From the Lions' Den - A freestylers' journey.

LionOfNarnia

Supporter
Supporter
Yeah, I don't normally 'do' white but I can see myself wearing that with pride for compos, especially as Newburn don't have any 4XL shirts 'in stock' but aren't planning on ordering soon as they do have lots of shirts in less-heroic sizes. The 'minimum order' problem :(

************************

As it's a typical northern autumn day (cats-and-dogs) I'm doing another wee 'project' today.

Background

When I got the 2nd hand A/C/E's recently, one of the 'personalisation' tasks was to replace the supernocks with pins. Seven of them came out with no issues, just a twist of the nock tool was enough to free them. The remaining four were so over-glued that the nock-end sheared off. Two of those came out easily enough with a small screw inserted & pulled. One had to be reamed out with a succession of drills but the final one, I 'over-gripped' the tail end of the shaft & slightly crushed it. I tried to re-round it by gently hammering a 4mm drill down the shaft but only managed to 'shatter' the carbon. So, one ruined shaft :(

Now I hate chucking anything valuable away so I decided to bring it back to life as an arrow-rake that I could keep in my quiver (for the summer), and using a few other left-overs namely:

The cord from my first stringer (KAP) which became useless when the cord broke through the rubber of the top-limb end
One of the left-over off-cuts from the X-Busters
A screw hook
Some Milliput (Obviously!)

Here's progress so far, the Milliput needs to dry a bit more before I paint it -

Rake 1.jpg

Rake 2.jpg

I'll post another pic when the handle end is finished.
 

Emmadragon

Supporter
Supporter
AIUK Saviour
I took a picture of my bow, but I can't seem to load it. The file size is too large and I don't know how to make it smaller...😕
 

LionOfNarnia

Supporter
Supporter
I've never found a file that was too big for Irfanview.

- Remember it can handle video too! (I've only ever used it for doing fairly simple stuff on pix though - but adding lines & text ain't too hard.)
 

LionOfNarnia

Supporter
Supporter
The Shibby fibres arrived safely this morning.

I like that they have a 'ball' at the business-end, makes the pin bigger as well as stopping it from falling out. Seems many times brighter than the OEM pin, under my desk lighting anyway but ofc I won't know for sure until I try them in the sports hall tonight. As you can see, the fibre starts bending before it even leaves the tube so should have no 'rules' issues - and remember the 'standard' Shibby version has been used by one or two in World Cup events so must be 'legal'.

Decut 3.jpg

Decut 4.jpg
 

LionOfNarnia

Supporter
Supporter
<Sings (Badly)> "So close, so close and yet so far away"

PORTSMOUTH - 493

Pushed my PB from 469, a healthy gain of 24 points, so I'm not even close to being downhearted!
Yes, it would have been kewl to break the 500 barrier tonight, and I know I could have done it if I hadn't rushed a bit to make sure I got the whole round in before pack-up time. Just 3 or 4 'off' shots away. No wucking furries!

As for the new 'hybrid' pin - YES!


It worked even better than I hoped, when my boss-buddy caught a glimpse he accused me of having a battery stashed away somewhere!

I have no problem giving this mod my highest recommendation, for everyone who finds indoor lighting just to diffuse to illuminate a short, straight flo-pin properly.

I didn't get the chance to test the green fibre, because I didn't take it with me. Not that I'd have had time for more than an end or two anyway. Another day, for there will be many, as the cosmos wills.

Bedtime now, with an early alarm for England v Australia (rugby) - it's the only time I'll ever hit the beer before sundown.
(Rugby was once my #1 sport, I had the honour of being an international tourist [for my regiment] in 1981.)

Oh, here's the scoresheet, properly signed off. Couldn't hand it in tonight, the scores dude buggered off just as I was totting it up. For the observant, it's 'weird' coz I was shooting 4 per end, again to ensure I could actually finish a round - We don't get the hall until exactly 7pm & have to be totally cleared away by 9pm so it's only 90 mins actual shooting.

scorecard001.jpg
 

LionOfNarnia

Supporter
Supporter
Having resisted the temptation to hit the beer in favour of a big mug of tea & a BLT while enjoying the English demolition of the 'roo-strokers, and having given up in disgust at the blowful Irish performance vs the Kiwis long before half-time, I found time to do a little maintenance - arrow-cleaning, string-waxing etc - in addition to 'having a play' with the 2 items the postie brought this morning. All the way from China & a week earlier than expected :)

A second wrap-around rest, in red this time, and a digital bow scale which was less than a tenner. I'll post the measured OTF figures for both the 36# & 44# limbs when I've done enough tests to get a meaningful average.

Bowscale Rest.jpg

Tomorrow will be another first for me -

- I'm 'crewing' a Have-A-Go session at the club, apparently they're expecting around NINETY attendees!

I've requested assignment to the 'grown-up' end of the hall - having chosen not to bring kidz into this insane world I have little idea of how to interact with them, though from my other sports coaching experience I'm confident I can 'handle' older teens & adults OK.

It does mean missing Japan v South Africa as I need to hit the road by 11.30 but I'm anticipating that I'll have more fun in the hall anyway.

Afterward, in our own 3 pm-5 pm session, the intention is to shoot a Bertie (Worcester ;) ) in prep for the compo on 4th Nov. If I'm lucky I'll return with two new badges for my quiver, a 475 Pompey & maybe an 'E' indoor classification depending on the Bertie. Should get a handicap figure at last too!
 

LionOfNarnia

Supporter
Supporter
5 'pulls' on each set of limbs, with a couple of minutes pause between each one. These are the averages (not that there was more than 0.3# variation anyway, must have a fairly consistent draw now) -

36# limbs = 38.6# OTF

44# limbs = 46.8# OTF


The limb bolts are as the riser arrived, roughly mid-position I'd guess. I'll be cranking them in as the days get longer & warmer but there's no point in altering them during the indoor season, the 36's are more than enough for 20 yds as it is.

- Unless I do get a new riser (be)fore chrimbo, in which case the bolts will be maxed for SPTs with the 44's so I've fully conditioned myself by outdoor time ;)

How they get set for shooting depends on what is needed to get a good tune with the A/C/E 470's, but Easter seems a l o n g way off right now.
 

LionOfNarnia

Supporter
Supporter
Totally, completely drained...but what a great day :D

- 'Ego' highlight was a 52 y.o. bloke who thought I was much younger than him (I'll be 60 in April) 👌

What an absolute joy to spend a couple of hours preaching the gospel of the bow to a succession of stary-eyed civilians!

It was quite manic for the 1st hour, I'd say we got the expected 90 attendees no prob, but it settled down a bit later. Lots of sign-ups for the beginners course next month too. I think my fave people were an older couple whose kids had flown the nest who were looking for a hobby they could do together into their old age. Bless them!

After that, a relaxed Worcester.

- Only the British could have come up with such a weird format for a round!

I shot a respectable but unspectacular 218 - Good enough for an 'E' classification (Had the scores dude been there!) (And has he never heard of email?) and a big boost to my PB - I'd only ever shot it once before, many months ago, somewhere around 160 I think, but I was fighting a couple of equipment issues throughout:

- First, the wrap-around rest kept getting further & further from the plunger with every shot, which also dropped the centre-shot making the arrows go low. After what was said elsewhere about how fragile the screws are, I'd made sure they weren't over-tightened. Erred on the side of being too loose, as it turned out. This was the new red one, I set the black one up for the A/C/E's y'day. I'll make sure that's a bit tighter too.

- Second, the 'free' end of the Shibby fibre kept coming out of its' holder & dangling straight down. An easy enough fix, I have several ideas about how to make it more secure yet still easily removable. And 5 days to do it!

An early night tonight, hoping for at least 10 hours of catch-up sleep.
 

ThomVis

Active member
- Second, the 'free' end of the Shibby fibre kept coming out of its' holder & dangling straight down. An easy enough fix, I have several ideas about how to make it more secure yet still easily removable.
Make sure the free end is not in your line of sight. When it's level with the aperture dot it can be used as leveling reverence point, which is illegal (see 11.1.5.2 over here). Most easy solution is having it point up or down.
 

Whitehart

Well-known member
Make sure the free end is not in your line of sight. When it's level with the aperture dot it can be used as leveling reverence point, which is illegal (see 11.1.5.2 over here). Most easy solution is having it point up or down.

That's interesting, so if you use a Beiter pin you must cut it shorter otherwise with a bend (as suggested by many) you have both ends in the archers vision
 

Timid Toad

Moderator
Staff member
Supporter
Fonz Awardee
Ironman
And it must not be horizontal or vertical so you can't use it in leu of a bubble.
 

LionOfNarnia

Supporter
Supporter
The free end isn't in my LoS & the fibre is hidden from view by the threaded bar.

- If most of what you lot are freaking out about was so, the 'standard' Shibby fibre pin would be illegal, wouldn't it?
 

ThomVis

Active member
The free end isn't in my LoS & the fibre is hidden from view by the threaded bar.

- If most of what you lot are freaking out about was so, the 'standard' Shibby fibre pin would be illegal, wouldn't it?
Not if you rotate the end cap 90°. It's not about hiding the fiber, it's about hiding the illuminated dot at the end.

See the grub screw in the "loose-end-holding-thingy":
 
Last edited:

LionOfNarnia

Supporter
Supporter
Made a small tweak in order to silence the Debby-Downers (N'kay)

A 90* rotation of the 'end-holder' (plus a tiny smear of Blu-Tack by the hole) should end all doubts ;)

Twisty pin 1.jpg

Twisty pin 2.jpg

I've also started on a 3rd extended pin, which will be for the green Shibby when it's replaced (posted today). It was too fat to fit in the mounting hole, visibly fatter than the red one, so 'they' gave me a freepost thing to return it for replacement. I drilled the tiny fibre out of what I think was the oem Tec-X pin, the holder will be the Infitec square pin, at 90* ofc ;).

Pin 3 a.jpg

I also got a package today, the last one of the month - 150gr points for the A/C/E's - which I hope will slightly weaken the effective spine until I get the limbs cranked to the max. They were less than half the price of Easton points.

Spikeys!.jpg

...and the news doesn't end there!

I managed to score a 10.6" Galaxy tab S today from our local FB 'for sale' group - £35 :D
(They're around £100 on eBay)
I'm still getting used to it, but I've already installed Artemis (lite).
If you can't remember, I find a 'normal' smartphone too small to read with my contacts in, that's why I've been scoring on paper.
Hopefully now I can join the 21st C at last!
 
Top