Thursday 28th April 2011

@ SOPA

Grey, light to heavy rain, slight breeze at times, very cool and wet conditions.

15x 6 arrow ends @ 70m, 122cm unscored

Total 90

First time I shot using a pin today for a long time since I switched over to an open ring.  I decided to go to using a pin again as for 90m and 70m, the size of the gold ring was quite small in the open ring and thus I had a big spread at times and also lack any distinct ability to aim off.

The shibuya ultima sight comes with a pin insert but I disliked it as the ball head was too big and also a garish orange, so I fashioned one from a tailors pin and superglued it to the sight ring.  It held up for the duration of the shoot so no vibration issues were detected durability wise, and it wasn't overly large at 70m though at 90m it may completely cover the gold.

Shooting wise, I didn't feel that I was shooting any worse than normal, though you can feel somewhat a little more aiming pressure on the bow arm in trying to control and reduce the wobble, I wasn't attempting to stop motion completely, but it might take a little more than just one session to get it comfortable in action.

The rain made it challenging however to maintain a good bow hand position as the wet was causing the grip to slide up and sink into the hand, with also the rain affecting arrow flight dropping them down several rings below normal.

I got my Easton Digital Bow Scale today, so measured up my bow finally and discovered that at my draw length I'm shooting about 42.5-42.9 lb, a little higher than I thought it would be.  I checked against some lb rated weights (free-weights) and the scale was pretty good against them (5.2lb for a 5lb, then 9.8lb for 10lb marked).  Which, I would say is pretty good as my old Axis setup was also digital scaled to 44.5lb, and this setup is shooting heavier arrows at a lighter weight, so the force behaviour in the system is much better.

There is a double QRE this weekend, and a single QRE the weekend following, before a brief break to Nationals.  After this weekend's QRE's, I think I will have to focus on 90m shooting, and also get some excellent sight settings for field purposes.