Me and the Australian Open Trophy

SPEED BUTTON TUNING ON THE BOW STRING-WHAT DO THEY DO?

When I first heard of this, I though... how can this work when normally adding items to your bow string will slow things down not speed them up.....anyway, I was speaking to a Hoyt Engineer at the 2006 World Field Championships and he was telling me that they had done some testing and found that placing 3 brass nocking points at either end of the string at a distance of 2" from where the string leaves the wheel, would increase the bow speed from 6-8fps.

I did some testing with this at 70 meters and found with no speed buttons and hitting the X or close to it and then adding the speed buttons that my arrows started hitting high on the 9/8 line... that is quite a bit of a pick up in speed. I dont know the exact increase in speed as I have no chrono thingy but there was a definite pick up.

So how does it work? well normally when the string in released, it travels forward past the resting position(lets say for example 4") and then the arrow is released... by adding the speed buttons it snaps the string into position quicker and reduces the forward travel(I dont know exactly how much)which gives the extra speed.

I plan on doing more testing soon with the hooter shooter to find the optimum position to get the most out of the bow.

Happy shooting

A WIN AT THE AUSTRALIAN OPEN 24/25-10-2009

The AusOpen (which is our National Matchplay Championships) was held over the weekend at the Diamond Valley Archery Club in Melbourne. It consisted of two parts over two days with a FITA90(36 arrows at each distance 90, 70, 50 and 30mtrs) on the first day to rank us for starting position on the second days matchplay elimination.

I was very pleased with the way day 1 panned out, 90mtrs did not score as high as I would have liked but I shot all arrows well and ended up with 333... 70mtrs was great and I felt very comfortable and relaxed and shot 354 which was the top score by 2 points for the distance. 50mtrs also went well and I shot 350 and for the final 30mtr distance I shot a perfect 360. My total FITA90 score was 1397 and this ranked me second behind Pat Coghlan(1406). The 1397 also gave me my third qualifying score for the Commonwealth Games squad.

Day 2, we were all expecting the wind to turn up and we were not disappointed... the wind came in gusts and made for some difficult shooting at times...but even though the wind made shooting that little bit harder, I managed to win my way match by match into the final against Pat Coghlan.

The final was great and I had a lot of support from fellow archers watching on... the match was shot in 4 lots of 3 arrow ends and I shot 27 to 28(Pat), 28 to 28(Pat), 28 to 26(Pat) and a perfect 30 to 28(Pat) and the final total was 113 to Pat's 110.

I was obviously very happy with the result being it was my first National Tournament for 2 years... I do still feel like I can improve on my shooting and I am looking forward to making some adjustments and hopefully shooting some big scores.

Thanks to all my sponsors for their support.

Cheers

Clint

HOYT LINE UP FOR 2010 SEASON

Hoyt has just released their new line of bows for 2010. One that really caught my eye is the "CARBON MATRIX"... WOW!!  this bow is going to make waves and could lead to bigger and better things for future bows with bringing carbon fibre into the riser development.

The bow might be shorter in axle to axle length than I normally like to use but the overall weight of the bow would mean I could use the "keel" stabilizer system to make the bow balance out as if it was longer in the axle to axle but yet have a faster set up to help out in the wind more... 

Hope to get my hands on one soon!!!

Check it out at www.hoyt.com

Physical weight of the bow and adding weight to the bow... is it good or bad?

I try and look at things in a simple way, the more you add to the bow... the more you have to hold up. For me, Compound shooting is all about how steady I can aim as I like to sit and squeeze off the shot, so I need to be able to sit there for as long as I can until the shot is shot... so the more I have to hold up, the harder it becomes with the more weight I have hanging out there. I have always only shot with a long rod... normally 34" and with no more than 3 weights on the end. Depending on which model bow I am shooting and because of the riser shape and the way the bow will tilt after the shot due to the weight distribution over the wrist it will determine how many weights I use. I find if I am shooting a reflex model bow such as the Hoyt Vantage Elite or Ultra Elite that I will only need two weights at the end of the stabilizer but if its the Hoyt Pro Elite which is a deflex shape riser I will use three weights to help the bow not kick up after the shot but kick forward and then tilt down.

I don't like using a side rod or rods to help keep the bow level as that is what the bubble is for in the scope. Sometimes I find the bow will have a natural cant (tilt to one side) feel about it... so I will just compensate by offsetting the front vertical sight bar.

The other problem these days is the let off that certain wheels have. I believe that when you start shooting with 70%, 75%, 80% or higher that the holding weight is not enough to help cope with the physical weight of the bow. I shoot with the Hoyt Spiral X Cam 1/2 which has the option or either 60% or 55% let off... the Vantage Elite is moderately heavy bow so the extra holding weight of the Spiral X Cam helps make this bow a very steady bow.

The only extra added weight option I have played with recently is what I call the "KEEL", this is a short rod (18") from the bottom limb bolt angled down so it hangs under the wheel. I find it helps out alot in the wind but at this stage is a little too heavy to hold up.... will keep building my strength to help cope with this as I think this option will be a big help in windy conditions.

All I can really say is, work out what you are wanting to achieve before you start adding weight as by adding weight just might cause you more problems with injuries than fixes.

Good shooting!!

Qualifying Ranking Event 04/10/2009

Held a QRE at Paringa Archers with the aim of gaining a second qualifying score for the Commonwealth Games squad... minimum score to make the squad is 1360 points and I need 3 scores of 1360 or better to qualify for the squad. I had already shot 1 qualifying score of 1376. The day was great weather wise, I was feeling ok with my shooting and I was trying a couple of different things with my equipment. 

1: slightly shorter draw length - I was thinking that this might help out a little more in windy conditions but it felt cramped and aiming was not as steady.

2: different positioning of the arrow rest - No real problems here, I have the blade of the rest positioned over the wrist. I had read about Jesse Broadwater of USA using this set up and his reasons for doing so... so, I thought I would give it a try. It has not made things worse, so I will keep playing with that one.

The day ended with me shooting 1385 (331-350-345-359)... happy to get my second qualifying score..... now just 1 score to go.