Bow Balancing

[Dave]

I'm currently setting up and tuning my new bow and in the process of adding and removing weights from various bits. Anyone any thoughts on bow balancing? I've got the bow set up at the moment so when it's balanced at the pivotal point on the handle it lies horizontal with the long rod vertical (various sources have mentioned this is the correct way) - this has increased the weight at the front end, slightly too much - would I be better adding weights to the twin rods or adding a back weight to counter this?

Also: if adding weight to the twin rods should I be adding extra weight to the left rod (right handed bow) to counter the weight of the sight on the right?

Or: am I thinking too much about this and should I just get rid of all my stabilizers

Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

[Shirt]

Enough weight on the front to stop the longrod kicking upwards on the shot, not so much you can't hold it upright.

Faff with the weights (different numbers on different sides) if you're REALLY having trouble with canting, otherwise it's just not worth it.

Otherwise, a good starting point (and only a starting point, many people disagree with it/can't get on with their setups afterwards) is Simon Needham's articles on this - it appeared in the Glade around 98/99, and Bow Magazine more recently... 2002/3?

HTH.

i usually turn the bow upside down and place my finger 1 inch out on the long rod or extender, the long rod should lie flat, i normally do this and it is a recommended on national squad. But with there being so many variations in bow weight, draw weight, drawlength and different shooting styles it is impossiable to make personal recommendations, currently my bow is balancing 1.5 inches out o the extender. My suggestion is to use about 1 inch as a guide, and alter it slightly to find your personal peference but somewhere between 1 and 2 inches should be where you are aiming at.

[MrC]

My understanding is that it's the reaction of the bow as you shoot that's more important rather than the static balance. If you can, get some video shot of you that shows the reaction of the end of the long rod and then watch it in slow motion. You're looking to see what the initial reaction is - hopefully it should punch towards the target. It will probably drop down after that as the bow swings round but you're not worried about that as the arrow will be gone by then.

If the long rod goes up at all it means you're heeling the bow, i.e. pushing the bow below it's centre of gravity, so you need to drop the centre of gravity so that you're pushing through it. (You could try using a higher hand position, but I doubt you'd want to change that.) To drop the C of G you need to try any/all of:
- lose the top rod if you have one
- add a stabiliser at the bottom of the bow (front or back)
- angle the v-bar down a bit

Adding weight further away from the bow will have a similar but much smaller effect (depending on the ratio of the physical weight to the draw weight as this determines the angle of the force on the bow from your bow hand).

[moorebeans]

as i said stablisations is a very personal thing, i dont see many people shooting a 45 inch rod (inc extender) and 17.5 inch twins

[joetapley]

Dave
Bow balance point (centre of mass) needs to be as far from the grip (pivot point) as feasible. Mainly forward of grip but also below the grip. Limitations are overall weight bowhand has to support and stifffness of stabiliser. Many write ups do suggest that cog should be level with or even at the grip e.g. Archery Anatomy. These descriptions are mechanically incorrect

Having cog level with the grip is bad, above the grip is a disaster. - never raise the bow cog e.g. stabiliser in top bushing is a definite no-no.

[Field Archer]

Joe, does this mean that moving the stabiliser bush up towards the grip, as PSE have done with the X-Factor, is perhaps not such a good idea.

[joetapley]

To quote from Vittorio Frangilli on Sagi

Joe, one more variable that is in the reality a constant (as it is depending from the riser you have), is the distance between the pressure point and the hole for the long rod. For instance, just talking about Hoyt, Avalon and Matrix have quite a big difference in this distance, so effecting everythyng. Same limbs on these risers will need a totally different weight distribution to be balanced, even with same grip.

But of course different risers will have different masses and different above/below grip mass distributions so no better/worse only differences.

[Bird_2112]

Back in the early 80's I tried a method of balancing the bow as talked about in a magazine at the time. Could have been the Archery International mag that was available for a few years. I had thought of trying it again sometime. I seem to remember that the bows movement felt great after the shot. I cannot remember exactly where they said the point of balance should be but I think it was within 2 inches of the pressure point at the throat of the handle. I may even have set it up as the button. Anyway what i used to do was place some cardboard over the grip so I could draw lines on it having marked where the throat of the handle was behind the card. Then I would hang the bow from a rafter in the garage by each limb in turn and the end of the longrod and using a plumb line draw the lines on the card. By altering the weights and angle of the twins on the v-bar you can move the intersection closer to your desired centre of gravity. When hanging from the end of the top limb more weight on the long rod would push the plumb line further forward for example. Any old timers remember reading about this before ??