Conversion to Compound

[MikeD]

Well it is now 4 weeks since I made the conversion to compound from recurve. So I thought I'd give an update 'cos I'm back to work after two weeks holiday and need to cheer myself up

I was a 1st class recurve archer, but about 30 to 40 points away from bowman in a FITA.

At the Banchory Star Double Fita a week ago I scored 1184 on Saturday to get my 1100 star (and if only I hadn't got a seven on the adjacent target at 70M I might have got a bowman score). On Sunday I managed 1198 just missing the 1200 star, but my first bowman score.

To cap it all yesterday I shot a 28 target stamp round at Dalmore in 497, which is an MB score (no idea why the stamp round classifications are so low, I suspect it is a long long time since they have been updated).

Ahhh that's brought the back, now for some coffee and

[Ffish]

Out of pure curiousity Mike, what made you make the switch away from recurve?

[MikeD]

Originally Posted by Ffish

Out of pure curiousity Mike, what made you make the switch away from recurve?

To be honest, frustration. I seemed to be spending my entire time trying to get the recurve bow tuned properly and finding arrows that would match and group at 90M, redoing sight marks and so on. I felt that there was a better archer trying to get out but the equipment was holding me back. The final straw was when I finally realised that to make significant improvements at 90M I was going to have to build up to say 42lb from the 36lbs on my fingers (with the expense of two or more sets of new limbs and probably new arrows along the way).

Now I spend almost all of my archery time practicing form and enjoying shooting. I have an excellent coach who looks after most aspects of bow maintenance for me. I now use Archers Advantage and find I can get a full set of sight marks in metres and yards in about 20 minutes, by shooting at 20M and 70M (I could've done that with the recurve too, though it would probably have taken a bit longer to be confident that each mark was accurate). So if my coach changes something to improve my form, such as draw length it is no real hassle and I'm back practicing at varying distances very quickly (more of an issue when you also shoot field archery).

I have a long way to go, but I have total confidence in my bow and arrow selection. I've seen the flashes of brilliance that show that the equipment is capable of much much higher scores than I can achieve so far. I'm sure a time will come when I'll be looking for every way possible to get a few extra points, but I suspect the honeymoon period will last a little longer yet