Wow - new arrows!

Emmadragon

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I had no idea that a smaller arrow would make such a difference!
I've been shooting standard 1716 aluminium arrows, and really struggling to make any kind of distance outdoors, combined with my low poundage (22#) bow.

Had a delivery of lovely new ACC arrows on Friday, and tried them out for the first time last night - wow! My sight was almost at the bottom of the sight bar with the 1716s, and the ACCs flew crazy far over the top of the target. I've managed to reclaim more than half of my sight for effective use. Hopefully, when my new limbs turn up (which should be at the weekend), and I'm up to 26#, i'll see even more difference, but once more, wow.

Have you had a similar experience? One piece of equipment which has made a really game-changing improvement to your shooting? I'd be fascinated to hear about any others.

Emma.
 

LionOfNarnia

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For me, it was when I modified my sight pin so I could shoot 'true' cross-dominant (right-handed, left-eyed, both eyes open)

This is the 'final' version (new pic)



I use Avalon Classic & Tyro carbons outdoors, no probs, but fancy some fat alloys for the indoor season - prolly X23's.

Every point counts, right?
 

geoffretired

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Not quite equipment, but Archery in Earnest made a world of difference to me once I had read it.
I meant to start with a word about your new arrows!! Sorry.
It is a good feeling when you make a decision and fine the results are better than you hoped for. Nice!!
 

mbaker74

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Ali to carbon arrows was my biggest change....... ACE to X10 was a big change in wond performance, but not as much as ali to carbons :)
 

Emmadragon

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Hmm, I've been reading your posts about this cross-dominance with interest. So, I shoot right handed, and am neither eye dominant. What that means in reality is that when I draw, I aim through the sight with both eyes, but if I hold too long aiming, first one eye, and then the other, will try to assert dominance, and it will switch back and forth alarmingly between both. I usually have to start the entire draw sequence again at that point. And if it gets in my head, which, you know, sometimes things do, I can't aim with either eye (or both!) for a few shots. All bets are off as to where things go at that point. Grass, walls, fences, that sort of thing.
 

geoffretired

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I have a right eye problem and shoot right handed with a sight in front of my left eye. If I hold too long things go visibly pear shaped.
In your case it would seem you would benefit from wearing a small patch on a pair of sunglasses. The patch does not need to be opaque, tracing paper is good enough. You don't need to patch the whole lens, just the part that will prevent you from seeing the target. You end up shooting with both eyes open, but can only see the sight ring with the one on the right. You could remove the lens from the right eye, too if that helps. So the sunglasses are there purely to allow a patch in front of the left eye.
 

Emmadragon

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I'm sure the answer to this is somewhere else in the forum, but...I wear glasses (I am incredibly short sighted, just one diopter above legally blind!), is there anything similar to the tracing paper which is a clip on attachment for glasses? My coach has also suggest that I try this, so I'd be willing to give it a try. But I'm not willing to start using tape on my glasses.
 

4d4m

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I'm sure the answer to this is somewhere else in the forum, but...I wear glasses (I am incredibly short sighted, just one diopter above legally blind!), is there anything similar to the tracing paper which is a clip on attachment for glasses? My coach has also suggest that I try this, so I'd be willing to give it a try. But I'm not willing to start using tape on my glasses.
If you have plenty of spare cash you could investigate dedicated shooting glasses with "blinders" as commonly used in olympic shooting disciplines. The sighting eye for you would have a prescription lens and there would be a translucent blinder on your non-sighting eye. The idea of a translucent blinder is to make the amount of light going into both eyes the same so your pupil doesn't dilate, as this can affect the image in your aiming eye and cause more eyestrain.

Several "home brew" options though. You could rig something up using one of those tiny bulldog clips and a small piece cut out from a plastic milk carton. Care would have to be taken not to scratch your lens if it's plastic. You could pad the clamping area for instance. Or you could buy a cheap pair of clip-on flip-up sunglasses and butcher those: cut off one lens and tape the other.

As you're not strongly dominant in one or the other, in my opinion the best option by far is to train your brain to know which image to use and to ignore the other. Then you can shoot with both eyes open. It will then seem to disappear and not play a part in your awareness of the shot process. I seem to be able to do this at will and used to be surprised when other people didn't even understand what I meant by "use the other image"!

The chances are if your awareness is flipping between the images, you're taking too long over the shot anyway.
 

geoffretired

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Sorry about the glasses, you are right in not wanting to stick anything onto the glass. A broad elastic band could be slid along the left leg and fitted over the lens. The could hold a piece of soft material against the lens.( perhaps small piece of lens cleaning cloth.) The elastic band might not be a good thing to press against the lens hence the soft cloth between.
 

Emmadragon

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I think I might try the butchering flip-up sunnies. I know I can get a pair of them for about 3 quid, as opposed to the ?30(!) for a 'proper' clip-on eyeshield. At least it might give me the idea whether it's the right way to go. Although, I will agree with 4d4m, normally it's not a problem and I can shoot happily with both eyes open. Everyone in my club does seem to have this weird obsession with slowing my shooting down. I do shoot fast, and I know it - I can be done with all 6 arrows in the time it takes my target partner to shoot 2 - but I don't have a problem with it. My coach says if we were at Agincourt she'd pick me over anyone else for speed, but otherwise she'd rather I slowed down. I think she thinks I'm not taking enough care because I'm fast, which I dispute on a regular basis.
 

LionOfNarnia

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The sight I use is one of those fibre-pin things - Infitec to be precise. With my shooting eye it's a small glowing dot, with the other it's an angled, blurry, tapered line way way WAY off to the left of the range safety limit so I don't have any confusion as to where to align. (not so far, anyway ;) )

When I shoot blowpipe you see 2 blurry lines in a divergent vee in front of you, one a bit larger & slightly less blurry than the other but the 'trick' is to use the centre-line of the vee aligned to the centre line of the target, height dependent on distance - 5m is the minimum allowed under International Rules but we used to shoot 10m indoors & up to 25m outdoors in the summer, depending on conditions. I was Dutch champion from 2009-12 :D

That's where I still get my 'instinctive' fix, as without a sight I'm lucky to even hit an archery target at 20yds

(A blowpipe target is about the same size as a c*mp**nd target, it was designed to fit on A4 paper to keep costs down. Greyscale for club nights, full colour for compo.)
 

chuffalump

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I can see the logic of keeping equal light into each eye to reduce strain. Which means that using flip down sunnies will reduce light going to that eye. Isn't it just as easy to close the eye while aiming then? Or is the plan to punch out the lens and cover it with translucent paper?
 

Emmadragon

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I'm thinking a pair of flip-down yellow sunnies, which only reduce the glare while not limiting light entry, might be the best. Going to have to experiment a bit, I think.
 

4d4m

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I can see the logic of keeping equal light into each eye to reduce strain. Which means that using flip down sunnies will reduce light going to that eye. Isn't it just as easy to close the eye while aiming then? Or is the plan to punch out the lens and cover it with translucent paper?
Good point about the dark lens. You could remove the lens entirely and replace with a piece of translucent material.
Closing the eye sets up some muscle tension by using facial muscles unevenly, which can itself cause some strain.
 

chuffalump

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To get back to the original post.

I bought a Beiter serving jig. The pro one with metal rollers. Expensive but I would say that this is one area where it's not worth going cheap. It was so frustrating with a low cost Christmas cracker jobbie. Tension impossible to keep consistent. Ever since then I just tell people to go expensive and don't look back.
 

bimble

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I think I might try the butchering flip-up sunnies. I know I can get a pair of them for about 3 quid, as opposed to the ?30(!) for a 'proper' clip-on eyeshield.
Like you I'm not totally one eye dominate. I do use a clip on eyeshield, which can be bought for a little as ?10, such as from TopGun Clothing because this is an issue that happens in more than just our sport
 

ben tarrow

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Ooh, and they come in pink, too! Cool, might give that a go.
You dont need to cover or black out the entire eye.
Think about a horse wearing blinkers.
I have a small piece of opaque (think about milk carton plastic) plastic that clips on the left arm of my spectacles and continues that line, subsequently blocking the sideways view from my unwanted eye. Looking forwards (walking to the target and talking to friends) its no where near my field of vision

An example here:
https://youtu.be/P7dGCyg0Axs
Personally, I find this one a bit bulky. I like that it clips on a hat and folds away. I'll post a photo of my home made spectacle arm mounted one when I get time
 
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