Getting ready for outdoors

I have now started to set-up my bow for the outdoors, having completed my last indoor competition of the year. I still have some indoor sessions left but these will now be shot on single spot faces with carbon arrows.

For the first time ever, I will be spending time on trying out different configurations and documenting them so see what the best set-up is for my bow and my new arrows (Pro Tour 470's). Before it was a case of a rough tune and away I go, but now I am chasing valuable points needed for my County rankings and my target of Master Bowman, its going to be worth the effort.

I will look at the following:

• Paper tune: As it stands I always get a consistent left tear, which is an indication of bow torque. My hand position feels good, so it may just need a tweak with the left yoke cable on the top limb to track the string back to compensate. I have tried an extra twist and it seems to make a difference, but too much will mean the top wheel will lean too much. This needs distance shooting to see what affect it will have. This was done with good affect with my indoor setup, and was suggested by Liam Grimwood. It enabled me to get perfect bullet holes and my indoor scores have increased dramatically this year.

• Rest position: There has been much said about the horizontal position of the rest and its ability to reduce left/right torque. Some top shooters shoot with the rest over the bow hand wrist (not as an overdraw though). I will test this up to 50m, with the rest at different positions to see if it has any impact.

• Blade angle: To ensure good clearance, the blade angle of the rest can be moved. However, making the angle shallower will weaken the blade and could affect the vertical support of the arrow as it passes over it. This will need to be tested to see if it affects groups.

• Nocking point height: Again, moving this may affect groups so I will test this from zero to no more than 5mm to see what impact this has.

• Walk back test: This test will be done to check the centre shot and arrow spine.

Of course, any change you make has an impact on the other parameters of the bow, so its going to be a case of trying, testing and documenting the impact and understanding how the bow reacts. I also need to decide which I am going to try first.

Its important now to start to really understand bow tuning and how my bow reacts to changes. I need to become a professional with my own bow to maximise scores.