Bow axle length
 

I recently purchased a short axle bow. Having a hard time in my opinion getting what I consider good groups. At 20 yards I have about a 3 inch group with 4 arrows. It seems like if I hold the grip in a different way regardless of anchor point and where I put the pin I will shoot in a different spot. Sometimes high sometimes low. Will a longer axle bow help with this a little or at all? I use the same anchor point everytime. It just seems like there is no room at all for error. Would a heavier stabilizer help me at all in this area?

A short axle to axle bow is not as forgiving as longer a to a. Any movement or tension in the grip or ancor point will be accentuated due to the shorter power stroke. You will definitely get more speed from the shorter bow, but forgiveness is sacrificed.

I have a Maxxis 31. My buddy has an Alphamax 35 and we may be able to swap. I seriously think I could shoot the 35 a lot better. I just don't know if I want to give up my Bone Collector Maxxis. I love the bow it's just a little rough to shoot for me.

If you are bow hunting and you are deviating 1.5 inches in either direction from your exact point of aim at 20 yards and your target is a couple inches behind the shoulder center rib cage seems to me that any of those 4 shots will result in a dead deer.

Maybe you should put up a 3-D deer target and see how your shots look impacting something like your quarry. You may find that your grouping is perfectly adequate for the task at hand.

Axle to axle is not what you should look at when looking for a forgiving bow imo, riser length is where you get your stability.

I know they say shorter axle bows are less forgiving, which surprised me when Matthews came out with the DXT after the Drenaline.

ie the Drenaline was longer than the DXT axle to axle and the dren came out 1st. Made no sense to me, I remember thinking I'd still have bought the dren over the dxt.


Btw, try shooting some groups at 30 and 40yds, see how these groups do. I tend to shoot better groups at longer range, I attribute this to higher focus, whereas at 20yds I know im going to hit the target...

At 30 yds my groups are almost identical in size maybe a 4inch group with 4 arrows. At 40 it's a different story, I am all over the place, it is very annoying. I hate to think I could have a 200 inch buck at 40 yds and not be able to shoot it with my bow. And the bow has a 7 in brace height.

My Voyager is all riser!! 34ata

Before you give up,try working with some different stabs,I have had this problem in the past where my groups at 20-30 were not that bad but any further and I couldn't hit a bull in the ass with a fist full of rice,I had some old stabs and worked with different lenghts and weights,and was amazed at how differently my groups changed with each one,I found that for me a longer stab with end weight not only gave me exellent 40-50yrd groups my 20-30yrd groups improved to the point that I can't shoot at the same target without wrecking arrows.
Maybe it can help you also!

At 20 yds I Robin Hood arrows a lot. I was thinking a stab would help me at distance.

MOhunter and Nimrod have both hit on part of what may be the problem, but part of bow's stability is not just these two things. One other is not just the length of the riser, but the geometry of the riser.

The more reflex a riser has the less stable it'll be also. Of course it also has to be said that the less reflex the slower the bow will be, too. It's not all that hard to figure out. Take a look at what target shooters always choose. You won't see many reflexed risers in the mix. In fact, most often the riser will be straight or deflexed.

Now you take an ultra-short bow (less than 36") with a short riser, highly reflexed for speed, and you compound several undesirable features into one package. It's not that they can't be shot accurately. It just makes the job harder with less consistency.

So, considering that you already have the bow I'd say adding a good stabilizer can help, but not one of those little shorties guys use for hunting. They don't do much of anything in the way of stabilizing. Something like a B-Stinger about 12" long with some weight to it might be your best bet. Maybe mount it on a 10 degree down knuckle to lower the center of gravity.

Then next time you buy a bow you can use all the stuff you learn and maybe consider that short and portable isn't always the best for your intended application. There are all kinds of trade-offs in this sport.

Thanks for the input everyone. I really appreciate it. Looks like I am gonna be shopping for a longer stab.