That picture has always been my motto. Unfortunately, this year, I've worked pretty hard and the only noise my arrows are making is a noise that is ringing in my ears and becoming more deafening by the day..........or so it seems on certain days.
If I look back on this week and be truthful, I could tell you that this week was probably my best week of shooting since making all of the changes to my form back in January. On Monday and Tuesday, I felt like the old Todd was back in action. If I were going to the ballpark for an evening game, I would have known that I was going to go yard those two nights. I was stroking and everything was in the zone. I couldn't miss. My bow held steadier than it has in a very long time, and my shots from 40 yards at a Vegas target couldn't seem to find their way out of the yellow and very rarely did they find their way out of the 10-ring. Although I wasn't overly surprised, I did gain confidence with every shot.
Somewhere along the way, I forgot how I shot my release. I started thinking about all of the things I needed to do to make the release fire rather than point the pin at the target and let it happen. When I started doing this, I couldn't believe how easy every shot felt. I wanted a tournament to show up on my schedule for the next day. I knew I would be at the top just by the way the release was firing. Those two nights felt better than any night I've had this year. I know I'm going to be turning the corner a lot sooner than I had anticipated a few weeks ago.
As the week progressed, I decided to work on some other bows that I haven't been shooting. I've told myself over and over not to work on a number of different bows at the same time, but for some reason I never listen to my advice. Instead, I start tearing stuff apart and try making all of the bows shoot on the same day. As of tonight, I'm going to listen to my advice. I currently have two bows that I would like to get ready for different things. I'm going to work on one at a time until I get each one where it needs to be. Since they are both close right now, I'll figure it out before moving on to the next one. After all, my main bow that I shoot the most is fine, and I have a tremendous amount of confidence in that bow no matter what I'm doing, including indoor target archery, outdoor target archery, 3-D archery, or hunting. That bow just fits me like a glove.
Since I didn't learn my lesson about working on too many things at once, I planned to meet George Connors at his house on Saturday morning to work on bows. Chuck Weeden would join us later in the morning to set up his new bow.
I got to George's at about 9:30, and we got right to work. Since I've been having some right tears that I can't seem to get rid of with this particular bow, George offered his help to see if we could figure it out. Of course, I'm not going to turn down a guy whose knowledge I respect more than most others in the archery world.
Before we got into it, we shot the bow through paper and the dreaded right tear showed up. After shimming the cams and moving the rest a pinch, I think George expected the tear to disappear. Unfortunately, the same identical tear showed up after making all of the changes. Keep in mind that I think I've owned more than 50 bows, and I've never had one that I couldn't get to shoot good through paper, at least with an acceptable tear. I know that tears aren't everything, and I have had a few that I shot for a period of time that drove tacks than didn't tear the greatest.
After the same tear showed up, George gave it a try and shot a bullet hole. Hmmmmm, yup, of course everyone out there right now is saying, "Dumbass, you're torquing the bow. Well, I've never had the issue with piles of other bows, so why suddenly does this bow not agree with my hand placement on the riser?
After shooting the bullet hole, George told me to apply a lot of pressure to the knuckle of my thumb against the riser. Wow, I did that and it felt awkward and uncomfortable. What happened to shooting with a relaxed hand? It's kind of hard to relax my hand when I'm jamming the thumb knuckle against the side of the riser. I can hear all of the other people out there saying, "You probably have too much weight on your side rod, and that's causing the problem."
Well, I don't share very much weight on my bows at all. I have 12 ounces on my side rod as compared to most people who shoot over 20 ounces on their rods. I'm shooting a 27' rod off the front with no end weight. It's an older Doinker that is already fairly heavy to begin with, since it has the suppression part of the stabilizer in near the bow. Furthermore, I took the side rod off and shot it without any weight on it at all. Guess what? The tear was still the same.
So after I applied pressure to the grip, the tear was cut in half. Normally, I would say the tear is close to acceptable, but I'm not a big fan of having to put that much pressure on a bow riser to get it to shoot the arrow straight. After discussing the issue with Chuck and George, we decided to build up the underside of the grip with some electrical tape to see what that would do. It actually made it easier to apply the pressure to the grip, but the pressure was still needed to make the tear shorter. Oh, I also forgot to mention that I tried four different arrows, different arrow rests, different nocks and different tension blades..............all with the same result. No matter what kind of arrow or spine of arrow, the tear remained the same.
Last night I put some Sugru on it, which is molded rubber that can be peeled off, and hoped it would make it easier to shoot an arrow a little bit straighter. The kicker about this entire experiment is that I was shooting consistently tight groups on a 5-spot target from 40 yards. I was basically stacking arrows, but the arrow was giving me a minimum of a 2-inch tear through paper, and the tear got even larger at about 7 yards, probably another inch...............talk about messing with the mind.
So now my bow is still shooting a crappy hole in the paper, and I have to apply the side pressure with my thumb against the riser. Sound off, what would everyone try to do. The limbs have been shimmed, the cable guard has been moved, different arrows have been tried, different releases have been shot, and the reason it's stumping me the most is that I've been able to shoot bullet holes with all of the bows I've used in the past. Why now?
I ended up leaving George's place around 4:30 on Saturday. Sunday I spent the entire day doing the Mother's Day thing, but I did get a chance to shoot a few arrows in the morning and a few in the evening. I should've taken the night off. When I was shooting well, I think I shot too much. My back and arms are still pretty sore. I need to stay away from my bow for a few days to let all of my muscles get a well-needed break. I won't lie and tell you I'm happy about the incidents that have transpired, but I will tell you that my main bow is shooting really well. It's funny how the draw length felt too long tonight. I'm thinking it's probably just because my arms and back are shot, and it could even be because of my blood levels. They were a little off the last few days. Being a Type 1 diabetic that's an entirely different battle that I face every time I shoot my bow. I feel really confident going into the next few weeks. I'll get back at it in a few days after I rest my tired archery body.
Here's the very last group I shot tonight from 40 yards. This photo displays the highs and lows of archery, especially this week. Although the beginning of my week was phenomenal, this sums up the last two days.
This week's archery profile goes to my buddy Paul Morgan
Paul and I have a long history. Many years ago in my immediate area, archery was huge. I remember one Sunday local shoot in which 320 people attended. Every weekend a shoot would have crowds like that, and Paul was at most of them.
Paul and I didn't really see eye to eye back in those early days, but that's what ignorance and youth can do to people. I know I've never been the easiest person to get along with, and I've always spoken my mind about certain things, sometimes when I might have been better off keeping my mouth shut.
I remember one day at Hudson Falls Fish and Game at a local shoot when Paul was shooting with one of his buddies named Joe, and I was never a big fan of Joe at the time. He always liked to stir the pot behind everyone's back and be one of the he said, she said kind of guys. Well, Paul and I got in a pretty good argument at target number one before going our own directions.
Many years passed without seeing each other, but when all of the NY State New England archery stuff started up again, Paul became a regular competitor at these events. He participated in our local leagues and traveled to all of the shoots. I guess you could say that both of us grew up a little over the years and we both see eye to eye now. We even roll our eyes at each other when people get bickering back and forth about local club stuff. We've been there and done that.
A few years ago, Paul got one of those coveted belt buckles at the IBO Massachusetts State Championship when he shot a great score on arguably one of the toughest state championship courses we have shot to date............no thanks to Jason VanHillo for setting it up. He always sets up memorable courses, and this course was surely one of them. It didn't beat Paul, though, because Paul kicked its ass.
Since that big win Paul has had some ups and downs but he remains in the hunt. This year has seen him hanging around at the top of the leader board at every shoot. He just needs a few breaks to go his way so he can land himself on the podium again. Paul has always been a strong supporter of Bowtech archery, and he serves Bowtech well. He always promotes the products and encourages people to try them. People in the Northeast should pay attention to this. He definitely does his part in product promotion.
Paul also does some fantastic contracting work. He did my parents a huge favor when they had a tree crash through their house last fall. Paul made quick work of the job and did really well with it. If you need some work done, Paul is the guy to ask. He does good work and his word is reliable.
Good luck the rest of the way this year, Paul. You can do it. Keep plugging.
As for the rest of you --------------------------> keep practicing in silence. The lion only roars when he is protecting his pride.
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