Fustrated Compound Newbie .... Help !!!!!

[Stiks]

Hi,

Even though I'm new to compound bows I've had a few already.
I've now found one that I really enjoy shooting .... Or more accurately I did until a few weeks ago!

When I first had my Mathews Prestige I was shooting great, breaking arrows at twenty yards ( Until I quickly learned to aim at different a spots :-) and pretty ok at longer ranges too.

I popped into Bowsports to have my bow tweaked as I thought it was a little below spec. It was reading 58# fully wound in. I was told by a tech guy from Mathews it should read around 62#.
This I thought I'd get this sorted as I read that greater speed helps with the longer shots, ie Flatter trajectory thus more forgiving of range estimation errors.

Any way they tweaked it up for me twisting cables and the like. On returning home to Wales I went into the field to reset my sight/scope only to find my shooting had gone to pot :-( ... I presumed I was having an off day but the same happened a two days after.

Ok I think, maybe my Dropzone rest is not getting out the way now it's a bit faster .... I buy a Free Fall/ Trapdoor after some recommendation ... no change same problem ..... Arrrgh what's happening have I suddenly lost the ability to shoot straight I wonder!!

Went to Bowsports again, bought a Trophy Taker 1 micro with 10 blade, everyone is shooting these or so it appears, got to be good me thinks!
Had the string replaced at the same time as I'd carelessly caught it ( probably because of my frustration ) and cut a few strands.

Today after getting home I set it all up and proceeded to tune ....... Now! after spending another load of dosh I'm about ready to throw my bow in the bin!!

I can't get the arrows to strike the boss correctly at all, nock always to the left and I can't stop my fletchings from hitting the blade (index vane up) regardless of what I do to rest or nocking point, or if I wind the bow back down some.

I'm not going back to Bowsports because I've found they want to charge you for walking through the door! They quoted £20 to change the string, fit peep and D-loop. After Percy did this (Percy is a really nice guy by the way) they wanted to charge me £40 because he took a bit longer seeing I was well looked after.
I've had issues with them before over pricing/charging, I'm a patient man but that's it now. They've had a lot of money off me and I don't think they appreciated the business one little bit, in fact, I feel they can't get rid of me quick enough ..... I don't think I've been that much of a pain :-)

Anyway, sorry, I digress, I'll moan in the correct place after

Can anyone help me before I take a Stihl Saw to it or go insane.
Either point me in the direction of someone who will help without me having to take out a second mortgage (I'm medically retired and my savingshave took a battering lately :-) and more importantly is happy to do so!
I'm in Stourbridge West Midlands for a few more days (Prob until Sunday) at my old folks, then I'm away to home in Dolgellau North Wales.

Or guide me in sorting it on here??

I'm a left hander by the way.

My setup is:
LH Mathews Prestige 29” draw .. 50-60# fully wound in reading 61.4#
Sure Loc Challenger sight with Bieter 4x Scope
29” Lightspeeds 400 with 90gr combi points, and using Plastifletch Max PM23 vanes, total weight 350gr.


Looking forward to any help.

Cheers,

Stiks.

[Jerry Tee]

Get the twists taken out of the cable and string so that it's back as it was and start from there. Set the center shot at 13/16" out from the riser and put the rest at a height that puts the center of the shaft through the center of the button hole, set the nocking point 1/8 " high. Check that the scope bubble is in the center when the bow is upright Then shoot through paper at five feet and see what the whole in the paper is. If you still have a bad indication check the tiller of the bow.

[niceguy]

It's as Jerry says, try and get back to a known point and start from there. I'm not sure from your post but it sounds like you've wound the bow poundage up. This could have a major impact on the arrow spine but more importantly if you are a novice shooting off 60lbs you are probably overbowed.

[Oliver M]

Contact LeEarl on Archery Talk in the states and buy his DVD on tuning a compound its excellent in depth easy to understand

[sambow]

Fully wound in 58 when it should have been 62, thats a very strange number for a manufacturers spec. If it is the case that the manufacturers spec was 62lbs max, I would have expected some tolerance on it. If still true your bow was about 6% out which I would say is well within engineering tolerances when you think about all the variables involved and hardly worth bothering about. So quite surprised any changes were made.

I agree with previous two get it back to a configuration that worked (it will be far cheaper also!)

Also bear in mind, I am not sure what you are using it for but if it is target archery for competition use, the max allowable weight is 60lbs.

Originally Posted by Stiks

...I popped into Bowsports to have my bow tweaked as I thought it was a little below spec. It was reading 58# fully wound in. I was told by a tech guy from Mathews it should read around 62#....
Stiks.

[simon m]

Ignore me I repeated what was written above

[Stiks]

Thank you,

I've just ordered a bow press and will remove the twists as suggested.
All I will need is for someone to show/instruct me and should be able to sort it, eventually :-) I will have a look at that site suggested and buy the book.

I shoot Field NFAS so the 60# rule does not apply, we have a speed limit of 300fps which I'm under, just.

I don't feel overbowed, I pull it comfortably at that weight but if the bow/I
shoot better at a lower weight then of course that's what I will do.

I've moved over from AFB to UL NFAS so I'm not exactly green but when it comes to compounds theres a lot to learn of course and no doubt there will be fustration along the way.

Cheers,

Stiks.

[Marcus26]

OK so lets look carefully at what has happened here. (and BTW I am speaking bluntly, please don't get offended, but approach is important here)

1) You wanted more poundage.
a) Did you consider that perhaps the poundage was correct, but the scales were out?
b) Good archery rule, if it's working, don't touch it

2) You took it in to a proshop to get 'fixed'. How did they fix it?
a) They can only get more poundage by changing the brace height
b) or increasing the draw length

3) You are now shooting badly. The result was to change the arrow rest? Why would that suddenly not work?

4) You are not getting good arrow flight and getting rest contact.

So now we have a single non-issue into a series of issues.

Fix # 1.
You need to identify what was changed before you just start changing back. I suspect that the draw length was increased which has given you poundage, but is now causing you to overdraw the bow. This will make you unsteady and also can cause bow torque (problem 4). You should look at shortening your drawlength. Feel free to post a picture of your shooting to give us an idea of that.
If your draw was kept the same but your brace height increased then there is nothing in that that would cause this problem.

Fix #2
You are getting poor arrow flight. It is not the rest's fault. Drop aways won't fix this because your arrow i not leaving the bow correctly. Get some assitance on your grip.
ANother key could be that if twists were added then your idler wheel may be leaning. WOrth checking.

Fix #3
Rest contact. WHat height do you have your nocking point at?


Bows are really simple things and Mathews bows are one of the easiest to tune.
The key is to make sure that you approach it carefully and logically.

[rod]

sounds like you have spent a lot of dosh fixing a problem that did not exist,
go to merlin, they make compounds, they know what they are doing.

[Ceri Jones]

You live in Dolgellau? Why do you go all the way to Bowsports when Bowplus in whitchuch is closer and they have more time to deal with their customers.
Also which club do you shoot with as far as we were aware youre nearest club in NWAS is nr. caernarfon.