The October meeting was held on the 6th. There were 9 members in attendance. We discussed the Nebraska Big Buck Classic the upcoming club election, Indoor Leagues, and the pop machine.
New Members
There were no new members voted in at the October meeting.
Indoor Leagues:
We discussed leagues at the last club meeting and decided to hold them on Wednesday’s this year. One of the members at the meeting said he could not shoot Tuesdays and asked for the change—and no one objected. So Wednesday’s it will be this year. Leagues will start on Wednesday the 22nd. The first night is normally a get together and practice night with an official start a week later. If you would like to shoot leagues this year, please be at the indoor range prior to 7:00 on the 22nd or 29th.
Leagues are a great way to get together with club members to discuss equipment, observe how others shoot and pick up tips for better shooting. The also keep you in shooting shape if you are a hunter, even if you shoot different equipment for leagues than to hunt with.
Club Web Site News:
Our web site has officially been copied over and is now being hosted by the Outdoor Network. The first step was to simply copy over all of our web data to the new site. Now that, that has occurred, the next step is to update our site to have a new look and feel. I’m not sure how long that will take, hopefully only a week or two. In the mean time, the text from the newsletter will be sent by email to those that normally get a link to the web site when the newsletter is ready. I’ll resume sending the link when the website is fully updated.
Indoor Range News:
The indoor range needs a little help. If you have the ability to help out with the following items, please contact Aaron Good, our VP of Indoor. Aaron’s number is 968-9745.
First, the cost to heat the indoor range was extremely high last year. In fact, we just received a bill for about $1,300 to make up for the shortfall in our payments—and our monthly billing rate has gone up. We used to have our thermostat hooked up to the lights, so that it would be cooler in the range when the lights were off, and the heater would kick on for a higher temperature when the lights were turned on. At the last meeting we weren’t sure how that process was set up or how to restart it. We thought that maybe there are 2 thermostats with one set low all the time and the other kicking on with the lights. If anyone has skills in updating our thermostat (or just re-setting what once worked), please contact Aaron to see if we can set it up to work again.
Second, the pop machine no longer works. Before we start looking for a new one, if anyone in the club has skills in fixing machines like our pop machine we’d appreciate someone trying to fix it. We’re not sure if it is simply a Freon thing or if something else is wrong. Again, contact Aaron if you think you can help.
Nebraska Big Buck Classic:
Ahamo has agreed to host an indoor shoot at the Nebraska Big Buck Classic next year. Bill Arledge said he would coordinate that shoot for the club. We discussed this briefly at the club meeting and Bill is thinking of setting the shoot up as a 20 yard paper animal target shoot. We saw a sample of a turkey target at the last club meeting that looked pretty sharp. I believe it was an IBO target, and it had very light scoring rings in it, making it more of an animal shoot than a target shoot.
The Shoot is still under discussion, but the ideas for setting it up so far sound pretty good.
Boy Scouts at the Range:
Tom Bockman was asked to run a one night archery program for a group of Boy Scouts and was given permission to use our range for that last month.
The program went very well and we received a very nice thank you from the scouts for allowing them to shoot. We used our Genesys bows and our arrows and found that they were just perfect for beginners.
Loss of a Member:
One of our past members and a Life Member of the Ahamo Archery Club passed away this month. Ron Faulkner was once our Club President and along with his wife Liz, was very active in our club.
Club Deer Awards:
I am still waiting for calls or email from members on their hunting successes this year. You need to email me(hunterleep@cox.net)or call (592-3856) with information on your deer so I can record that and so that you can receive your deer award at the end of the year.
Next Year’s Officers:
We have openings on the board for next year for members that would like to throw their hat into the ring for a club office. All positions can be run for. Those that we don’t have an incumbent or member running for yet include Secretary, Vice President, and President.
These are dues paid positions if you would like to run for one of them or for another position. If you have questions on any of our board positions, please let me know—or let one of the other club officers know.
Note on Bow Tuning:
I have plenty of white space to fill in this month’s newsletter so I thought I’d ramble a little on bow tuning.
To me, the most important part of bow tuning is getting your bow to shoot an arrow through paper with a minimum of vane lean. When shooting your arrow though a paper tuner, you can easily see if you are shooting vane high, vane low, or with the vane left or right of the point.
Before shooting through paper though, here are some things to do. First of all—you need arrows with the correct spine for your bow weight and draw length. There are plenty of charts around, and it is important that you be within the tolerances of your bow set-up. It is normally easiest to tune when your arrow is slightly on the high side of your spine tolerance. For me, I like to be on the light side to get a little more speed—but that set-up is just a little more difficult to tune. When selecting arrows here, you also need to pay attention to the weight of your points, as they impact your arrow spine. Because I was on the light side of my spine when I decided to start shooting carbon arrows last year, I ended up going from 125 grain points to 100 grain in order to get a good tear through paper.
Next, you need to set up your bow as close as possible to where you think your tune should be. You should set your rest as close to center as possible to the hole in your bow where the rest screws into the bow. If you have a drop away or another rest, just set your rest up so the center of the arrow is right in front of the hole.
Use a bow square to set your knocking point. If you use a string loop, your knock should be almost at a 90 degree level off of your string. If you use a knocking point and put your release under the arrow, your knocking point should be set so the back of your arrow is knocked a little high—as it would be also if shooting fingers.
Hold your bow out with an arrow in it and eyeball how far to set your rest out from your bow. Your string should line up—down the center of your limb and you shouldn’t see the point of your arrow on the left or the right of your string. Note that if your cams are offset and are on the left or right of center of the limb, your string and arrow should be along that line.
Another thing to do is check your timing. This is simply paying attention to your draw stop—to see if one wheel stops before the other. On a single cam bow this isn’t necessary. If both cams are exactly the same you can also eyeball the string or cable to see how they line up to any same reference point on the cams. Just check against a line along where the cables attach to the cams. If they don’t line up exactly the same or if you feel one cam stopping before the other, you will need a bow press and should twist one of your cables a little. After doing that, check things again to see if it is getting better or worse (kind of like getting an eye exam).When it’s as good as you can get it, then you’re ready to paper tune.
One other note first. When tuning, if things don’t go well, your cams may be leaning from one side to the other. Try to push your cams sideways, and if there is some playyou may need to visit a pro shop to replace parts before you tune your bow.
Now you should be ready to shoot through paper.Start about 5 feet or so from the paper tuner. Shoot as level as you can through the paper and check the tear. A rule of thumb, is that the back of the arrow should follow the point. If the vane tear is high, move your knocking point down (as the point is down). If the tear of the vane is low, move the knocking point up. If the vane tear is left, move your rest left (so the back of the arrow is moved more to the right—following the point). Do the reverse for vane tears to the right.
If you adjust things over and over and nothing improves, here’s some tips. If you can’t get rid of a left vane tear it could be because you need a stiffer spine’d shaft. To correct this, try a heavier spine’d arrow or you can use a lighter point on your arrow (going from 125 grains to 100 maybe). The opposite is true with right tears.
If you still can’t get a perfect tear, it could be you. You may be gripping your bow to hard, causing it to torque left or right. You may also be using too high or too low a grip. Try changing a few things in your form to see if it helps.
You can also pay attention to your bow arm in case you are pushing it too much to the inside. You may want to bend your arm out slightly to be sure you get plenty of string clearance.
Sometimes difficultly in shooting a perfect hole is due to your vane contacting the rest during the shot. You can correct this by using a drop-away rest or by twisting your knock slightly to keep your vanes from contacting your rest.
When you get a perfect tear, try moving a little further from the paper tuner just to be sure your arrow wouldn’t be fish tailing from that distance but not from your initial position. If it does, then tune some more from that spot.
These are the things I do when tuning my bow. Others may do things a little differently, but these are things that work for me.
Newsletter Items:
If you have a hunting picture or story, please send it to me, I’d like to put it in the newsletter. If you have an item for sale, send me the information to put in the newsletter as well.
Please email me anything you would like to add to the newsletter, or contact me for my mail address. You can even give me your article at a club meeting.
