Saturday 4 January 2014

Odds n Ends on a Wet Afternoon

I went up the club to try the whistling arrows, no sooner than I'd loosed them all it started pouring with rain.
Shooting high they all whistled, paused at the top of the trajectory where the arrow speed is virtually zero and then started whistling again on the way down.
The two tone walnut whistle which had the cavity partitioned into two different sizes did give a noticeable two tone effect, one tone started first, then the other joined in. They only whistle at certain velocities and it would be fun to experiment to try and get various effects and volumes of sound. They actually sounded a bit quieter out doors.
I've been shooting in the Yew stick bow some more and actually shot a few arrows from it in the rain. It hasn't taken any noticeable set but has settled down to about 65# at 28". That's not what I want, and the bow is also irritatingly long... just long enough to jam in the garage doorway! I was curious to see what it's force draw curve looked like, as I've been considering losing an inch or so off the upper limb.
I set to and measured it a 10 pound increments, judging the draw length to the nearest estimated 1/10". The 70 pound draw came out to 29.5" which is good in some ways, as it provides reassurance that it will take that draw in its stride and shortening it shouldn't over strain it.
Here are the figures and the plot.
10#  @ 9"
20    12.3
30    16
40    19.5
50    23
60    26.3
70    29.5

It seems a bit drastic to lop off an inch and a half, but I feel it will give a better bow. At the moment it's sort of neither fish nor foul, its a good bow, but not a great bow as it feels a bit cumbersom. Maybe I'm over fussy and obsessive, but maybe that's the difference between good, great and exploded!

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