Modern Recurve Tuning, 2nd Edition

By Richard Cockrell

This book guides you through the process of
tuning your recurve bow from an un-configured
state to a finely tuned shooting tool. This guide is
designed to help all levels of Recurve archers.
Learn how to make your bow shoot where you
expect it to.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Dec 23, 2014
• ISBN: 9781312770836

Book preview

Modern Recurve Tuning, Second Edition

Handbook

Modern Recurve Tuning

Start to Finish

Second Edition

Author:

Richard A. Cockrell

Modern Recurve Tuning

Copyright 2004, 2013, 2014

Published by

ePub, eBook - Lulu.com, ISBN #: 978-1-312-77083-6

Print - www.Colorwise.com, ISBN #: 978-0-692-35684-5

Edited by:

Richard A. Cockrell,

Candice Raines, roaringbrookcamp.com,

John N. Kristoff, www.LifetimeArchery.com

Distributed by:

Lulu, Lulu.com

All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without prior written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and articles. All inquires should be addressed to the author.

Disclaimer:

No responsibility will be accepted for injury that may appear to have resulted from using this book. The user assumes all risks and responsibilities in using the processes found within.

Testimonials

I like how this tuning process continually shrinks the groups. When you're done with this tuning process, your bow shoots where you expect it to. I've never doubted the tune once I've run through the process - you can see how the process migrates the bow to its true shooting spot.

Jeremiah Cusick - US Archery Team Athlete

Modern Recurve Tuning has the essentials of tuning and the presentation to be effective as a daily tool for any archer or coach

Larry Skinner - US Archery Olympic Athlete Coach

Preface

Hi! Welcome to this book on Modern Recurve Tuning. In this handbook I've provide directions and techniques to help you adjust your recurve bow so that it delivers arrows in a consistent and appropriate fashion. This guide assumes that you have, picked up a bow and shot it for a while. That is - you can execute a shot in a comfortable fashion. If you can shoot arrows in groups, your bow can be tuned to the level of your shooting ability. This guide also provides coaches with the initial steps of setting up equipment for beginner or intermediate archers.

Why is this guide effective? This guide is effective because of the background use of statistics employed in each tuning process. As you aim and shoot each arrow, each arrow has a likely-hood of hitting that aiming spot. How far from the aiming spot the arrow hits is proportional to how well the arrow is shot and how well the bow is tuned. This guide uses the distance the arrow lands from the aiming spot as a reference for reducing group size. With a consistent shooting technique, each successive tuning process will move your equipment to a better tune.

The decision to write this guide was prompted by two forces. First, as a coach, I've seen the confusion among many archers trying to tune their equipment and not knowing how to proceed. Second, while training at the Olympic Training Center, I received a request to share my knowledge on the subject. The request was centered on the fact that there was little cohesive documentation available on tuning a bow. Especially, there was a lack of guides telling archers how to resolve tuning problems given how their bow is configured.

This book presents the base parameters that define a normal configuration, a perspective on how tuning procedures impact tuning refinement and an order of how archery components impact arrow spine and flight. Additionally, I've included a section on tuning trade-offs. This section, near the end of the book, will help you to make better choices when making changes to your equipment. It's a place to go when you can't follow the norms of tuning setup or get stuck with a tuning problem because of your changing equipment needs.

If you are new to the sport of archery, your first concern is the alignment procedures used in setting up your bow. Beyond that, you need to develop some shooting proficiency. Until that time, focus on enjoying the act of shooting. You should learn the basic steps of shooting form and use a bow that you can physically master. Nothing frustrates new archers more then struggling with the draw or mass weight their new equipment and nothing hinders good tuning more than the inability to execute a strong, fluid shot.

My tuning philosophy is this:

If you are just starting to shoot, all you need to do is do a good job of setting up the bow.

If you are just starting to shoot for score, all you need to do is a fair job of short range tuning.

If you are starting to compete, you need to tune your bow to the point of not dropping points for the lack of being diligent in getting a thorough tune.

In all cases, better shot execution will give you larger gains in average point acquisition than tuning ever will.

The purpose of tuning is to prevent the loss of the points you should get when you shoot a good shot. Even after 20 years of competitive archery experience, I cannot pretend to know all the little tricks that are out there. Tuning is an ongoing experience and I'm still learning along with everyone else. However, I do believe you will find enough information in this guide to force you to question how well you shoot rather than how well tuned your bow is. Good luck and good shooting.

List of Figures

Figure 1 - Arrow Flight as a function of Spine

Figure 2 - Bow Components

Figure 3 - Arrow Components

Figure 4 - Poor String Nock Height (Porpoising)

Figure 5 - Nodal Flight

Figure 6 - Recommended Bow Sizes

Figure 7 - Determining Draw Length

Figure 8 - Target Charting

Figure 9 - Brace Height

Figure 10 - String Nock Height Measurement

Figure 11 - Recommended String Weight Ranges

Figure 12 - Recommended Initial Brace Height

Figure 13 - Front of Center Calculation

Figure 14 - Marks on Limbs

Figure 15 - Good Alignment Marks

Figure 16 - Off Center Marks

Figure 17 - Limb Groove Recovery

Figure 18 - Arrow Rest and Plunger Installation

Figure 19 - Arrow On Rest Location

Figure 20 - Arrow Alignment

Figure 21 - Stabilizer Alignment

Figure 22 - Sight Parts

Figure 23 - Sight Setup Adjustments

Figure 24 - Sight To String Alignment

Figure 25 - Tiller Measurement

Figure 26 - Axes of Instability

Figure 27 - Elbow-Grip Relationship

Figure 28 - Pressure Point

Figure 29 - Basic Grip Adjustments

Figure 30 - Table Angles

Figure 31 - Hand and Grip Pressure Point

Figure 32 - Hand Placement

Figure 33 - Grip Throat and Hand Gap

Figure 34 - Table Stop Build-Out

Figure 35 - Index and Thumb Space

Figure 36 - String Alignment

Figure 37 - Spine Range of Bare Shafts

Figure 38 - Bare Shaft Zone

Figure 39 - Limb Poundage Adjustment

Figure 40 - String Nock Height Adjustment

Figure 41 - Bare Shaft Zone

Figure 42 - Temporary Plunger Starting Point

Figure 43 - Stiff Plunger Target Setup

Figure 44 - Range of Stiff Plunger Groups

Figure 45 - Group Goals

Figure 46 - Exaggerated String Travel

Figure 47 - Recommended Brace Height Range

Figure 48 - Example Tiller Range

Figure 49 - Spine Control Trade-Offs

Figure 50 - Arrow Configuration Trade-Offs

Introduction

The Goal:

This introductory section gives you an idea how the guide is arranged and an overview of each section. Before we can start tuning, we need to lay some groundwork for those archers that are new to the sport. These first few sections lay that groundwork. Feel free to jump ahead if the information becomes too familiar for your skill level.

WHAT'S COVERED

When archers start to tune their equipment, many are at a loss to pick a starting point. This guide presents a start-to-finish approach on the various aspects of setup and tuning. Tuning archery equipment requires an ordered, sequence of steps. If you want to be sure of your tune, each step in the sequence must be verified. The minimally, required basic tuning steps are:

Assembly and Alignment

Bare Shaft Tuning

Center Shot Tuning

Brace Height Tuning

Plunger Stiffness Tuning

If you are in a hurry, you can certainly jump to those individual sections and get tuned, but, spread throughout this guide, are foundational concepts of how the bow and arrow components interact with each other. If you’re looking to help a new archer get started, the best thing you can do is help them with basic setup and then let the archer become familiar with the processes of shooting and getting their body acquainted with bow shooting mechanics. I recommend biomechanical shooting methods for all new archers. When shooting the bow, becomes more ingrained in your physical processes, then it's time to think about a better tune.

There are three fundamental processes that occur when trying to tune archery equipment. These are: Setup, Short Range Tuning and Long Range Tuning. Completion of each process is required for the next process to start. Long Range Tuning depends on Short Range tuning - which, in turn, depends on good a Setup.

The topics this guide covers are:

Introduction - This section provides the archer with archery background: a little history, a little intuitive thinking on arrow flight, what's common in today tuning setups and information on how we interact with our equipment. The sub-section topics are not tuning procedures, but are informational sections that will assist the archer in the overall tuning approach.

Basic Setup: Visual - The second section focuses on the first major task in tuning your equipment, setting the bow up properly. Using the equipment you have and understanding the sub-section called, What's a standard setup?, the archer is instructed on what is needed to visually set-up their equipment accurately. All of the activities of this section are done without shooting an arrow.

Refined Setup - Although this section implies a set-up procedure, it is separated from the previous section because the activities of this section, requires a bit more shooting