![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
Sightless and doing better for it!
Oct. 26th, 2009 07:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
red_trilliumI picked up a new arm gaurd a couple months ago. I really liked the one I'd picked up from a local rennaisance faire but it was thin. I whacked myself a really bad one with the string and had a bruise for a couple weeks. The new, thicker arm guard won't stop the pain or bruising but it will make it less painful than the thin one. I switched out the elastic for leather shoe laces and it looks cool with the bone 'buttons'.
The good thing is that it got me to pull my head in and try to figure out exactly what the heck I've been doing wrong. The occassional arm slap isn't too bad but coupled with my arrows pulling to the left I knew my form was off and couldn't figure out why. I did some reading and realised I was holding the bow wrong, holding it in a way that was putting the string in the wrong place. And I was dropping my shoulder, enough to push my forearm in the way of the string.
Those were bad enough but I was also having problems adjusting my sight. I would get it dialed in at 10 yards but anything after that wouldn't work. I'd shoot too low no matter how I adjusted the sight after that.
So today decided to pull the sight off and see how it went. I only pulled the bit with cross hairs off initially, that way it would be easy to put it back on. I did pretty well. I didn't always hit the critter but I hit the target at least at 5 yards. I went the whole-hog after a few shots and pulled the full rocker off. And I still did better without the sight at 10 and 25 yards than I'd done with it. I only had one arrow not hit a bale in about 45 arrows, as opposed to 3 or 4 missing the bales when I was using it.
I've seen a few other recurve archerers when I've been practicing and they were shooting bare bow as well. It will take a little while to get used to shooting that way but it's working better than with the sight so shouldn't take too long. I can pick up some books and videos on gap shooting if I have problems.
Happy shooting!
The good thing is that it got me to pull my head in and try to figure out exactly what the heck I've been doing wrong. The occassional arm slap isn't too bad but coupled with my arrows pulling to the left I knew my form was off and couldn't figure out why. I did some reading and realised I was holding the bow wrong, holding it in a way that was putting the string in the wrong place. And I was dropping my shoulder, enough to push my forearm in the way of the string.
Those were bad enough but I was also having problems adjusting my sight. I would get it dialed in at 10 yards but anything after that wouldn't work. I'd shoot too low no matter how I adjusted the sight after that.
So today decided to pull the sight off and see how it went. I only pulled the bit with cross hairs off initially, that way it would be easy to put it back on. I did pretty well. I didn't always hit the critter but I hit the target at least at 5 yards. I went the whole-hog after a few shots and pulled the full rocker off. And I still did better without the sight at 10 and 25 yards than I'd done with it. I only had one arrow not hit a bale in about 45 arrows, as opposed to 3 or 4 missing the bales when I was using it.
I've seen a few other recurve archerers when I've been practicing and they were shooting bare bow as well. It will take a little while to get used to shooting that way but it's working better than with the sight so shouldn't take too long. I can pick up some books and videos on gap shooting if I have problems.
Happy shooting!
