AFB questions

[dan]

I have a some questions to ask, when you are shooting with an AFB, how do you aim it? i seem to get one good shot for 5 or 6 bad shots but i don't know what i'm doing right when it is good, or what i'm doing wrong when it isn't, the other question concerns my bow, it's an internature viper DLX, only had it for 6 months, and it's starting to delaminate at the bottom nock, the damage so far is only slight and is restricted to the extra wood on the front and not actually in the limb of the bow, should i return it to the shop or is this kind of thing just put down to wear and tear? the bow hasn't been abused in any way and has only shot a few hundred arrows, if that.
Dan

[steve58]

Hi Dan. Some of the advice in the thread "aiming a longbow" (second page of this forum) is probably relevant to your question. As for the de-lamination... personally I would be back to the shop, I suspect this is potentially dangerous, certainly would be on a longbow.

[Kae]

Hey dan,

Can't help with the technique, but the delamination isn't normal.
All of the wood laminates are important for the bow to shoot correctly, this could be the cause of your erratic shooting.
Return it to the store where you bought it, with the receipt, and if you want my advice don't shoot it again until you do. Without seeing the fault I can't say how serious it is, but limbs can go very suddenly.

Cheers, Kae.

[alanesq]

From what I understand of longbows and I suspect this is true of any wooden bow?
If you catch a problem early it can be fixed but it soon becomes a very big problem if you carry on using it (a phrase I once heard used on an open university program seems to sum up what tends to happen with wooden bows "a sudden and catastrophic failure")
So I would return it to the place you got it from ASAP

As for aiming the trick seems to be to first work on getting a decent group even if its not where you expected it to be - until you can get a decent group you will never manage to get a decent aim (as each arrow will go to a random place anyway)

[Haywain]

Dan

For some help with the aiming side there are two trains of thought. One of these involves and aiming method called "Gap shooting"... An article on Stickbow probably describes it much better than I ever can, so pay it a visit.

http://www.stickbow.com/FEATURES/SHOOTING/gap.CFM

This is probably one of the most accurate methods of shooting, but is pretty hard to master. but if you can work out your gap and aim at the same point each time, your grouping should improve.

Another link for you is the STAF (Stickbow Target Archery Forum) conversation about Gap vs. Point of Aim shooting.....

http://staf.trinitylongbowmen.com/cg...c;f=1;t=001388

you get a few opinions from some world class shooters here.

[dan]

Lets hope i can find the reciept then,
thanks everybody
Dan