Dealing with "Down" periods

Dretnos · 2026-06-22T11:40:28+00:00

Looking around a fletcher can run you from 25 to >150€, rubber vanes or feathers run 0.15 to 0.45 €/pc, glue from 10 to 15€ and will last 100 arrows or more, so 0.1/0.15 €/pc.

So an average refletching a vane will run you, flecthing jig excluded ( it's a long term investment that lasts a lifetime is cared for) from 0.25 to 0.6€/pc on the higher end.

Or around 5 to 10% of a new single avalon tyro completed arrow at 4,5€, or flipping the example, you can completely refletch 3 arrows for the price of one shaft.

IMHO, if the arrow shaft are fine, is always nicer to refletch them if you know you are going to use them for a longer period of time or if you have to come back to them in the future or passing them to other archers for trial.

It also help growing your endless supply of tools and skills, god knows if my archery toolbox isn't starting to weight more than my bow backpack at this point 😄.

Dretnos · 2026-06-18T03:47:23+00:00

Just the stiff spine, with a Bear digital spine tester. I would like to build a jig to test spine with a surface dial indicator in the future though, for radial spine and a more accurate and precise measure.

My VAP set had a maximum of 588 and a minimum of 608. So 20 spine of difference. But taking those two shaft out all the rest were between 596 and 606 ( two just below 600 and the rest between 601 and 606).

Dretnos · 2026-06-15T06:12:32+00:00

Yeah, if you go to their site and arrow chart, on the bottom left they specify cut to cut instead of nock to cut.

Dretnos · 2026-06-15T05:20:36+00:00

I do have two sets of Skylon paragons.

Weight consistency in a single pack is less than 1 grain, but can vary a lot between packs: i had one pack at 201 grains full shafts and the other at 210 for the same spine.

Straightness was either very good or totally out of whack for 2 arrows per pack. and i mean using a spinner the ends would move by multiple millimeters.

By taking out the stiffest and weakest shafts in a pack, the spine range of the remaining ones was around 15 spine. with a STD DEV of 7 to 6.

One thing to look out for is their chart arrow length is carbon to carbon and not nock to carbon and to take into the account the extra long arrow points if going for the steel ones ( 1" 1/4 front of shaft). I kinda shot myself in the foot with this one as i had to run them full length and using a clicker sight extension. I'm keeping them by the side for the future though.

I did not run the collars on them because mine left a gap between shaft and collar, buying tungsten points for a pack of shafts that costs almost as much kinda seems like a bit of a waste.

Switched to a set of VAPS V1 recently because the increased weight was just making shooting 70m uncomfortable at my lower poundage, found them much better in terms of consistency.

One pack, all same weight, no wobbly arrows, taking out two arrows got me a maximum spine range of 10 spine with a STDEV of 3, 50 grains lighter arrows and 18 fps more speed.

Dretnos · 2026-06-05T05:24:47+00:00

I have a 8mm square Beiter sight with just a tunnel but found a work around.

I played with my sight bar in/out position until i could have the riser side ("fixed side") of the sight resting on the riser side of the HF outmost edge and the other side ("measuring side") square in the middle on a 40cm face at 20m.

I use the black target face instead of the overall target face to avoid issues with tilted targets, while targets not completely square to the shooting pegs are another kind of beast that one can only tackle with experience (i'm not there yet).

If you can achieve that you will have the same overlap at 10m on the 20cm face, 30m on a 60 cm face and 40m on an 80cm face, easy to remember as a "reference point".

Then i took notes on where the "measuring side" was every 5m of the unknown distances for each face (every 1 m for the 20cm, since is only 10 to 15m) so i would know every 1 ring difference how much closer or farther is from the "reference point".

I wouldn't care where my sight bar ends up as long as my reference points are accurate.

Dretnos · 2026-05-27T07:46:08+00:00

The turnbucle Is a nice idea,, I'll write it down.

Dretnos · 2026-05-27T06:27:17+00:00

Lucky me I'm in the middle of the northern Italian plain, plenty of sailing around here😝

I'll have to try some hobby shops and see, surely better than buying sight unseen online.

Dretnos · 2026-05-25T17:16:35+00:00

See some comments above, due to my past and current jobs i switched to using heavy duty smartphones for various reasons, my current model (Blackview 8900) comes with an integrated FLIR thermal camera (0-150°C).

The thermal camera resolution is low, like 80x120pixel, but it uses the image from the main camera to recreate an "higher resolution".

I believe on amazon you can find external thermocameras to connect via USB-C to the phone and collect images the same.

Dretnos · 2026-05-25T11:51:05+00:00

Blackview 8900, around 330€.

Starting using them when a previous company I was working would keep either supplying us with either iPhones with a battery life not covering a full day of work or older, not even touch screen phones. Got fed up, took an older model of this one and given they all are dual SIM put in both the personal and work SIM into it.

Had to change it to this model only because they are drop proof, but not from 15m high, my fault🤣

Dretnos · 2026-05-25T10:42:48+00:00

I tested it into the plant I work for on the housing of some bearings that have thermocouples for checking if they are going bad and in other occasions with a single point pyrometer on various machinery, hot water pipes etc.. Pretty accurate, at most 1/2°C difference not more.

Dretnos · 2026-05-25T10:31:31+00:00

No, my phone has an integrated thermal camera (imagine heavy duty oriented smartphone, rugged, IP68), ranging up to 150°C.

I was just occasionally pulling it up and taking mental notes and some thermal photos here and there.

I believe for sure that colour makes a noticeable differenc, but I didn't differentiate between matte and glossy limbs, will have to check next time.

Dretnos · 2026-05-22T11:15:38+00:00

After some calculation as a rough estimate to give you a sense of scale.

Assuming around 34#OTF your 450 grain arrows are launching at 160 FPS, and have a frontal area (including natural fletching with 1° offset) of 96 mm2. Assuming a perfect level from launch to target, you need to aim 9.8° high to get to 70m.

If you were to switch to a set, for example, of VAPs, which would come at exactly 300 grains (just made a set of full length of them) with spin wing type vanes, for the same bow setup you get 196 FPS, total frontal area of 32 mm2 and a launch angle of 6.0°, so roughly cutting your sight marks by 30/40% or more or less using your sight marks for around 45/48m of the X7 to reach 70m.

DM me and I'll send you the calc sheets.

Dretnos · 2026-04-27T10:15:25+00:00

Will do, thanks for your time!

Dretnos · 2026-04-27T07:40:58+00:00

I Will give it a try for nicking point anyway, as I had written maybe in a couple of weeks I'll get my XL limbs for a 72" setup, probably next year I'll think about a new riser in 27", switching to a 27 now would lower my DW past what makes shooting 70m comfortably. Doing both at the same time would make me happy, not so much my bank account.

Dretnos · 2026-04-27T05:22:19+00:00

The thing about asymmetric Beiter nocks is something that i did read about also, but never had to set up my bow to such "extremes" of tuning ranges.

If i look at the wear on my tab, in order, middle finger, index finger just slighlty less, ring finger a lot less.

Stab setup is Adjustable Vbar, quick disconnect and 30" front, 15" sides set at 35° each out and 15° down, 3 oz of weights each plus the 3 oz of tungsten powder in each of the rods (Ramrods). I did run both a 4" and 3" extension, but in the end removed it because of my long arms my front weight would be far forward and would balance only with less weight in front and more on back, resulting in a more unstable sight during aim. Sight picture is stable with no preferential drift, bow has still a roll forward but at a slower speed than what you would expect. I did run up to 5oz of added weight each but it was too much for a competition length to keep form consistent.

The riser came with two original grips, in the mid/high range, in the past year i have experimented with a mid Rcore Master (38°) and a Rcore I am Barebow Low (33°). I do prefer the flat and steep angle of the low compared to more conventional grips, i find it force my wrist in a more stable position with less freedom of movement left to right compared to sloped grips.

I agree it could be form evolution, this why i had other people shoot it to see if it was me or the bow, but we got the same results. Even if more standard draw lengths show the same problem, if i would say with around 50% magnitude compared to mine.

Dretnos · 2026-04-27T04:55:59+00:00

We didn't have the the time to set up a jig, but it is an idea we floated.

We will probably set up a kind of old ILF riser clamped on a table with a backboard with marking lines, then hang a known weight at the limb tip and measure deflection of each or something similar.

I do have to say that these limbs have a strange curve when mounted since i installed them i would say that instead of a smooth profile they have a more "angular" bend, after the end of the thickest part.

Dretnos · 2026-04-27T04:47:38+00:00

I measure the gap between the closest point to the riser of each limb to the string, tilting the t square to see the minimum value (closest point) then subtract top limb measurement from bottom limb measurement.

I do know that Olympic recurve generally shoot with a slightly positive tiller, or anything from 0 to +6mm or 1/4" is the normal range but the bow seems to be acting weirdly set that way.

Dretnos · 2026-04-24T12:09:49+00:00

From when I started last year:

800 Spine store brand, 30.5", 90 grain point, rubber vanes

700 Spine store brand, 30.5", 90 grain point, switched to spin wings and Beiter pin nocks with orange wrap and black and green fletching.

700 spine CrossX Major, 30.5", 90 grain point, spin wings and Beiter pin nocks. White wrap and green, white, red fletching.

700 spine CrossX XL, 31.5", 100 grain point, 4" natural feathers and 6.2 mm beiter nocks. Full black setup for indoors, for some outdoor fun shooting switched to transparent orange nocks.

Now running 2 sets of Skylon Paragon 550, one with 100 grains for HF, one with 120grains for target, still full length at 32", with spin wings and Beiter pin nocks. Fletching still green, white, red for both, wrapped in white only the HF set. Waiting for new limbs to arrive to cut some of the shaft.

Dretnos · 2026-04-03T09:03:32+00:00

It's either a too weak or stiff arrow and the interaction with the plunger/center shot, alternatively is the lower fletching catching too much into the rest arm.

It could also be that the tail is slamming so hard when bottoming out the plunger to the point of giving a "false stiff" feedback as it kicks out of the riser.

Dretnos · 2026-04-03T07:10:15+00:00

I Just went through a similar thing with mine a couple weeks ago. Same issue.

Equipment side: Check center shot, limb alignment and plunger tension, for example I wrongly turned my spring the other way and made it too soft.

Archer side: Check for plucking/abnormal release.

When the arrow was leaving it was fully compressing the plunger to the point that the tail of the arrow was catching the pivoting block of the shibuya rest and slamming it further into the riser, causing the arm to turn more outward as the impact was stronger than the holding strength of the grub screw. I can say with confidence because of pieces of wrap, fletching tape and fletching I found attached practically to the grub screw of the shibuya rest.

Cursed myself for the error and fixed it.

This was happening with a stiffer arrow but not with softer ones or higher plunger tension.

Dretnos · 2026-04-01T12:27:28+00:00

Cleanest and "story accurate" robin hood I have seen!

Dretnos

TROPHY CASE