I know for a fact I shoot the recurve better. It's not like I shoot the LB poorly, just not as well as the recurve. I'd have no reservations about hunting with either bow, but a sliver of doubt has been creeping into my head about how much I'd be able to make myself split time between the two bows when I know I have more confidence in the recurve. We'll see how it shakes out.
 
I made a semi-tough decision last week. I bought a lighter set of limbs for the China Snake. I'm dropping from 50lbs to 45lbs. I'm just not executing my shot the way I need to consistently (for confidence) with the few pounds of extra weight. Hell, I shot 65-70lbs when I hunted with a compound. I can draw the bow. I can anchor the bow. But I am absolutely not as steady at longer anchors like I am with the lighter weight Stalker. I don't know how to best verify it, but I do feel like the Black Hunter stacks a lot past about 27" in draw, and I'm drawing a shade over 29". I picked up a couple of D97 flemish twist strings so I could ditch the old dacron string it came with. One of those did get strung up and set up with silencers, but I'm shelving the Snake until the 45lb limbs arrive.

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It's still going to be China Snake, I ordered another set of the copperhead gray Limbsations. It also hit me that I'll need Limbsavers for the new set, also. Everything is ordered. Until it gets here, I'll keep shooting the Stalker daily.
 
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@Creamer curious why it was a tough decision? 45 lbs is plenty of weight to kill a whitetail, or any North American big game animal for that matter. Shooting the bow well and having confidence is all that matters. Was it simply just a matter of economics that made your decision difficult?
 
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jagermeister said:
@Creamer curious why it was a tough decision? 45 lbs is plenty of weight to kill a whitetail, or any North American big game animal for that matter. Shooting the bow well and having confidence is all that matters. Was it simply just a matter of economics that made your decision difficult?
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Pride. Plain and simple. I thought I was fine with more poundage when I bought the bow.

My "float" (watching the arrow on the target) was bigger with the heavier poundage bow and it was leading to a cycle of shooting issues. At least I think that's what was doing it. I'd shoot fine for a while, but then the bigger float would lead me towards speeding up my shooting process which would lead me towards inconsistent shooting. I'd have to go back to heavy drilling of drawing and holding just to get myself out of autopilot. The Stalker is 46lbs at 28" so I'm pulling probably around 48ish pounds at my draw length. That feels like my "happy place."
 
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