Billy Goat
“MOMMY”
So, this is a spill over from a discussion in a different thread, and rather than my normal thread detour, figured it would be best to just give this its own thread.
First, target archery is much different than bowhunting in my opinion. There's a whole lot of benefits to shooting target archery that help you in bowhunting, but I tune and setup hunting bows a fair amount different than I do a hunting bow. Few reasons for this, but mostly it boils down to a target arrow is different from a hunting arrow. Hunting arrows have some "steer", or probably the correct term is drag on the front. Depending on what broadhead, it can increase or decrease, but anything past a smooth target point has some level of air resistance that can effect arrow flight. For that reason, I don’t tune hunting setups the same as a target bow.
That's a different tangent, but I think it's important to bring up in relation to stabilizers in hunting bows as well.
So, stabilizers....
They are really on the bow to create a moment of inertia to hold it steady through the shot. Meaning, when you shoot, there's a period of time where the bow is held by a single point, your hand. It had been anchored by the string at full draw, giving it mostly 2 points of anchor, but one of those just got turned loose. So now its hopefully staying in the same position while its launching the arrow, enter stabilizers.
Mass is what counters force (if i remember all those terms correctly). If we could make a bow heavier, it would move less during the shot, in most circumstances. If a bow weighed 25# it would be pretty difficult to shoot. But you can use a long bar (lever) to add stability with less weight. Multiplying the force of the weight by the length of the bar.
So, what am I talking about?
Your sight picture shouldn't be held still by mass. It can be a little final tweak, but your pin float is really based on your overall draw length coupled with your skeletal alignment. Mass will slow the float, but once dialed in it shouldn't really change the area you are floating over, just the speed it moves across that area.
You should dial in your bow to you without stabilizers. Lot of times archers jump to stabilizers to fix the sight picture, and are creating more problems than solutions.
Throwing weight out front to point the bow is one thing on flat ground, can seem great until you are aiming up or downhill. Suddenly now you are fighting another component that was covering up the issue of too long or short of DL on flat ground.
If you are using a back bar to hold your sight level straight, when you are in an awkward angle its not going to have the same effect. You might need to change your grip, but that will probably be better than trying to have your equipment counter your grip.
These are just a few examples.
There's a lot that goes into hold on a bow, adding mass weight will make a lot of shooters more comfortable with the sight picture, but frequently isn't fixing the real issue. DL and proper skeletal alignment will help you the most. Until you nail those down to find your best sight picture, I'd recommend leaving the stabilizers alone.
Hunting length short stabilizers really don't add much but mass anyways(unless you really load them up with weight), try putting 5-10 ounces on the lower v-bar mount bushing. Gives you some additional mass, also actually adds a little low inertia, without the hassle of more things sticking out of your bow.
This is still a very brief overview, but is a place to carry over the discussion.
@dreamingWest and @tipsntails7
First, target archery is much different than bowhunting in my opinion. There's a whole lot of benefits to shooting target archery that help you in bowhunting, but I tune and setup hunting bows a fair amount different than I do a hunting bow. Few reasons for this, but mostly it boils down to a target arrow is different from a hunting arrow. Hunting arrows have some "steer", or probably the correct term is drag on the front. Depending on what broadhead, it can increase or decrease, but anything past a smooth target point has some level of air resistance that can effect arrow flight. For that reason, I don’t tune hunting setups the same as a target bow.
That's a different tangent, but I think it's important to bring up in relation to stabilizers in hunting bows as well.
So, stabilizers....
They are really on the bow to create a moment of inertia to hold it steady through the shot. Meaning, when you shoot, there's a period of time where the bow is held by a single point, your hand. It had been anchored by the string at full draw, giving it mostly 2 points of anchor, but one of those just got turned loose. So now its hopefully staying in the same position while its launching the arrow, enter stabilizers.
Mass is what counters force (if i remember all those terms correctly). If we could make a bow heavier, it would move less during the shot, in most circumstances. If a bow weighed 25# it would be pretty difficult to shoot. But you can use a long bar (lever) to add stability with less weight. Multiplying the force of the weight by the length of the bar.
So, what am I talking about?
Your sight picture shouldn't be held still by mass. It can be a little final tweak, but your pin float is really based on your overall draw length coupled with your skeletal alignment. Mass will slow the float, but once dialed in it shouldn't really change the area you are floating over, just the speed it moves across that area.
You should dial in your bow to you without stabilizers. Lot of times archers jump to stabilizers to fix the sight picture, and are creating more problems than solutions.
Throwing weight out front to point the bow is one thing on flat ground, can seem great until you are aiming up or downhill. Suddenly now you are fighting another component that was covering up the issue of too long or short of DL on flat ground.
If you are using a back bar to hold your sight level straight, when you are in an awkward angle its not going to have the same effect. You might need to change your grip, but that will probably be better than trying to have your equipment counter your grip.
These are just a few examples.
There's a lot that goes into hold on a bow, adding mass weight will make a lot of shooters more comfortable with the sight picture, but frequently isn't fixing the real issue. DL and proper skeletal alignment will help you the most. Until you nail those down to find your best sight picture, I'd recommend leaving the stabilizers alone.
Hunting length short stabilizers really don't add much but mass anyways(unless you really load them up with weight), try putting 5-10 ounces on the lower v-bar mount bushing. Gives you some additional mass, also actually adds a little low inertia, without the hassle of more things sticking out of your bow.
This is still a very brief overview, but is a place to carry over the discussion.
@dreamingWest and @tipsntails7
