# Firearms and Shooting > Archery >  What I have learnt about my new bow so far

## Shelley

Poundage is too light, this is easy to adjust and was done on purpose to allow me to develop some form, but now that form is developing I will increase it a bit, all good.

It's shooting, or I am, low and to the right, getting 10 shots in a hand size group at 15 meters, which is nothing to be proud about, but all shots are to the right and a tad low, which would be easy to fix except:

Being American all the Allen keys are non metric, and all my tools are metric, I need to either go to mitre10 to see if they have the right Allen keys (may need to take bow in) or buy tools from a bow shop, not sure...

Finally the target I built is not strong enough, after having to get a drill to get the arrows out of the fence behind the target I have rebuilt it, is now three times as thick and multi layer, going to try again...

Still I am Having fun!

Shelley

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## buckles1

At least all easy fixes , I bought a great set of imperial Allen keys from supercheap for only 12 bucks! All folds into itself for in the pocket. Oh and great bow by the way!

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## Taff

Been there with the target, straight through the bale of straw, and the fence, I set my bow at 52 down from 70 so I could get used to it and be able to hold for longer without getting a shake on.

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## Rushy

I just had to laugh at non metric.  Sorry but I grew up with imperial measurement here in good old New Zealand.

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## Shelley

Yes Rushy, but my point is that it's an American bow, not a New Zealand bow, and we here and now have joined the metric system, and my tools, for better or worse, are metric sized.
I need to find good old imperial sized tools for this American bow...

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## Rushy

> Yes Rushy, but my point is that it's an American bow, not a New Zealand bow, and we here and now have joined the metric system, and my tools, for better or worse, are metric sized.
> I need to find good old imperial sized tools for this American bow...


Mitre10 or Bunnings should stock them

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## Shelley

Right fixed target, off to Mitre10 as per Rushy's suggestion, then try and fix sights.

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## Nibblet

Are you left or right handed? I was having a try the other weekend and was shooting to the left, I draw with my right hand and was told that it was because I was squeezing the bow too tight, apparently I should just be using the webbing of my thumb to stop it coming back and smashing me in the kisser

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## Shelley

Same as you, but not squeezing, I do wonder if it's the weight of the quiver and arrows, but it figure I am going to be hunting with them so I should sight it in with them too, I think it's just off,,or imam, but going to have a play tomorrow and see if I can get it right.
No harm in practising.

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## w8indq

Anyone want ti come down for a 28 round unmarked animal target shoot at franklin county archers we have a few level 1 instructor's that could help you out we shoot on sunday morning's

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## Shelley

Would be useful to have a chat to someone who knows what to do and could tell me what I am doing wrong! Will keep it in mind.

In the mean time got me some tools, and am now in the long slow process of tuning in my sight for 15 metres, getting pretty close before the rain came down.

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## Taff

one thing I learn,t is when adjusting my sights is to not shoot to many arrows at once, it's amazing the slightest fatigue can have on accuracy.

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## Shelley

You could be onto something there, my last three shots while a nice tight group were left right and almost smack on the target, so not sure if sight needs to be adjusted or I was just getting knackered.

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## ishoot10s

Yeah, as soon as you take up tension in your draw, relax the fingers and thumb of your bow hand, you don't need to grip it at all. Once you're at full draw, the bow will stay square and centred in your bow hand. If you grip it, you might impart left or right twist in the bow which can manifest itself as arrows thrown off centre. After release, take up some grip so you don't drop the bow.

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## Shelley

Good advice ishoot10s, will try that.

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## Dead is better

I did instinctive ABA (bowhunting style) for 4 years as a teenager. I had another crack at it a couple of years ago using a sighted compound and then graduated onto a traditional longbow (again back to instinctive. 

Biggest cheat to getting very good accuracy is to buy yourself a release aid and stop using your fingers to release the string. I used a peep in the string and a standard 3 pin front sight - by training up you can get to the point where you can hit a tennis ball sized target at 70m say 8-9 times out of 10. 

But if you must use fingers then I recommend a soft leather glove (not a hard one and definitely not those weird pieces of leather with a hard bit of plastic). I found 3 fingers under the nock was always better than split fingers. Definitely no gripping the bow with your bow hand. Get a stabiliser if your bow rolls fwd in your bow hand.

Your arrows must be matched to the weight that you are shooting. Using heavy arrows for 70lbs draw weight is not optimum. You can use much lighter / quicker arrows for 50lbs.

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