Short ATA bows and forgiveness !!!!!!!!!!

[Coyote Commander]

What do feel the key factors are when looking for forgiveness in a new bow purchase ? Just curious and would like to hear what the general consensus would be.

For me "forgiveness" means a bow that will let me "fudge" a bit in the form department (change grip slightly, upper body geometry, etc). Form suffers under field situations, that's a fact. I want a bow that's going to forgive some form discrepancies. Something short bows don't do for me with my draw length.

I also like a little more mass in the riser. Which is probably why I just can't cotton up to the Mathews line since they went to the light waffle risers.

 

[Snipershirt]

I'm surprised that I haven't read anything in this thread about brace height and the difference in speed/forgiveness you get with shorter versus longer heights. I'm a longer ATA fan with BHs ranging somewhere between 7 - 7 1/2 inches. With the newer shorter ATA bows, sporting parallel limbs the BHs allow for 30" ATA bows to push 7 + inch BHs. The longer the arrow stays on the string, the more of an affect your form will have on your accuracy. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Racethesunset]

I opted for the weight savings and all around durability from the shorter ATA of the G3, and find it pretty fault tolerant, better than I am at least.

I practice in a variety of uncomfortable ways, and find that the 31" ATA provides very little opportunity to mess up the anchor IMO because of the steep angle of the string (assuming you can touch your nose and cheek to the string). There is just no margin for contact point error - it is or isn't.

A shorter ATA is going to be more maneuverable through brush, sitting, kneeling, during an approach, and during a follow up shot. And it's lighter, which I like.

For hunting, I don't know that a couple more inches of ATA would make a difference to me in terms of range and accuracy. All I know is that when I fling a shot, its not the ATA's fault.

 

[ontarget7]

I'm surprised that I haven't read anything in this thread about brace height and the difference in speed/forgiveness you get with shorter versus longer heights. I'm a longer ATA fan with BHs ranging somewhere between 7 - 7 1/2 inches. With the newer shorter ATA bows, sporting parallel limbs the BHs allow for 30" ATA bows to push 7 + inch BHs. The longer the arrow stays on the string, the more of an affect your form will have on your accuracy. Just my 2 cents.

I really see very little difference my self in-terms of forgiveness in regards to brace height and hunting bows. Have had a wide variety of bows myself ranging from 5 1/2"-8" brace with ATA's ranging from 30" to 36" in a hunting bow. I feel the biggest factors that equal forgiveness are grip and being able to make it very repeatable, anchor point to be at a point to give you the most reference points, meaning nose to string, kisser button or a tied in knot etc. Now these things might not be normal right away with a certain set up but being able to make slight modifications to them or to our form so these things come together will pay big in our accuracy and forgiveness. We also have to take into consideration of our equipment, being the optimal spine we choose and our overall tune. These are extremely important from my experience. For instance when you have a set up tuned and you are weak on spine your form becomes even less forgiving. What I mean by this are your problems are magnified through tuning flaws and will show up even bigger when your grip or anchor is not quiet right. Look at it this way. If you had an arrow leaving your bow with a tail left or tail right/slight fishtailing appearance it is not leaving the bow true to begin with, so any flaws on our part will be magnified even more with a bow that is not set up to deliver true and straight arrow flight. When these things are corrected you might be amazed at how forgiving a bow becomes. I generally find the most forgiveness when you have your set up shooting bareshafts with fletched arrows the same, say at 15-20 yards. When this is achieved your broadheads will most likely be on the money and your arrow has the least amount of corrections to make in flight, equaling a more forgiving shot.

A repeatable shot sequence and our form would be critical as well but in hunting situations sometimes this gets thrown out the window to be honest with you and the reason why I feel these anchor and reference points are so very important. Another one especially on the long range shooting is your sight picture. Keep that alignment with your peep and sight housing consistent shot after shot. These are a few very important things that IMO make up forgiveness more so than brace height and ATA. Now some of these things might come easier with a longer ATA or shorter ATA depending on the individual. We might have to make slight modifications to our normal anchor and reference points but if done I feel we find the forgiveness in a certain bow. From my own experience when making changes to better myself in relations to shooting a bow will generally take 30 days before it becomes second nature.

 

[Stinky Coyote]

For me "forgiveness" means a bow that will let me "fudge" a bit in the form department (change grip slightly, upper body geometry, etc). Form suffers under field situations, that's a fact. I want a bow that's going to forgive some form discrepancies. Something short bows don't do for me with my draw length.

I also like a little more mass in the riser.

I'm with u on this CC!

I have always shot well enough with 31 to 34" and 29" draw length and no issues on game to 65 yards while practicing and pinned to 80. I've played the new bow a year game a lot from hot rods to lightweights etc. I've certainly proved to myself I can shoot most about the same but also seen enough, not many, but enough wtf's, to know that choosing safe spec is where it's at for hunting, u don't want that wtf to be when it's moment of truth time as Murphy always has something to do with that. I've quit shopping on hype, glorified bull shizz, etc. And it's all spec now first followed by reputation/feel etc. I started looking 35" at a and 7" or higher on both...the bow tech specialist is in my hands now and I do believe I am going to settle down with this sweetie and have long and glorious relationship....been awhile since I felt that way about a bow. It's incredible in the hand, grip, feel etc. And comes with a serious rep for accuracy and tune ability etc. But as a hunter this one screams the ultimate choice for the guy looking for a safe accurate hunting bow. It has the spec for safe but also the spec hunters like, like powerful two cam, hunting weight and handling, but that 37 1/2" at a and 7.5" bh sure does scream forgiving when u mess up and to do it with 4.1 lbs of weight....ideal, not too light like carbons etc, not too heavy like the target bows, supra etc...u pick it up and it feels like a hunting bow.

I'd sure like to see the industry go for more options right around those specs. The carbon element rkt I just sold did a corrected ibo of 332 fps for me, this specialist 329 fps. Hmmm, let's see, 31 5/8" ata and 6 7/8" bh could only muster 3 fps more? IMO the power for the spec on the specialist incredible, so why not have the forgiving spec to go with! Least that's where I'm at through the years, eliminating variables and keeping it simple, good things for hunting.