January 2015 – Walt in PA

This weekend Pennsylvania was hit with snow. It came down fast and furious on Saturday, making travel a bit difficult. When Sunday rolled around the weather wasn't bad but my little front wheel drive car left me feeling as though I was stuck in the house. I wanted to take a ride over to Stowe Archers but the thought of climbing a snow covered hill brought back memories of last year when I went sliding down the hill, backwards. Having the itch to shoot my bow, I improvised and hung a bag target in my basement. I was able to shoot from one corner of the building to the other. I was only able to manage about 25 feet but I thought it would be sufficient shooting at 1" dots. Shooting at close range allowed me to put less focus on my sight pin and allowed me to focus on form. After a few arrows I realized that I have a terrible habit that I need to work on breaking. If my sight pin is high, I can easily settle down into the target and everything is fine. If I'm low and need to raise my bow arm, it feels like I'm trying to lift an anchor with my arm fully extended. After struggling with getting my pins to rise, I have a tendency to cheat and manipulate the sight picture with my wrist. This leads to the sight pin sort of swooping into place, at which point target panic sets in and I punch the trigger. At close range this leads to the arrow impacting upwards of two inches right. This explains my erratic 6's and 7's when shooting a 3-Spot Vegas target at 20 yards. At some point I'd like to make the switch to a hinge release. I don't think it will totally fix my trigger punch problem but I think it may help. I'll have to keep an eye out on Archery Talk and see if I can find one with a safety. The last thing I want to do is punch myself in the face during leages at Stowe.