making the TXG's set up a talk :)

[rusty craine]

I got to shoot a couple NFAA matches this year with the fellow that won then 2007 World champion Vegas barebow (at one time or another he has won everything else too ). Yep he string walks a compound but he tought me soooooo much in the couple of times I shoot with him that I will be ever grateful. Back in the '70s he won every thing there was to win with a recurve so he was right at home giving advice and coaching to a recurve shooter. First off he was impressed with my TXG's and could still score better with them than I could.

He said I didn't have a chance unless I put a under arrow clicker on my system and learned how to use it. he was right. I droped an 1/4" deep 8-32NC hole on the belly of the sight window and bent a piano wire to use a the clicker.

Today I shot a PB of 276 (barebow string walking) with the clicker on a NFAA 300 indoor round (60arrow @ 20yd). That was 24 points above my average. I had been shooting the clicker for about 30days getting thing going. I shoot 1500 arrows in practice over that period of time.

I don't know if the Beirter Rest will be legal in IFAA matches since it is more than 1/4" above the arrow (that is why you have to use a under the arrow clicker). May have to change that. I just had no idea how much difference a clicker would make in my ability to shoot the TXG's. anything that will give a 24 point boost should be looked at.

OH! and I am not suggesting that you drill and tap a hole you your favorite riser........but



you will get every possible point out of the TXG's and they deserve it

rusty

[rusty craine]

I had a friend watch the wire as I was shooting. She verified that there was some flex in the wire. This was a rather fine wire. It seems that the flex was the same every time thus a great deal of error is not present and I'll bet the fine wire would work very well at 20 yds. None the less, I am going to get a bit stouter wire. I fear that the good groups I am shooting at 20 yds might not hold up at 80 yds (respective to the distance of course, when I start shooting 2&1/2" to 3" groups at 80 yds you will be the first to know ).

I moved up two sizes wire. We confirmed that there was no visible flex in the clicker wire at that diameter. I will mic the wire and give ya the diameter. I will say that learning to shoot the clicker (at least for me) was not easy since I am a string walker and draw the arrow different lengths with different crawls. David Hughes helped me work out the problems. He solves the problem using his drawing shoulder. Moving the shoulder in or out depending on the distance. It is a skill that took me a bit of practice to get down. It helps beyond anything possible to have a shooter of David's caliber to help with the coaching.

String walking is easy to learn and become pretty good at. Alas it takes some advice and coaching (IMO) to become real good at

Agian let me say your equipment can give you a step up or it can make your life very complicated. It is a stroke of luck for string walker that Border is in the process of exploring custom ILF limbs. If any style of target shooting can take advantage of tweaking a limb, it is the string walking target shooters.

rusty

[JohnK]

Hi Rusty.

Just wanted to say that I'm finding all this very interesting. I've been shooting target and field barebow for a year now, three fingers under gap shooting, but I do intend to give stringwalking a go once I've reached what I would call a reliable degree of proficiency in shooting with good back tension. I was shown the basics when I started 10 years ago and it seemed to come very naturally to me. Of course, I didn't keep up the practice and the last time I tried it it didn't go so well.

Anyway, that's it for now. Just wanted to wave hello.

[rusty craine]

John, I am sure the stringwalkers will be happy to have another shooter in the flock .

Maybe Borders would not mind if we talked just a bit about stringwalking since I think sooner or later the best stringwalkers are going to find out about Borders TXG's .

Since you have been introduced to the basics you have an idea about the process. The thing is you are asking a lot out of you limbs and a ton of forgiveness out of your bow and arrow tune. From a short ranges crawl, you can lose 4 to 6 fps off the speed of an arrow compared to the speed you would get if you shot the arrow with your standard three under (point on) draw and release. This means you have to tune for an arrow spine in the middle or low side of the spine range (at least that is best for me). If you tune an arrow in the mid spine range and tune it for mid range let's say 40 yds, your arrow is going to shoot stiff at shorter ranges and maybe a tiny bit soft in spine at the longer ranges. After a lot of fiddling and practice you can learn to take the left/right movement out with pre-calculated plunger spring tension. Of course you can also just aim off the left or right side of the string if you wink the string on the arrow tip when aiming.

I have had several 3D/hunting bows set up to shoot off the shelf while string walking. For me the groups held up to 50 or so yds. I never got the shelf tuned good enough to shoot 60 to 80 yd groups off the shelf that were as good as my groups off a magnetic flipper. That said I can tell ya there are some barebow shooters around that can shoot 60yd groups off the shelf in the 10" range. They must have the smoothest release know to man alas I don't and need all the help I can get from my equipment.

The bad part of stringwalking in the States is the lack of competiton. I haven't got to shoot in Europe yet but understand there are many more string walkers there.

If you decide to give stringwalking a go let us know about your progress and what you learn. Stringwalking is a discipline for tinkerers. You will never stop experimenting, testing, and learning. There has never been more fertile time for stringwalkers. So much new stuff

rusty

[BorderBows]

Hope your doing well, We read about your by-pass's on the US forums, and hope your doing well, If its any consolation Our production director Dave went though a triple on the 8th jan '08, If it helps he was out shooting on saturday. All things considered, he did very well. Bit off the shot but did not struggle with the bow! 38# hex4 Black Douglas swift.

Hope your doing as well as he his and hope your back on the forums and shooting as quickly as possible!