Shooting Tip

While winning tournaments still requires you to have excellent shooting form, sometimes your equipment can make the final difference in that extra point or two needed to win. 

Most of the top level tournaments are won or lost by a single point or two, many times in a shoot-off after a tie in regulation. " If only I had shot just a little bit better on one or two arrows".... sound familiar? It does to me!

"Maybe if I hadn't shot my skinny outdoor arrows at that indoor shoot and used some "fat shafts" instead, I would have done better." After giving this last statement some thought one day, I decided to test the theory. I shot an indoor round with my A/C/E arrows which are "skinny" and made for shooting long distances outdoors so the wind doesn't affect them very much. 

I carefully recorded where each arrow hit on the target face and then tracked how many times I would have scored one point higher if I had used a fatter shaft like my X-7 Eclipse aluminum arrows.

My A/C/E shafts are 14/64 this of an inch outside diameter and My X-7 shafts are 18/64 this of an inch outside diameter.  That's one sixteenth of an inch difference! Doesn't sound like much, huh? 

However, that small amount made an eight point difference over the course of sixty arrows.  Eight of my shots were within one sixteenth of an inch of the nest higher scoring area! If only I had been shooting my "fatboys"!

Of course you could also say that if I practiced more I wouldn't need them....but why not take advantage of what's available? I only did this for one round so I don't know if it was a valid test , but it certainly was for this test. I would like to do this over several rounds to see the average, which will probably be lower, but knowing even one point could make a big difference, I will stick with my X-7s for indoor shooting.

Try this experiment for yourself and see what it can do for you. You might be pleasantly surprised!

Good Shooting,

Jim White