When to Boneyard Archery Sunday. I wanted to shoot. I shot 60 arrows. The small arrow holes on the target are not mine, I had to use a used target. I shot will. Working on holding soft while not creeping. Keeping my elbow back and a soft release with follow through.

Shot the league Thursday evening. Was still not completely recovered from being sick but I wanted to shoot and I am glad I did. Not that I shot real well but it was good to shoot. This target is not bad bad. No red. But too many nines. I shot no triple tens or Xs. I shot a 284. Working on not holding too hard but also not creeping and improving my release while following through.

Well this is my Wednesday night target. I am confused and frustrated. Some of the low shots were from adjusting the sight but not even half of them. I was trying to shoot just like I have been shot for the last two nights at 10 yards now at 20 yards I am having trouble hitting the 9 ring. I really believe I and shooting just like I did the two previous night and I am a over the target. Some do hit where I am aiming them but others are way off what I am aiming at when the release goes off. I did notice that sometimes when shots were bad I had grabbed the bow instead of leaving my hand soft and not dropping my like I intended too. Once I noticed this and corrected it my hits got better. I will work in the along with the not to hard draw and keeping elbow back Thursday before league.

Again at 10 yards working to get use to a draw pulling back enough to get to the cable stop then holding there and not creeping. Also working on keeping my elbow back. I have high hopes for this for I am just pounding the X ring. This target has had 36 arrows shot at it. As part of the JOAD class I also shot 18 blank bailing. Tomorrow I will try 20 yards.

This is one of the videos they shot of me after the Shoot Wilde Workshop at Lancaster Academy - this is a pretty cool setup Thought you might like to see it. maybe make a comment or two.

George Ryals  

Jan 5

Take a look at the overhead view. Rather than moving the elbow back, you are moving your hand to your face. What was Reo’s comments on this?

Ashby Spratley  

Jan 10

I have studied the video and think I see what you are talking about. I will work on it and have an over head video shot to see if I can fix this. As far as I know Reo never looked at the videos. When I heard they were making the videos I assumed they would be reviewed also but apparently not.

Major breakthrough tonight. I learned why I was having what seemed like should have been a dead center shot would be two inches low or sometimes high. I had probably at least a dozen of those at the tournament Sunday maybe more and I just could not understand why what looked and felt like a perfect shot would hit low or high. Well tonight at JOAD I was shooting at ten yards working on my release thinking this must be the problem. I shot an arrow that looked in the sight and felt like a perfect shot and the arrow landed more than an inch low. I began to think it was the arrow so I had John examine that arrow and another one that landed true. He said they balanced the same and weighted the same. So he watched me shoot and told me that sometimes when I shot I pulled so hard on the bow that I was causing the cable stop to deflect the cable and other times I did not do this. He said this would cause me to miss like I was seeing. He asked if the SweetSpot was showing I was pulling too hard I said it was not. He suggested that I may want to lower the upper threshold. He watched me shoot several times and had me back down when I was pulling too hard against the stop. I adjusted the SweetSpot so that the level when the red LED would come on was much lower I had no trouble adjusting how hard I was pulling the bow back so that I was not turning on the red LED when holding and was immediately able to pound the X with every arrow shooting from 10 yards. I am assuming I got to pulling so hard thinking it would help me both get my elbow back and not creep. My SweetSpot will tell me if I creep and now tell me if I pull to hard also. Now I have to practice with it a lot set this way so I can shoot with the same feel when I am not allowed to use it like at USA Archery events.

We had a tournament at First Flight Saturday it was Lancaster scoring so Xs were worth 11 with a total of 330 possible points. I shot 12 Xs and scored a 301. Not bad but not great either. I did not have any 8s which was great. I feel like I am so close but just not there. Been shooting almost every day and enjoying it. Working on elbow and release. SweetSpot is back and I am working with it. I really wish I knew what to do.

This is the second end target from the Jingle Bell Rocks Tournament at Boneyard Archery Sunday. The first round did not go well. It shoot an of 8 in the second and third end then in the ninth end I somehow got my thumb on the trigger are released during my draw and shot over the target hitting the wall for a miss. I was able to recover and shot two 10s and a 9 in my tenth end for a score of 267. My second end was better. I was focusing on my shooting and shot a 282 unfortunately 3 short of the 285 I needed for the Silver but a pretty good end. I need to focus better all the time.

This is my target from practice before and shooting the league shoot. I shot my best score yet at league. A 291 with 12Xs. I believe this was due to what I did and learned the the Shoot Wilde Workshop. I should have done better but had trouble finding n the 9th end and shot a 27. I should have let down the first two shot. Next time I have trouble holding center I WILL let down. I still need to improve my right elbow and my release.

Score from league shoot. No 8s and only one end with more than one new nine in it. It unfortunately had three 9s.

Tuesday target. The SweetSpot was waiting for me when I got home yesterday. I spent a little time getting it configured while doing so the twist in the string that was making the pep sighted be misaligned annoyed me enough so that I cut the torque-less D-loop loose so I could retire it at an angle that would pull the pep straight when I draw the string to full draw. This worked well but I had moved the loop up slightly which caused me to have to adjust the sight. After the adjustments I was shooting well. My biggest problem now seems to be focus. When I am able to focus and release properly I hit what I aim at.

My target from the Sunday morning scoring round we shot at the Shoot Wilde workshop. I shot an 286 six better than I shot during our Saturday morning scoring round. I really enjoyed the workshop and learned a number of things. Was surprised to be told that my from was good, that I am getting my elbow back far enough. Reo said it could be a bit farther back but not to worry about it it is far enough back. He said my elbow does sometimes creep but not all the time. He said that I needed to move the upper nock point down so that my arrows nocks would always be at the exact same spot in my string and that he thought my draw length was too short. I bought some serving cord and retired the nock point and he put my bow on the bow press and unwound the string three turns. This changed the feel of the bow a lot more than I expected and it felt better - holding center is easier but my release feels strange. As I shot the release got better but I still need to shoot more.