As you wish

Over the past several weeks one of my friends has been struggling with the selection of a new bow and it has gotten me thinking about equipment selection. There's good gear out there; there's bad gear out there, and most shooters are more than happy to give their two cents on things but what doesn't get said nearly enough is:

Shoot what you like

There is most certainly value in getting sound advice and information about specific pieces of equipment but ultimately an archer who uses gear that they like and have confidence in will generally shoot better than one who just buys what is popular for the sake of staying with the pack (within reason). We can never forget the critical mental aspect of our sport and lacking confidence in or outright despising a piece of equipment will hobble us just as fast as a form flaw.

For example, when I started shooting compound competitively it was drilled into my head over and over again that the most stable shooting platform was a long ATA bow. Which granted this is true but for one reason or another I eventually settled on a relatively short (ok I guess medium) bow, the Hoyt Alpha Elite. I tried two different models of Hoyt Vantage Elite, the Hoyt Contender and the Bowtech Sentinel but just couldn't achieve the mental comfort that I had with the Alpha. So I stuck with it, despite being told on several occasions that my bow was "short".

Now the more astute readers will note that I gave praise in a recent post to the Vantage Elite. Let me clarify, I thoroughly enjoyed both of my vantages (I shot both a 2009 vantage elite with spiralX cams and a 2012 vantage elite plus with GTX cams) but when looking at the scores and statistics they just didn't stack up.

Or alternatively, let's consider my current equipment set up. I'll admit I was originally seduced by the shiny, Hoyt proprietary, Formula system but eventually jumped to a 2005 vintage Hoyt AeroTec riser. If I was just after the Tec bridge I had newer models to choose from and if I was just after the ILF mounting system I could have gone with... well... a lot of options. But rather, I simply just like the AeroTec both in look and feel.

One of those Weeks

Thanks to an out of spec brace height and major form issues (which I'm in the process of correcting)... it has been one of those weeks.

Review: Artemis Lite, A second pass

Well, about two months have passed since my initial review of Artemis Lite and now having had time to record more rounds and tinker a bit I have some additional thoughts.

Let's start with the bad news (but don't worry it's not all that bad).

Through my standard end consumer usage I've really quite honestly only come across one major point to which I take issue. While the tools work splendidly in general, I find that the program is far too eager to go on a witch hunt for inconsistent arrows. Of all the match data that I have entered to date, I cannot recall one match in which the program didn't pull up the little "inconsistent arrow" icon and quite honestly nine times out of ten I am willing to take full responsibility for those shots and say that it was not an inconsistent arrow, it was an inconsistent archer.

In a practical sense it is not a big deal, I at least, am willing to just ignore the icon; but for the sake of reviewing a product, it does cast some degree of doubt on the analytical ability of the rest of the program if it is getting this point so wrong.

Howwwwwever, that being said...

On the bright side my experience thus far with the analytic tools and the rest of the program has been fantastic and with out flaw.

Furthermore, I have to give tremendous credit to the developer behind this app, Marcel van Apeldoorn. In the intervening two months since my last review of the product, I believe the app has been updated twice. He is doing a great job listening to user feedback and continuing to push the application forward.


So once again, just like before; I am highly recommending this program. 

Well done.

Sexy and I know it

So first things first, I have to apologize for my absence through the end of July. Things have been a bit hectic since in my personal, non-shooting life, I've taken up a new job and have been commuting all over god's creation. Anyway things have settled down a bit so let the fun begin... again.

Let's get things back on a roll with this dead sexy recurve riser.

This fine example of the Hoyt Ion-X comes to us from Olympic athlete Jake Kaminski. I've never been a huge fan of gel dipped finishes (prefer anodized), and really this isn't exactly a head turner (it is technically a camouflage pattern after all) but at least personally this does it for me. 

Training Notes: A quick study

A week has come and gone and it was time to shoot my score for the Presleys Summer 3d league again. From my own perspective the difficulty of the course was about the same as the opening week, but I was much better prepared. I had more accurate sight marks (I switched my trusty but rusty old toxonics sight for my sure-loc), an up pin instead of an open ring aperture and tweaked my stabilizer set up slightly for a better shot reaction.

It seems all of those modifications paid off since this week I walked away with a 238/280 (despite a miss).

World Archery Cup: Stage 3 Medellin

After exciting stops in Shanghai and Antalya for the first two stages of the World Cup, this week begins stage three in Medellin, Colombia.


This stage should be equally thrilling, with the slew of upsets and rapidly rising new comers from the previous two stages; it really is anyone's game as we begin the qualifying round for the recurve discipline today. We'll certainly want to keep an eye on the Colombian team as they are both on their home turf and the Women's compound team is coming off a huge win against the US during stage two.

Also of note, and I have to admit I was a bit blindsided by this; former Olympian Anne Abernathy is competing this week in the recurve division. Now, the phrase "former olympian" is not too unusual in Archery but when the former olympian in question is from another sport... cancer survivor.. brain trauma survivor and 60 years old; then it's definitely something to put a pin in and watch. If you didn't recognize her name like me, Anne Abernathy is a six time winter olympian, having competed in the luge between 1988 and 2006 (this makes her the oldest athlete ever to have competed in the winter games). She's now working on claiming her seventh olympic appearance but this time in the sport of archery.

As always live scoring is available at the World Archery Website
or (if you want more pictures and less statistical data) check out their tumblr account
and if you want to know more about Anne Abernathy she has her own website.

In the history of bad ideas...

I was reluctant to post this video because I in no way want to condone the maker's methods, but I think it's important for you all to see what NOT to do. If anyone ever proposes making repairs in this manner or by any other method that involves using a tool in ways for which it was not designed (I'm all for creative use of materials but not when it comes to things under high tension), just walk away. It is dangerous, poses a higher than necessary risk to the equipment and in some cases may void the manufacturer's warranty.

Also, the presenter makes the argument that this reduces the risk of twisting the riser while pressing the bow. In my opinion at least, this has not been a concern since the introduction of the double pull press (presses the limbs directly not the riser). Yes, things can go wrong in a press but largely only with inexperienced operators.

If making repairs in the field are that important there are plenty of portable press alternatives such as the Bow Master or Ram Ratchet-loc.

Bring the heat

Well with summer in full swing and having just gotten out of my car (which was hot enough to practically boil an old bottle of mountain dew) I've been reminded of a question that invariably comes up every summer. Is it ok to leave a bow in a car/other hot environment.

The short answer is no. For the love of god no.

Ok, let's take a step back and fill in some details here. The reason for not leaving a bow in an excessively warm environment is the limbs. Heat is the natural enemy of the adhesives that hold the laminated layers of the limbs together. Furthermore, there is a certain degree of risk to the strings and cables under these conditions (stretch risk but not a failure risk).

However, that being said; modern, high quality bows do offer a certain degree of heat resistance. We aren't talking about the bows of our forefathers that were held together with hide glue but rather epoxy laminated, high performance polymers (theoretically) mixed and fabricated by skilled professionals. A bow wouldn't sell very well if it failed catastrophically when exposed to tropical or summer heat over the course of a field shoot or hauled across the African plains.

So admittedly, can it be done with out disaster? Yes. A friend and fellow shooter, for instance, stored his practically prehistoric Bear Whitetail 2 in the bed of his truck/back of his car for an entire summer shooting season last year and it's still in one piece. But none the less, even with out failing catastrophically, a bow that is exposed to swings in temperature (in either direction) can perform differently so that alone should be reason enough to try and maintain a consistent mild temperature.

The most succinct advise or adage I've been told concerning bow storage is; "If you are uncomfortable then your bow is uncomfortable".     

Video: Stage 1 World Cup

The first stage of the Archery World Cup was a while ago but ArcheryTV just released this excellent recap of the event. It's on the long side (26+ minutes) but well worth the watch. They also have a recap for compound archery up on their youtube channel but I was feeling biased today.

Training notes: Never one for realism

I've never been much of a fan of 3d archery (the foam animals), or I guess more accurately, I've never really taken it all that seriously. In my mind (a non-hunting mind), I approach it as an opportunity to make ridiculous shots and shoot strictly for fun. As a result, I've: A) always approached 3d season with a slight sense of dread (in that it's a slight inconvenience for shooting paper indoors when a league is going on), and B) have never gotten all that good at it.

However, that being said; the Presleys Summer 3d league began yesterday and I have to admit I'm having a lot of fun with it. Unlike times past I'm shooting my Olympic recurve, which has made me quite the oddity and more importantly presented quite the additional challenge. When I was shooting compound, the space between my 20yd and 30yd sight mark was really quite minimal so for indoor 3d, if I were to misjudge a yardage then I wouldn't be too terribly far off the mark. In contrast, I have to drop the sight on my recurve almost one half of an inch to move from 20yd to 30yd. This means I practically have to be on the money to pull off a shot or I'll barely catch foam (or completely miss the foam as was the case with the racoon).

I shot the first course yesterday and walked away with a 213/280. Interestingly this is about two points off of where I started during the last 3d league with a compound (I told you I wasn't all that good).