Advice for a Newbie

[donpablo]

End of August I thought I'd try hunting with my recurve this year if I could be consistent with it by season. I was doing pretty good and threw a broadhead on for practice for the next couple weeks. Well, my consistency went out the window. Maybe it's my setup and maybe it's me. I'll go back to shooting field points tomorrow and see if I'm back to normal. I realize it could easily be something in my setup as I know very little about what I should shoot and how so I thought I'd get some opinions here. I shoot an Old Mountain Edge Takedown I bought from 3 Rivers. It's 50# 62" and with my short arms I only draw it 22.5" from the back of the shelf to the tip of the nock. I'm shooting Easton Axis arrows with a 400 spine that are 28 inches long with 150 grain Carbon Express Pile Drivers on the end. They're each fletched with three 4" feathers and have a total weight of 441 grains. I only put a BH on one and shoot it by itself. Any suggestions? Should I try a different arrow? A different head? Should I give up? I realize I won't be ready by opener, but maybe before season's over it'll be possible.

[DRT]

You need to figure out your draw length. Draw your bow and have someone mark the arrow atvthe end of the shelf then measure. Or clip a clothespin to the shaft, draw it then measure from the nock throat to the clothespin. Post your results

[Bisch]

Like DRT said, you need to figure out your real DL. Where are you measuring to? An easy way to figure out DL is to put a clothes pin on your arrow about 6” from the point end. Then draw your bow to full draw. The clothes pin will slide down the shaft as you get to full draw. Then measure from the groove of the nock to the clothes pin.

If your DL is less than 28”, which it sounds like it is, and your bow is 50#@28”, then your actual draw weight is les than 50#. Maybe quite a bit less if you are several inches shorter than 28”.

If that is the case, those .400’s (especially cut down to 28”) are way too stiff for your setup. Depending on what your actual DW is, you could need .500’s, or .600’s, and maybe even .700’s to make everything tune correctly.

DON’T GIVE UP!!!! But you do need to get your setup right if you want to successfully hunt with it.

Good luck, and let us know how things progress!!

Bisch

[Hogmauler]

These gentlemen handled it!

[stickbow]

sage advice!