I’ve eased back into shooting, after taking a full 2 weeks away from archery. I knew I couldn’t jump right back into the volume I was shooting before my break, so I made sure to work back into things, increasing the number of arrows each day/week. In the meantime, that left me with extra time to “play” with things, which is exactly what I did.
The first order of business was taking my backup bow (which I had been using for 3d) and taking it completely apart, limbs and everything. From here I built it back up from scratch, including a new string and tuning it, without comparing to my other Apex 7. I even started fresh with stabilizer weights and everything, and so far its paying off, as I’m back to shooting scores I was late spring!
Next up was to try some new releases. I’ve had a couple of people approach me about switching to one of their releases, but I’ve had a hard time finding something that fits my hands right. I did realize, however, that part of the feel of a release comes from MANY hours using it, and nothing will feel the exact same, especially initially. This was the time last year that I played with and found a new release, so I decided I’d at least try some of these others. I’ve gotten it narrowed down to three (my current release and two others), but I can’t say for sure which one I will shoot in Texas. All I can say is, feel free to take a look and see what is in my hand there You’ll be able to find out which one I deemed most tournament worthy…and if it’s not my current release, I may have a new sponsor to share with all of you 🙂
In addition to this, I decided to play with my arrows (remember the pic I posted asking what I was doing?). After ordering my arrows this year, I came to realize I probably ordered a spine to weak. However, I am sooooo scared of cutting arrows shorter, so I just left them at the length they were since they weren’t shooting BAD. With extra time on my hands (and about 2 inches of room to play with), I decided now was the time to try cutting down the 6 I still had at full length (still leaving me the 17 I have been shooting). This allowed me to test the two side by side, shooting 6 of each to ultimately determine which I felt were producing the best results.
Along with length, I also tested some new nocks. I have heard GREAT things about Beiter nocks, but I had never tried them. After Poland, I received some to try, and I fell in love with them. Not only do they allow me to use dloop/nock setup for both indoors and outdoors, but each nock is made is the same mold, meaning extreme consistency.
For me the biggest sell, however, was their durability. I am constantly breaking nocks (and pins), but the beefier nature of the Beiter nock I found allowed me to save a few extra nocks and definitely some pins that would have otherwise been damaged. And with that, I am now able to add a new sponsor to my website. Beiter, graciously has taken care of me in the nock department, so I want to give them a big shootout and say THANK YOU!
Excellent! I’m glad things are moving along for the better.