A New Journey

[Nelsdou]

Conclusion

For the Kansas archery deer season I settled on using my mass-weight modified 50 lb recurve that I actually draw to 55 lbs. Despite putting in a lot of practice and repetitions at this draw weight, I found I hit a new limitation. The supraspinatus muscle/tendon in my right shoulder became irritated. I’d lay of a day or two and it would feel fine. Then I practice the next day be afterwards I was back at super sore again. And so it went, back and forth.

With the clock ticking down on deer season I played a balancing act on the pain/practice and got in the field mid October. In late October I passed up on a couple of smaller bucks gambling for November magic to bring something bigger but the magic didn’t come my way. A very warm and dry November here may have suppressed daytime deer movement but I was glad to be out and among it all in the fall. Enjoyed watching tree climbing bobcats stalk squirrels on several occasions, bald eagles soaring from a nearby lake and kicked up an armadillo one day on a walk about. Also found some new caches of turkey tail mushrooms.

In summary, although I hunted this year with a recurve, I’m impressed with the performance and stability of the triangular designed bows that go back to its origins thousands of years ago. The modern form of these are usually called reflex-deflex longbows or pyramid bows, with some more radical in the degree of reflex-deflex that they possess. Although today's modern recurves are slightly faster other attributes like overall shot consistency and noise of the reflex-deflex make for good argument.

I’m convinced that the center of the bow must be non-bending and contain sufficient mass to suppress hand shock and aid in stabilization of the bow hand for accuracy. 1.5 to 2.0 lbs is my preference. Now I see why some bowyers use of mycarta or dense hardwoods or lamination of both for premium bow risers is more than just good looks.

I’m also sold on pursing the thumb and forefinger as a viable release method. I get a cleaner, more consistent release than with the standard three fingers. It may be due to (just me) my brain to thumb communication is less clumsy than my brain to three independent fingers.

The plan going forward is to let the shoulder muscles recover and startup again in the new year to see if I can work my way back up and sustain 55 lbs of draw or more and eventually match up with a triangular (reflex-deflex) bow that meets my criteria stated above for mass and draw weight.