Tricks and Tips
This page contains ideas and methods I have gleaned from books, various places on the web or that I have worked out for myself. It is an eclectic mix covering all aspects of archery. I mainly shoot target compound, but I also enjoy clout shooting, so these disciplines feature most often.
Compound Clout Arrows
When I first started shooting clout with my compound bow I discovered a major problem - the arrows don't stick in! Granted this may be a predominately Essex problem in that a lot of our clout fields are clay. This means that in the summer they are very hard and therefore the arrows tend to skate across the surface and not stay where they land. On one memorable occasion I watched one of my arrows skitter out of view of the scope to the right, only to reappear a moment later going in the opposite direction.
The solution is fairly simple, what you need is greater trajectory. The bow speed / arrow weight combination with target bows is designed to (among other things) flatten trajectory whereas in this instance we need to increase it. Slowing the arrow down will achieve this and there are three ways to acomplish this.
- Reduce the bow weight.
- - Works well but can be a bit of a faf unless you have a dedicated clout bow
- Increase fletch size.
- - Not my preferred option, though larger fletches will slow the arrow they make them much more susceptible to wind drift.
- Increase arrow weight.
- - This is my preferred option, I achieve this with very heavy aluminium arrows and 200gn points
Clout Arrow Points
Another factor affecting whether or not clout arrows stick into the ground is point
shape. The diagram below shows how a 'pencil' point has a much lower angle of attack
compared with the more traditional bullet point. This is obviously quite important
when using a compound bow or high draw weight recurve.
Compound Sight Marks
It should be noted that any change in the distance between the nock and the peep
will have a marked affect on the sight marks. Increasing the distance will reduce
the sight marks and conversely reducing the distance will increase them.
This affect of peep height on sight mark should be borne in mind when settling on
a comfortable anchor point, or if you are having dificulty obtaining sight marks
for the longer distances.