stabilisation

Timid Toad

Moderator
Staff member
Supporter
Fonz Awardee
Ironman
There is no perfect balance really, it's mostly personal preference.
 

geoffretired

Supporter
Supporter
Checking the balance of a bow can be done in several ways. One is to hang the bow from the nocking point and imagine a vertical line hanging from the nocking point. You might draw a sketch of the bow in that position with the imaginary line drawn on.
Then hang the bow from one limb tip and imagine a vertical line hanging down from the limb tip. Then turn round your sketch to match the new position and draw the new vertical line on the sketch. Those two vertical lines will cross somewhere and often they cross just in front of the riser and just below the grip. That doesn't mean the bow is "perfectly balanced" it just shows where it is balanced. Some archers might experiment to see what happens if they move the balance point further forwards, and see if their groups get better.( more weight on the log rod would move the balance forwards. Less weight at the back would do a similar thing.) Some archers want to see the long rod with no jumping up during the shot, so add weights to the long rod till the long rod hardly moves during the shot; until it rolls forwards that is.
The balance point isn't the only thing to get sorted however. The total weight on the bow can make a difference to your shooting. Too much weight can have a great balance point, but cause you to struggle at full draw and shoot badly as a result.
 

geoffretired

Supporter
Supporter
Checking the balance of a bow can be done in several ways. One is to hang the bow from the nocking point and imagine a vertical line hanging from the nocking point. You might draw a sketch of the bow in that position with the imaginary line drawn on.
Then hang the bow from one limb tip and imagine a vertical line hanging down from the limb tip. Then turn round your sketch to match the new position and draw the new vertical line on the sketch. Those two vertical lines will cross somewhere and often they cross just in front of the riser and just below the grip. That doesn't mean the bow is "perfectly balanced" it just shows where it is balanced. Some archers might experiment to see what happens if they move the balance point further forwards, and see if their groups get better.( more weight on the log rod would move the balance forwards. Less weight at the back would do a similar thing.) Some archers want to see the long rod with no jumping up during the shot, so add weights to the long rod till the long rod hardly moves during the shot; until it rolls forwards that is.
The balance point isn't the only thing to get sorted however. The total weight on the bow can make a difference to your shooting. Too much weight can have a great balance point, but cause you to struggle at full draw and shoot badly as a result.
 

Rik

Supporter
Supporter
My quick and dirty approach:
Place a finger on the back of the bow opposite the grip, long rod hanging down: it should balance level with or below your normal pressure point on the grip.
Then turn the bow upside down and place a finger underneath the extension or long rod. It should balance an inch or so forward of the stabiliser bushing.
So the centre of mass is slightly forward and slightly down...
 

jonUK76

Member
My quick and dirty approach:
Place a finger on the back of the bow opposite the grip, long rod hanging down: it should balance level with or below your normal pressure point on the grip.
Then turn the bow upside down and place a finger underneath the extension or long rod. It should balance an inch or so forward of the stabiliser bushing.
So the centre of mass is slightly forward and slightly down...
Basically that's what I've done, not that I'm an expert or anything but it seems reasonable. I added several extra weights to the long rod, and extra weight to the side rod on the opposite side to the sight and plunger, which allowed the bow to balance straight when held as above, rather than have a tendency to yaw over to one side.
 

Aleatorian

Member
Rik's quick an dirty method works quite well, its the way I used to check mine when I shot recurve, make a mental note of the rough area it was.

jonUK76, the yawing to one side at static is fairly irrelevant, as it's the grip pressure that comes into play, you may find you could have a natural right or left cant and would have to swap the weights over. As the sight and button are close to the center line of the bow that they have very little effect on weight distribution. Even compound archers like myself that use a single side rod don't use it to "counter balance the sight and scope setup" as is the common myth!
 

Rik

Supporter
Supporter
I should also agree with Geoff... balance and weight kind of interdepend, but it's possible to get similar balanced setups with more or less weight, by swapping out weights and other components (changing from a J-bar to a Shibuya v-bar, for example, cuts out a chunk of weight). More mass is only good up to the point that you can handle it and it doesn't lead to injury, and there are lots of options to get to a good result.
 

Marcus37

New member
I tend to set up my stabilisers by feel, as you can follow the books and other peoples recommendations All day but it may still feel wrong to you.

I just added and removed weights/ different extender lengths until i liked the feel of the balance, and found the balance between to heavy and to light etc it?s very much trial and error.
 

Rik

Supporter
Supporter
I tend to set up my stabilisers by feel, as you can follow the books and other peoples recommendations All day but it may still feel wrong to you.

I just added and removed weights/ different extender lengths until i liked the feel of the balance, and found the balance between to heavy and to light etc it?s very much trial and error.
I bet if you check you'll find the balance is a bit forward and slightly down :)
 

Marcus37

New member
I bet if you check you'll find the balance is a bit forward and slightly down :)
It may well be if I was to check it, but not as far forward as some as I don?t like a sudden fast dip, I prefer it to dip a second or so after the shot and allow the lower limb to stop on my leg.

I tried the zero bias balance, and found that it did not feel right with a recurve.
 

dottorfoggy

Member
if can help, an easy and short guide to find the center of balance to begin, it help to me (just use google translate from italian)

Calcolare il baricentro

the center have to be half of the brace forwar to the stab and in line of center line when you hold the bow from your finger

Il baricentro.jpg

sorry for spaghetti language :D
 

Rik

Supporter
Supporter
The language of Dante, Leonardo and Michelangelo is "Spaghetti language"... (well, okay, Berlusconi too...) :)
 
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