| Name: | Patrick Murphy |
| Nickname: | PBM |
| E-mail: | pattyk@quorumcomm.com |
| Newsgroups: | rec.sport.archery, alt.archery |
| Type of user: | Soak up information and ask advice. |
|
| The camera adds ten pounds! |
Riser: Win & Win Winact, 25", RH, silver
Limbs: Winact Carbon, medium length(68 inch bow) 42 pounds holding perhaps 45 pounds
Arrows: Easton ACE 570 28.375", 100 grain breakoffs
Nocks: Beiter in/out
Nock points: FastFlite upper and lower
Fletching: Spin Wings, white, 1.5625 inch
String: Dynaflite 97 16 strand
Sight: Arc Systeme SX-10
Sight tunnel: Beiter 8 mm no insert
Stabliizer: W&W fomax carbon long rod with doinker. Cartel 4" Shock Eater on front lower.
Tab: Cavalier with shelf, no spacer
Sling: Cavalier finger sling
Rest: Hoyt SuperRest
Plunger: Shibuya DX
Clicker: Beiter
Bow stand: Win & Win Viper
Bow case: Protecto
Spotting scope: Simmons 25x50 with 45 degree eyepiece and old, cheap tripod
1978: Shot my Dad's hunting compound for a few months. Always felt guilty about it.
October 1999: Bought a 40# Damon Howatt Ventura one-piece wooden recurve on E-bay and started shooting.
February 2000: Bought Gold Medalist and C+ limbs from a fellow Sagittarian.
June 2000: Finally got the CTM arrows, points and nocks so I can actually tune my bow for the first time. Were it not for the kind assistance of you folks on Sagittarius, I would have thrown up my hands in frustration and given up the sport.
August 2000: Returned to X7s because my propensity to miss the target is hard on the arrows.
September 2000: Converted to a 23" Avalon Plus, making a 68" bow. Sight window is barely tall enough for 30 meters, so I shoot indoors only for blank bale.
March 2001: Shot my first FITA qualifier at El Dorado Park in Long Beach (site of the '84 Olympics). Shot a 202/242/294/324 for 1,062. I am using those awful 90 and 70 meter scores as leverage with my wife, claiming that I need to be shooting ACEs or X10s.
June 2001: Sold my Avalon and C+ limbs, bought a Winact riser and Winact carbon limbs. Also bought 520 ACEs.
September 2001: Finally got a decent tune with ACEs, using 570s.
December 2001: My second FITA qualifier. 246/279/284/322 for 1131.
January 2002: My third FITA qualifier. 234/298/306/327 for 1165.
PERSONAL BESTS:
Event Tournament Practice
30m 327 336
50m 306 314
70m 298 302
90m 246 273
FITA 1165
EQUIPMENT REVIEWS
Great equipment:
Hoyt SuperRest: It works great, low maintenance, no adjustments to come loose. The Cavalier Free Flyte magnetic was too complex and using the plunger to hold the rest on the bow makes life difficult. My quality of life improved a lot when I switched to the SuperRest.
Easton X7: The points are incredibly strong, with no lip or flange to catch on the target. The price is right, too.
Beiter nocks: Clean release. I would have bought the clear ones except LAS and ASS don't stock them.
Win&Win Viper bowstand: It was $18 at LAS, but they don't carry it anymore. Many people have asked me how to get one after seeing it in use.
Rolan riser and Lyons limbs: I got this beginner bow for my wife from ASS. US$30 each for the riser and limbs. I think the limb bolts should have knobs or wing nuts so they can be put on with fingers only. I would not use this riser with heavy limbs (say, over 35 pounds). Cute and light! I can't get it to shoot right, though, perhaps because it is not cut past center enough.
Not so great equipment:
Arc Systeme SX-10 sight: $82 from ASS. A great value. Workmanship and build quality is extremely good. The movement is smooth, precise and solid.
However, using aluminum arrows, the sight bar was too short for me to get 18-90m marks (it's fine with ACEs). Getting even 30-90m required moving the sight halfway in at 90. There is NO documentation at all with this sight--not even a photograph of an assembled sight. Also, the sight block cannot be removed like on my old Chek-It sight, so I have to remove the sight pin assembly with an awkwardly-placed hex screw to store the sight.
Hoyt Avalon Plus 23" riser: Great except that I can barely get a 30m sight mark in the short window. The riser is totally useless for shorter ranges. They changed the design to correct the cracking problems in the original Avalon. I would strongly advise against getting any short riser without testing it personally first.
So, both the SX-10 and the Avalon+ may be wasted money because of sight mark problems. Am I the only one who has these problems? How is it that things like this are not common knowledge?
Buying from Alternative Sports in the UK was great, and I saved money on a large order even accounting for transatlantic shipping. Some other guys and I pooled together to make a large order and we could buy a lot of stuff not available in the US. Worked out great.
Lancaster Archery in the U.S. has good prices, but I have had problems with them. They sent me the wrong model of CTM arrow. They also told me they had the Winact riser in stock, so I ordered it and sold my old bow. It turned out they didn't have a black riser after all, so after two weeks without a bow to shoot I finally received a silver one.
