This is a very good point Jeff, and I'm surprised to hear it from you honestly. After all, in my opinion you ARE the arrow man. And like you said, very technical oriented.

I will agree whole heartedly with you. I have not really been doing this that long, compared to you and others. I am already seeing how little some things really matter. Especially in target type archery. After some of my own playing, reading a few books and talking to some hard core target archers I have come to my own conclusions. I tell people these things at times that I know, but don't say it too often here for fear of being chastized by all those except the older wiser people. I think about 98 percent of archery is the archer. Form, mental type stuff and how the bow fits you. The other 2 percent is having good arrows. And I don't mean the most expensive target arrows you can get, just arrows that are not messed up crap.

You hand a really great archer an old beat up bow that is out of tune and adjusted wrong and I bet he will group arrows together at 20 yards as long as the arrows match. They don't even have to be the right arrows for the bow, just match. On the other hand, give a bad archer a $2,000 dollar bow with every gizmo and gadget on it and $20 dollar a piece arrows, and he's still going to suck! He will just look good doing it is all. I could be wrong about this, but I believe most if not all of the acuracy records have been set with older 2 wheel type slow bows. Heck I have seen video of a guy shooting things out of the air and nailing pills with a traditional bow instinctively! Now tell me how much more accurate that 120 dollar drop a way rest is really making me? You want the truth, I don't shoot any better with my drop a way than I did my 15 dollar TM hunter. It's more fun to play with though.

One of the books I read said that if you put a bow in a shooting maching it will shoot arrows into groups all day no matter what you do to it. Tiller, nocking point, centershot, fletch contact, doesn't matter, as long at the arrows match in spine and weight. They will hit in different spots when you change something, but they will still group. I have proved it with my bow shooting way underspined arrows and still being pretty accurate with it. As acurate as I can be anyway.

I agree with you on the cam and nock travel thing as well. I have a darton with the cps cams. Excellent cams, very well designed. I could shoot this bow at virtually 90 degrees nocking point. My new bowtech is pretty nock high compared to what i am used to, just doesn't look right at rest. Guess what, I shoot it better than I did my darton!? Like I said, I think it's the narrower grip, just fits me better. Does it tune well? I don't know, I robin hooded a fletched shaft into a bare shaft the other day when bare shaft tuning it, broke a nock on another one. Does that sound like nock travel effects anything? And that was at 30 yards, not 10. I don't normally shoot that well actually, I was having a very good day that day. It happens from time to time with me.

I'm not saying none of this stuff works and it's all BS. Some of it has it's merits and certainly helps the average archer like myself. I don't think I could shoot nearly as well without a release and the amount of let off I have. And I couldn't hit anything without sights, I'm sure of it. And most of this applies to target type stuff at closer ranges. When you screw a broad head on the arrow some things change a bit. Better more adjustable rests and stuff like that come in handy. They sure help give some leeway for poor or odd form, or less than optimal spine arrows.

In the end I think some of this stuff just makes you think you shoot better, so you do, at least for a while anyway. This is a very mental game we play. If you are more confident and enthused about what you are doing, you will do better.

Great thread Jeff.

Paul