Consistency!

The Twist: It's not just a dance.

Quite by accident, we have discovered a major reason why bows change over time and use. We actually found the solution first, then we found the problem: SERVING SEPARATION!

With our shooting machine, we were monitoring the changes in our equipment, and making adjustments to the equipment to maintain consistent results. Sometimes it was only a small sight adjustment. Other times we would end up doing a major overhaul to the equipment. Maintaining a consistency in the accuracy of the sight settings and the overall performance of the equipment helped us to maintain better shooting form. A more consistent form, led us to considerable improvement in being able to hit exactly what we were aiming at. Whenever we had trouble hitting exactly what we were aiming at, we would use the shooting machine to make sure just where the problem was. If the shooting machine showed that the equipment had not changed then we knew that it had to be something we were doing.

Surprisingly, over half the time something had changed with the equipment. Often the changes in the equipment were so subtle, that we were unable to detect just what had changed, and could only make a sight adjustment to compensate.

The problem and the solution were discovered because we had developed a liking for micro-adjustable cable adjusters. They made the tuning so much easier. But, they require a cable to be about 5/8 to 3/4 of an inch shorter than normal. One time, when we were being lazy, instead of making new cables at the proper length, we twisted them up to get the proper length. The bow was doing so well that we decided the cables needed replaced (they were really twisted up). So we changed the cables. This was a big mistake! The shooting machine showed us that now the bow had to be adjusted much more often and was not near as consistent as it had been with the twisted cables. And to make matters worse, now the serving seemed to be separating where it went around a lobe on the cam. We experienced no serving separation on the twisted cables.

We found that the serving separation was not a serving problem, but the bow strands under the serving. By twisting the cables and bowstring about 1 twist per inch, the serving separation was non-existent and bows stayed consistent for a much longer length of time. The problem was the wrap of cable around the cam. The strands on the outside of the cable had to stretch further than the ones on the inside lying against the cam track. (This results in an unequal loading of the strands in the cable or bowstring, causing them to stretch). But the twisting of the cables and bowstrings helped distribute the load more evenly on all strands.

Consistency is what we all strive for. We at Spot-Hogg have been trying to consistently hog the spot for many years. Only to find, that when things seemed to start going well, something would change with the way the bow was shooting. In the beginning, the problem was always something practice seemed to solve.

As we practiced our shooting we ran into other problems, which practice seemed to make worse. These problems stemmed from our equipment changing. Our equipment was upgraded until we had top of the line. We figured that with the best equipment, all that was left was to keep practicing. Still, we kept having equipment problems. The problems were mostly centered on the fact that the bow seemed to change as we were shooting it.

Often times, we blame ourselves and adjust our form to compensate. Or, all too common give the bow a little extra flinch because we know we’ll miss if we don't. By the time we finally figure out there was something wrong with the equipment, that little extra flinch has become pretty solid. In fact, most of the time, before our shooting machine, we got in the bad habit of adjusting the sight for how we were flinching at the time. Our flinching seemed to work best when we would catch the target as it would fly past the sight, kind of like wing shooting. We didn’t think about it, we just did it and it worked pretty well. But, if for any reason we had to think about it, we were screwed. Moments of stress, delays in being able to shoot would guarantee a miss. Sometimes this lead to an empty freezer, not good!

If your cables are twisted, it will help the stability of the bow. If you have a bow that is always changing, it makes the sight unreliable. All you can do is use the sight for a general reference and let your subconscious do all the shooting.

Good Shooting!