New-to-me bow

TJ Mason

Soaring
Supporter
Fonz Awardee
American Shoot
So, I went to the NCAS-YAA Field Championships on the weekend of the 24th and 25th of October, shooting compound unlimited. Or rather, I went to the first day and had such a disaster that I didn't mind when something stopped me going to the second day.

My shooting was shocking. Even without cheats I was alright on distance judgement (day 1 was unmarked) but the lefts and rights were all over the shop. This dragged my score right down. After setting six target PBs in August and September, I had come with high expectations, which made the lousy score all the more infuriating.

On Sunday at the club, I determined that the problem was actually with the bow - the horizontal grouping was wildly inconsistent below 50 yards. No tweaks could fix it. It was fine beyond 50 yards, but I hadn't shot shorter distances with this bow for 2.5 years - not since my previous field shoot. The problem must have been developing for some time but I missed it because of my preference for recurve barebow at shorter target distances.

Oh well. My Merlin TM5 was only a ?300 entry-level bow. It had done a sterling job for the last eight years or so. As the sage McCulloch sang, "Nothing ever lasts forever".

On Monday it was down to Aardvark to see what they had in the way of pre-loved compound bows. New, you say? I will hell as like pay over a grand for a bow.

Good to see new Aardvark Debbie Waterhouse, fletching her head off.

Two bows stood out for me. A whip-smart Hoyt Avenger in blue - maybe a girls bow, but I loved its looks. T'other was a Hoyt Ultra Elite XT2000 in...some colour or other. Blackened copper? Somewhat tatty string, but a corking spec.

I had a quick try with both. The Ultra Elite felt like it hadn't been drawn for a while, but after a few pulls it felt really good.

Then I picked up Emma Peel, as I had already dubbed the Avenger that I had set my heart on. It felt so good in the hand. I drew it and - oh dear. No, that was not for me. I did not like the draw force curve at all.

So I splashed the plastic on the Ultra Elite, for about a quarter of what it would have cost five years ago.

Finally got to shoot it today. I had transferred the launcher, sight and stabilisers from the TM5. But being Yorkshire archery's Norman Wisdom, I never thought about the peep sight.

The bow shot very well indeed. It was set a few pounds lighter than the TM5, but had the same sight marks up to 70 metres and slightly better sightmarks beyond that. Some tuning is needed, but nothing massive.

But...the peep sight was huge. Vast. I could not centre the scope in it. Why in the name of St Sebastian didn't I think of the chuffing peep sight when I was putting the old bits on the new bow?

Ho hum. I'll next get to shoot on Saturday the 7th of Nov. Smaller peep sight is now in, so I need to sort out a frame, paper, pins, duct tape and arsedness for a tuning session

Rio here I come. :D
 
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