How to improve stability?

[jeffreyd]

no the humidity is up this week, they are saying 117 for the rest of the week and weekend. hopefully it will bring on the monsoon, we need the rain. certain times of the year it is dry, 2% humidity most days but after july 4 it comes up and does not matter if it is 10% or 50% at 115 it is just horrible out. they put out a pavement warning yesterday for people that have to walk.

[NWBuck]

Here's another standard way to determine your correct draw length. Stand against a wall with your arms spread out, but don't "stretch" for that extra distance. Measure the distance between where your middle fingers touch the wall (in inches) and divide by 2.5. "Wingspan" divided by 2.5 gets pretty darn close in most cases...

[mknolls]

Measure the distance between where your middle fingers touch the wall (in inches) and divide by 2.5. "Wingspan" divided by 2.5 gets pretty darn close in most cases.

Just to be clear because some one's already thinking it is from tip of one hand to the tip of the other. Very important not to stretch. Good advice.

[VMS]

Hi everyone,

One thing I have noticed when shooting and holding for longer periods of time is that the weight of the bow itself at full draw is something to pay attention to. I am also one who shoots indoor target and finding the right balance of holding weight and bow weight play a key role in being able to hold steady. If you are really shakey after 5 - 6 seconds where the pin is not slowly moving around your point of aim on the target, I would say the weight of the bow is too light for your holding weight at full draw. A stabilizer that has the ability to adjust weight would be ideal since you can adjust until you find that sweet spot where things are pretty solid. For me, a small stabilizer and my quiver are on for hunting, which makes things heavy enough to hold steady and with a little off-set bracket, the balance left-right is good as well. It is very similar to what one would want for shooting rifles. A competition rifle barrel is thick and heavy...it takes more to move around and thus is more accurate. That is a property of physics in that an object at rest tends to stay at rest, so the heavier something is, the less it will move around and the more effort it takes to move it if desired. A heavier bow itself can settle that shakiness down as well.

sometimes that little extra bow weight is all it takes for you to settle down on a target, and it makes a world of difference. Being able to hold steady for longer periods is a good thing, but there are limitations to it as well...I would say 10 seconds is probably pretty close to ideal. Obviously, there will be a limit to what is working since if one gets the bow too heavy, the bow will drop below the intended target and trying to bring a pin back up to a target from below is extremely tough to do. Find the right bow weight -vs- holding weight one will find accuracy and holding for longer periods of time easier to accomplish.

Steve

[eyeguy 54]

Good post VMS, and very true. Back in the mid 90's when I was smokin 3D courses I was shooting a PSE G Force. Heaviest bow I have ever owned and I had about a 15 ounce stablilizer on it to ballance the bow. I was shooting 300 to 400 practice shots a week and was in good shape back then. Only had it set at 63 pounds but with light carbons I had less than an inch from my 20 pin to the 60 pin.

[charliepete]

How is your draw length. Lots of folks are shaky when holding a bow too long for them. A draw length short enough to pull against the wall seems to level things out. Might also be target panic. Have somebody touch off your release while you aim for a few rounds. See if it makes a difference.