Reasons for change

[Shirt]

This evening, I had to make my button a turn and a half stiffer (Beiter, medium spring FWIW) to get my arrows to fly straight. They were flying beautifully at the start of the season.

Brace height, tiller, limb alignment and straightness, arrows, fletching, nocks, points, stabilisation and random stuff hung off the bow and basically anything measurable EXCEPT the measurements on the button (which I didn't bother measuring because it can't be done on a bracing gauge) are all the same as they were a month ago when it was all groovy.

Anyone got any suggestions as to what's got changed in the meantime that might make me need to increase the tension?

[Kae]

mmmmm, just a few possibilities;

• Arrow Wear
• String coming to the end of its life
• Limbs changing

err, i'm sure someone else may have some ides

[Rik]

Originally Posted by Kae

mmmmm, just a few possibilities;

• Arrow Wear
• String coming to the end of its life
• Limbs changing

err, i'm sure someone else may have some ides

you forgot:[*] you're doing something different


It's on the obvious side, but when a change in form can move groups from one side of a boss to the other...

[Shirt]

Arrows are new (or near enough)
String was brand new at start of season and they usually last a year and a bit before replacement
Limbs weigh the same at click as they did at the start and feel the same during draw.

No major change in form over the course of this past couple of months - only thing is my release has gone from sh*t to worse, but I thought that would make arrows act stiffer (weaker button) not weaker (stiffer button - what I've done).

[Stretch]

Add to the list:

• tab wear
• string lighter due to wax loss

... but minor form change is most likely IMHO.

Stretch

[MikeD]

How about wear on the button tip, leading to a reduction in the offset from centreshot?

[Mufti]

Possibly the heat - subtly affecting you and the bow (riser gives a little more than usual)?

[SLOWHAND]

Just goes to show Shirt that tuning a recurve is not an exact science. I often used to wonder why I could get bang on the gold at sighters and then be in the blue on the first scoring end. I used to turn up for tournaments 15-20 minutes before the start, string the bow, check bh and within a few minutes I'd be shooting. Eventually I discovered that due to the string stretching in the first dozen or so arrows (even with a well shot in string) the bh had changed by 3 or 4mm. I now get to tournaments an hour before the start, string the bow straight away and shoot as many practice arrows as possible to 'warm' the bow up. This seems to have cured the problem.

A few months ago I changed from an Infinite/long Synergy set up to a Helix/mediumG3 set up. The two bows were set up to give me exactly the same poundage on the fingers and I was hoping that the shorter,faster G3's would give me an increase in speed. This proved to be the case and the chrono proved I was getting at least 5fps more on average. Now you would think a bow shooting faster would make the arrows tune weaker but the opposite was the case by a fair margin and I had to go from 520 Aces to 570's which are still on the stiff side.

When you took the measurements, was one of them taken 'cold' and the other when the bow had been shot a few times?

[WhitehartFB]

Originally Posted by Shirt

Arrows are new (or near enough)

No major change in form over the course of this past couple of months - only thing is my release has gone from sh*t to worse, but I thought that would make arrows act stiffer (weaker button) not weaker (stiffer button - what I've done).

All of the above, but mainly the heat and fatigue, especially check your the bow arm and hand position on the grip, although my guess is it's your release. A poor release will make your arrows to bend more (archers paradox) so your button has to work harder giving the impression of either stiffer or weaker arrows, release inconsistancies will also make it harder to set the button.

[Mufti]

Tell me off for doing the old "sucking eggs" thing, but experience with myself (and others) shows that tucking the drawing hand - or a part of it - tight against the neck at full draw produces good results.
Arrows going left (for right handed archers) makes me look at the gap between hand and neck at full draw.
Have seen it in many others and felt it myself on occasion.

Also string alignment with riser or sight at full draw needs to be checked - especially at longer distances.

Many of the simple obvious things need to be checked and rechecked even if it is to confirm they are OK and cross them off the list.