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Topic: My first archery range experience, and I have a few questions.

I shot about 4 hours today at a local archery range.  It was a lot of fun.
1 missing arrows and 3 broken fletches arrows.

Here are little information of my bow and arrows.
Kaya ktb 30#
Easton xx75 aluminum shaft with 4" right helical fletches and 100g field ponit.
I am a right hand shooter, and using a thumb ring.

When I shoot, I can heard the fletches touched the bow.  I noticed that the leather right above the handle ripped little bit.  What am I doing wrong?  What caused the fletches ripped the leather?
I also noticed that the fletch touched my bow arom thumb, but its not always.  Sometimes it touched, sometimes didn't.  I had to use a band aid to protect my thumb.
I did not have this problems with 3" short vanes, but with 4" feathers .

Any advice on this?

Thank you.

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2 Reply by Mule (edited by Mule 2014-10-01 13:36:16)

  • Mule
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Re: My first archery range experience, and I have a few questions.

Raise your nocking point, bluelake suggests nocking 1.5 inches above the top of the grip and that works for me

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3 Reply by joomong (edited by joomong 2014-10-01 15:59:26)

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Re: My first archery range experience, and I have a few questions.

Mule wrote:

Raise your nocking point, bluelake suggests nocking 1.5 inches above the top of the grip and that works for me

Thank you for the reply, Mule.
I did make the nocking point follwed bluelake's direction, and its 1.5" above the top of the grip.
Maybe its my grip that causes the problem.
To clear it, the feather touches only top of the first knuckle of my thumb.  When you grip the bow, the first knuckle of thumb that points toward the sky.
Ill shoot more and see what causes the problem.

So touching, and damaging the leather part of the bow is normal? 
When I nock arrows, 1 feather is pointed out horizontally from the bow, and that is my cock feather.  Other 2 feathers are pointed toward the bow.  I believe this is correct way to nock arrows?  Or it doesn't really matter?
Any advice on this?

Here is a picture that you can see my thumb and damaged part.
http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p120/gorillajin/E12B9D7B-1798-4283-B322-98BFD78923E0.jpg

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  • Mule
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Re: My first archery range experience, and I have a few questions.

It's difficult to say without seeing in person but the feather shouldn't be touching your hand at all. As for hitting your bow, it's possible the arrows aren't spine matched for your bow

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  • Registered: 2014-08-22
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Re: My first archery range experience, and I have a few questions.

Mule wrote:

It's difficult to say without seeing in person but the feather shouldn't be touching your hand at all. As for hitting your bow, it's possible the arrows aren't spine matched for your bow

I shot arrows to 15yard target.  I am still working on my form, and grouping.
I think it was my grip that caused the fletches cut my knuckle.  Today, every time I shot, i made sure that I had a proper grip on my bow hand, and no more cut from fletches.

I use Easton xx75 aluminum platinum plus.  The size is 1916.  Its 10 grains per inch, and the shaft is 30".  I do not know whether this is enough information to tell the shaft is wrong for my bow. 
Any advice on this?

Thank you, Mule.

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  • Mule
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Re: My first archery range experience, and I have a few questions.

What's your draw length?

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  • Registered: 2014-08-22
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Re: My first archery range experience, and I have a few questions.

Mule wrote:

What's your draw length?

My draw length is about 27.3"

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8 Reply by Mule (edited by Mule 2014-10-02 12:23:35)

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Re: My first archery range experience, and I have a few questions.

Are you drawing to the back of your head/shoulder? KTB draw weight is measured at 31" so at 27" you're drawing more like 22#

According to this arrow chart https://www.3riversarchery.com/pdf/ArrowCharts.pdf 1916 aluminium shafts 30" long with 100gr points is suited more for 36~45# bows.

So the arrows are way too stiff for your bow. Also because thumb release is cleaner/oscillates the arrow less than fingers you arguably need an even softer arrow. While thumb technique can compensate for spine mis match to some degree, shooting arrows twice as stiff as required isn't going to go well.

Try drawing farther if you can, draw slowly until you feel the 'collar' between the arrow shaft and point on your thumb. Increasing from 22#@27" to 30#@31" is like increasing the energy in your bow by 50% so is well worth doing.

If after drawing as far as you can the arrows still feel too stiff you can try putting on heavier arrow points to soften the arrow spine.

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9 Reply by joomong (edited by joomong 2014-10-02 15:52:18)

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Re: My first archery range experience, and I have a few questions.

Mule wrote:

Are you drawing to the back of your head/shoulder? KTB draw weight is measured at 31" so at 27" you're drawing more like 22#

According to this arrow chart https://www.3riversarchery.com/pdf/ArrowCharts.pdf 1916 aluminium shafts 30" long with 100gr points is suited more for 36~45# bows.

So the arrows are way too stiff for your bow. Also because thumb release is cleaner/oscillates the arrow less than fingers you arguably need an even softer arrow. While thumb technique can compensate for spine mis match to some degree, shooting arrows twice as stiff as required isn't going to go well.

Try drawing farther if you can, draw slowly until you feel the 'collar' between the arrow shaft and point on your thumb. Increasing from 22#@27" to 30#@31" is like increasing the energy in your bow by 50% so is well worth doing.

If after drawing as far as you can the arrows still feel too stiff you can try putting on heavier arrow points to soften the arrow spine.

Thank you so much for the advice!
It really helps me to figure out my problems!
I measured my draw length by measure my both arms, and divide to 2.5.
I am able to draw my hand little behind my ear, but I do not know exact length of my full draw.

I made a mistake.  The shafts are 1913, not 1916.  1913 is 8.3 grains per inch...

Could you explain to me how you calculated the shaft and ponits?  I checked the Easton chart for shaft, but I do not know how to come up with shaft + point is suited what # bow.

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Re: My first archery range experience, and I have a few questions.

The 3riversarchery arrow chart has different columns for arrow point weight. On the Easton I think they just assume 100gr point

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11 Reply by joomong (edited by joomong 2014-10-02 20:41:13)

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Re: My first archery range experience, and I have a few questions.

Ok, I just got back from an archery range, and the arrows are definately not for my bow.
The arrows sliced the leather part so much that sometimes I could smell burned.
I decided to order 145g points.  I will report back whether heavier points fixed my problem.

Thank you for the help, Mule.

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