Would a new bow help me?

[ADE]

Hi
I'm shooting a Samick Agulla with 36lb universal limbs. This outdoor season I shot my Bowman score, and so far this indoor season I have shot a 565 Portsmouth. I seem to have hit a bit of a plateu though and I was wondering if upgrading to better equipment will help raise my scores.
Thanks

[Schme1440]

Its up to how your bow feels.

If your happy with your riser and they way it feels then stick with it. Limbs can make the biggest difference. If you have the spare cash then get both a new riser and limbs however I would only recomend changing your limbs. As I understand the universal limbs are a few yeasr old and Im guessing yours are not exactly brand new.

If your happy to get new limbs I would suggest (in reverse order of preference) Hoyt M1, Samick Master, Samick Extremes, Hoyt G3 and the top limb Win and Win Winnex.

Now I do shoot the winnex but I have felt the G3 and the winnex are nicer. This is a general feeling from a lot of archers and not just my bias opinion. For the other Limbs,

I have no experience with the M1, masters or extremes but the M1 are the next step down from G3 and Masters are one step down from Extremes.

I only suggest the masters higher than M1 as I know someone who shoots Masters and he is on the University national team for GB going to India so I know they are good.

I think any of the limbs will be better than your universals.

Hope this helps.

[greydog]

A plateau usually means your body and mind are adapting, so it feels like you are going nowhere, but in fact you are about to improve, you just have to stick at what you are doing and be mindfull of your technique. Very few, if any, people improve on a continuous slope, it's almost always learning plateau's, changing your eqiupment may be one solution, but somtimes it simply takes your mind off part of your technique you are struggling with temporarily, which you then need to come back to once you've settled into your new bow/limbs/arrows etc

[geoffretired]

I agree with Greydog. Getting new arrows can improve scores; as can a new sight or long rod. Often it is just the new item working its psychological magic. You immediately shoot better because you really want the new gear to work better. To do that you actually take more care of the shots.Often the improvement is short lived and then something else has to be done.
I have known a change in equipment making permanent changes in an archer's performance. I think that was more due to the early equipment being not suitable.
As Greydog has said we tend to reach a plateau, then level off. The new form puts the scores up.Maintain the new form and the scores stay up but don't continue to rise. I think that is partly due to the fact that, as we get more used to the new form, we also get a little lazy with it and they balance each other out.

[ASW1973]

Schmee:
university championships in India?
Dammit I must be young enough to be at uni again

[Schme1440]

Is it that? Oh wait no is it the common wealth? I forgot?

[Schme1440]

Woops! Common wealth! Its common wealth.

[WhitehartFB]

Agree with everything that Greydog and Geoffretired have said. Risers are all about feel and balance and limbs about stability, speed and higher spec limbs are built to much better tollerances and set up correctly are more accurate. Having said that there are two new risers that have stood out (to me) which appear to have made a difference to scores this year: The Helix and the Fiberbow. The Helix as it addresses many archers poor bow hand position and the Fiberbow because it takes away some of the weight that was hampering some archers form. That's not to say that everyone should go out and buy either as it has been said many times on this forum all archery kit is personal try ,try, try before you buy. Remember though it's the limbs that do all the important stuff not the handle, but if the handle does not feel right it will have an affect on your shooting and your confidence in your kit.

Finally, everyones performance plateau's out and the gut reaction is to upgrade your kit but you just might need some guidance and coaching to get to the next step.

[ADE]

Thanks to everyone who posted. The truth is I have never shot any other bow or limbs than my own, so I have no idea how other risers/limbs "feel". The other people shooting at the club have different bows, but no one has the same poundage, bow length as me. (We are a small club) So I think a visit to a shop is in store.

[simon m]

Try one with wheels.........a great experience