Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 146 i Bow International

Hello! Welcome to issue 146 of Bow International. This month is the 'Tuning Special'. Tuning has long been a bit of a personal bugbear for me and I've always found it tricky. It's taken a while to gestate, but I'm very pleased with Ashe Morgan's detailed piece this month on recurve tuning; which adds both depth (it's not a 'basic tune') and clarity to the process. The idea is to find something that is both testable and repeatable, but without tying you down into a never-ending process of second guessing. I think he's done an amazing job, as have all our contributors this month. There's an astonishing amount of valuable information on the pages of this issue. One of the eternal issues with the sport – and one I think…

With the indoor World Series now going fully virtual over the 2020/2021 indoor season, and the COVID era still firmly part of most Western countries, the international archery calendar remains in a state of flux. The major international open-entry indoor events, such as Nimes and the Vegas Shoot, are still planned to take place early next year, although as of this writing neither have yet opened registration. It is assumed that decisions on whether events will go ahead will be taken before the end of the year. The Lausanne World Archery Excellence Centre is thought to be an option for an alternative venue for international indoor competition, depending on the current global situation. One outdoor international event did take place, in Antalya, which hosted 107 archers from 13 countries including…

Learning how to tune your bow can feel like navigating through a minefield of settings which all affect each other. There are endless parameters you could change, but how do you know which ones you should change? And in which order? Many intermediate or even advanced archers are left second-guessing whether their tune is correct. I want to show you the simplest, most robust method to finally feel confident with your tune. I also want to give you a toolbox of tuning tests that you can use for years to come. A few are a little more involved, but once you've done them once or twice, they will quickly become second nature. Let’s start by looking at why we’re tuning in the first place, and by setting some ground rules.…

TUNING FOR STRINGWALKING. BY JOE PARKER Fully tuning a barebow for field and target stringwalking may take some time depending on your experience level. The main issue with string walking is that it continually changes the tiller, and thus the cast of your bow, because as you move your hands up and down the string, the limbs will not do the same amount of work. You might not spot this if you shoot two targets a metre apart, but if you go from 60m to 10m the difference will be obvious. In field, the majority of the shots lie between approximately 22 and 30 metres in the barrow class. So tuning this distance as close to perfection as possible would be the most valuable. For shorter and longer shots a…

In part one in Bow issue 145, we explored all the reasons why you would want to take on this challenge; working towards achieving the Olympic qualifying score (WA70 Men 640 Women 605) without giving up everything else in your life. We also looked at how to go about making a plan to achieve it. This time we will identify the critical areas of your bow set up and technique that are most likely to be costing you points, and by eliminating them increase your chances of meeting your goal. At all levels of our sport, points are lost by archers shooting bows which are not set up correctly and/or taking those shots that we know we shouldn’t. All of the errors we will look at are relevant to archers…

WORLD RECORDS TUMBLE IN 2020 At least 24 world records have been broken this year since World Archery recognition resumed in June. Mike Schloesser shot a new compound record for the WA1440 round in the Netherlands in August, breaking Peter Elzinga’s compound men’s mark on the 1440 Round by two. Kang Chae Young [above] upped a long-standing distance score for recurve women at a Korean tournament at the beginning of July, shooting 354 for the 36-arrow round at 60m and breaking the senior women's record by a point. Many new records for barebow have been shot, with John Demmer of the USA breaking the men's record for a 50-metre ranking round by six points with 665, while Maria Olesen of Denmark added nine points to the women's record with 621…

The German manufacturers, who makes products for multiple shooting sports are expanding their archery range with a damper that is screwed onto the back of the sight rail, designed for archers who prefer 'less vibrations'. The rubber damper, including the stainless steel head, weighs just ten grams. The TEC-HRO SightDamper is available in two thread sizes: the 8/32 inch thread for American products, and the M4 thread for Asian or European products. The heads of the dampers are available in the matt silver of the stainless steel, or powder-coated in green, red, blue or white. The cost is around 13 EUR each. More information at www.tec-hro.de…

An often forgotten aspect of tuning a bow is correctly fitting the nock to the string. Most brands of nocks will only come in two sizes: small or large, which makes it a simple choice to choose the correct nock for the string, right? Unfortunately there are more factors involved, such as the diameter of the string material itself, the number of strands in the string, and the diameter of the centre serving The incorrect nock fit for a particular string and serving combination can not only affect the tune of an arrow, but it can actually prove to be dangerous if the nock fit is too loose or too tight. The arrow may not clip onto the string if the nock is too loose, and may fall off when…

When the Gillo GT recurve riser was announced at the end of 2019, my eyes immediately wandered in the direction of my archery piggy bank. The risers from the Italian manufacturer are among the best equipment available for barebow archers. The Gillo G1 is has almost legendary status and is immensely widespread compared to other barebow risers. With my long arms, a new 27-inch handle had been on the shopping list for a long time. But I am also spoiled for choice. After all, the Gillo GT now offers six colours to choose from. I chose gray. I like gray. It is also available in three different lengths: 25, 27 and for the very long-armed even 29 inches. There is a variant for Formula limbs too. At some point I…

23 ROBIN HOOD (2010) DiRECTOR: RIDLEY SCOTT They say: "In twelfth-century England, Robin Longstride and his band of marauders confront corruption in a local village and lead an uprising against the crown that will forever alter the balance of world power." At 45 years old, Russell Crowe remains the oldest actor to play the lead as Robin Hood, perhaps apart from Sean Connery. Fraught by production problems and an English accent almost – but not quite – worse than Kevin Costner's, this remains a diverting take, partly due to the talent involved and Scott's insistence on extensive rewrites to the script to push the legend into new territories and reduce the role of the Sheriff of Nottingham. But it's a little too straightforward, really. Crowe essentially reruns his Gladiator lead role…

WORTH OVER £265 Regular Bow columnist Kristina Dolgilevica is offering a remote training package to one lucky reader, part of her new venture Third Eye Archery, offering a new approach to remote coaching. The training plan package is a one-to-one, four week training programme for intermediate archers. It is designed to target all three aspects of ‘mastery’-technical, physical and mental. Technical skill is assessed through the use of specialist software and coach’s expertise. You are asked to send a set of videos every week to track your progress. In addition, you are given a few physical and mental tasks based on the latest sports psychology and neuroscientific developments. Curriculum and workload are tailored to each individual archer and the three month training plan targets all aspects of ‘mastery’. The archer’s…

Paralympic champion John Cavanagh has retired from archery due to a steady worsening of long-term injuries. The GB para-archer featured in five successive Paralympic Games, winning individual W1 gold at Athens 2004, and a silver at Beijing 2008. A statement from ParalympicsGB said Cavanagh had been suffering with an ongoing shoulder injury. "Retiring from the competitive aspect of archery at the end of this summer has actually been my intention for a couple of years," Cavanagh said. "The plan was to try and compete at the Tokyo Paralympic Games and then finish regardless of whether or not I made the team." "With the Games now postponed for a year there was an option to continue into 2021 but the steady worsening of my long-term injuries means that this is not…

We all know the merits of shooting a well tuned set up, but how much do you really know about the finer points of compound tuning? Micro-tuning is often overlooked but it’s an important part of your set-up procedure, especially when you haven’t been able to practice or compete much. If you’re feeling a bit rusty a highly tuned bow can often save the day and help you find you those precious few points you need. In this guide you’ll find some of the more overlooked micro-tuning methods you can use to boost your post-lockdown performance. Micro tuning comes after your initial equipment tune, so it’s important you carry out a basic set-up before you start. This means that you should make sure that your cams are in sync and…

Archery and Hollywood – not often a great combination. Particularly when it comes to quivers, film-makers can’t seem to resist the urge to place them on the actors’ backs, where the arrows will rattle, be prone to falling out or getting caught in overhanging trees, and have to be pulled out blindly over the shoulder in a long and cumbersome motion. Ever since Errol Flynn’s ’Robin Hood’ (1938), the leather back quiver appears to have been a favourite accoutrement for ’medieval archers’ in film and television. However, there is absolutely no historical evidence for its use in Europe during the Middle Ages. Most probably, real medieval archers were well aware of the disadvantages of carrying their precious arrows on their back and thus out of sight. A variety of means…

Q Can you tell me the impact of vane stiffness on arrow flight? I don't know if you have any review about these problems showing the advantages and inconveniences of each vane about arrow speed, shock resistance, rotation speed… There are several models of vanes with hard / medium / soft / ultra soft stiffness from elivane / spinwing / xs wing / spider vane / K&K / gaspro and I don't know what to choose. I currently shoot with 2inch medium Gaspro but at each practice I have to refletch one or two arrows at least. The vanes are brittle when shocking each other and it cuts the ligature. A spin vane must maintain integrity of shape and structure whilst the arrow is in flight. Upon release the force…