The components for my new arrows arrived last Wednesday, but I had to wait until Thursday to do the assembly. I ordered eight shafts but fletched only seven, leaving one unfletched for tuning. Having helped Mrs EA assemble her arrows a few months ago, and repaired EA jnr's defletched shafts, I was fairly comfortable with the process.
I first glued the points into the shafts using hot-melt glue (having heated the points first over a gas flame), rotating them as I they were inserted to spread the glue evenly. Excess glue was wiped off while it was still warm. Next I inserted the nocks into the other end of the shaft. I didn't have a special tool to do this, but used a hex key sized to fit the notch in the nock to apply pressure an a little rotation until it seated correctly. Finally I attached the fletches using superglue (aluminium shafts so this is safe) and with the aid of a fletching jig. I always started with the cock vane (gold one for me), followed by the two hen vanes. I only had to discard one vane, which got stuck to the fletching jig.
At the Saturday club session, Andy kindly agreed to help me set up my bow for the new arrows. First we checked the alignment of the string and limbs using a pair of limb-line gauges and a Mark I eyeball, and found that there was a slight misalignment. Limb adjustment with my riser is achieved by rotating the eccentric-cammed posts after loosening the lock bolt. A special tool is provided to help hold it in place when the lock bolt is tightened. After a couple of cycles of adjustment we managed to align everything.
Next was the centre shot adjustment where the pressure button is moved so that the right side of the arrow is immediately adjacent to the left side of the string when viewed from behind and the string is aligned through the centre of the bow. A little adjustment was necessary to make this right.
I shot a few dozen arrows to get the feel of them before firing the unfletched arrow, which flew fairly straight down the range for about two-thirds the distance before veering off left and embedding itself into the adjacent boss. Bear in mind that this was from 30yds, which is not ideal for this type of tuning but with others on the practice range I had to live with it. Andy suggested that the clearance between the riser and the arrow looked a little tight, so we tried opening it up a little by adjusting the limb tips left, and extending the button, but this only resulted in the arrow tip being way out to the left until I was at full draw. Not surprisingly we subsequently adjusted back to where we were.
The remainder of the session I used to practice correct draw with the aim of getting some decent groupings, and this did get better over time. However, when taking down my bow at the end of the session, I noticed that the upper limb had developed a crack where it fits into the riser (see photo). On Monday I contacted online retailer to arrange for a return under warranty (they were two weeks old and only shot four or five times) and they were posted on Tuesday. I am hoping to have replacements for the weekend, but had to borrow a pair of limbs to shoot on Tuesday evening.
There was no archery for us on Sunday as both of our children were playing with their Scout & Guide band for the annual St George's Day celebration of Queens Scouts at Windsor Castle. EA Jnr plays trumpet and his sister plays clarinet, and they have both been with the band for just over two years. Mrs EA and I were lucky to get tickets to the Quadrangle in the castle where the review of Queens Scouts takes place. The event is normally attended by HM The Queen, but this time the review was taken by HRH The Duchess of Cambridge (a.k.a. Kate Middleton) and, as might be expected, the event was covered by TV and print media. Kate volunteers as as a cub scout leader near her home in Wales and she made the time to speak with as many of the scouts as possible in the time. The UK Chief Scout, Bear Grylls, spoke to others on parade. This was a lovely day out for us and something our children will remember for a long time.
EA Jnr at bottom
...and between two big-uns in the Quadrangle
HRH took time to talk with the Drum Major
Fitting the nock
ReplyDeleteBe very careful using a "bodge" tool to push on the nock. Any force from a metal tool down the inside and rotating the nock using the groove will potentially damage it and can cause the nock to break in use or cause it to be mis-shapen which can in turn cause inconsistencies in the shot. It should be finger tight. Are they the right nocks for the arrows?
Bare Shafts
One bare shaft is not enough to carry out meaningful bow tuning. This is why I always recommend buying a minimum of 12 arrows and leaving 3 of them as bare shafts. I think it unlikely the bare shafted arrow would have changed direction halfway down the range. If that is what appeared to happen it may have been an optical illusion. The bare shaft does not straighten up as it comes off the bow. It just keeps going in the direction it left the bow.
If the unfletched arrow really was so far off the fletched ones (at just 30 metres) it suggests you have either some very serious arrow tuning issues, or that it was just an isolated poor shot. This is where it is useful to shoot several fletched and unfletched arrows and observe the comparable groups before changing anything.
Before changing the bow limb settings I would have a good look at the position and functioning of the arrow rest. I assume this is the cheap stick-on one that came free with the bow? If so I would lay a bet that this was part of the cause.