My Own Archery Crisis

On Sunday afternoon, I decided to take some time and get outside to shoot my bow. The sun was shining, and the temperature wasn't too high. It seemed like the best time to get out and do some late Summer practice. After my third round of shooting, I returned to my bow to find the prongs of my arrow rest were pointed backwards!! At first, I wasn't all too upset about the ordeal. I assumed the screw that kept the prongs in place was loose. It would be a slight setback and require some fine tuning, but I knew I could grit my teeth and work my way through it.


After closer inspection, however, I noticed this...

The screw wasn't loose...it was gone! The screw played an intricate part in And as luck would have it, I had to be shooting in tall grass--there was no finding the lost screw. I tried to put in another screw...only to find that the hole has been stripped!

My frustration level is at an all-time high for this bow. I decided at the beginning of the Summer that I would learn how to set up and tune my own bow. This was a reaction to the lack of local bow technicians. I was being forced to drive long distances to a larger outfitter for any tech-work. I was also becoming very dissatisfied with the quality of their work. With this in mind, I purchased a bow square, serving material, and other small odds and ends with the mind set to teach myself the art of tuning. I've learned the hard way that tuning itself is a very difficult task, especially if you don't have all the correct tools to get the job done.

For the last month and a half, I've been tinkering around with my bow. I've been working rather diligently on getting the "fishtail" flight out of my arrows. At the beginning of this practice, my arrows were finally flying straight...making this malfunction just that much worse.

I have a new arrow rest on the way, but I am not necessarily looking forward to the set-up and tuning process. The Iowa bow season starts in a matter of weeks, and I definitely don't want to lose time getting my arrows to fly straight. If you happen to have any helpful set-up/tuning tips, please leave a comment--it will be greatly appreciated!!