You have just bought yourself a bow, arrows and other necessities. Congratulation for that! Here are some advice how you should assemble it, since you have a riser, a pair of limbs, sight, arrow rest, plunger, and some stabilizers all nicely in bits and pieces.
The first thing to do is to connect the limbs to the riser. There is a slot mechanism which automatically locks the limb in its place. There is a slight difference in the shape of the limbs, so to distinguish which is which, note that the specifications are marked only on the inner side of the lower limb. The upper limb's inside is always empty.
Next thing to do is to string up the bow.
It is perhaps the most dangerous procedure in archery. Please read the
stringing instructions below really carefully before even trying it!
On the left the riser, on
the right the limbs
and below the sight.
UPTo set the string loops in the slots on your limbs so that they will keep and string up the bow is very difficult procedure. Therefore it is very crucial that you learn it thoroughly in theory before trying to do it. Why it is dangerous? Because if the stringing fails half ways, you might end up in a situation where the other string loop suddenly loosens up and releases the full uncontrolled power of the limb to hit your eye by accident.
On your string there are loop in both ends of it. Normally the upper loop is a bit bigger than the lower loop, because the stringing is done through the upper loop. The ensure which is which put your finger through the loops and stretch out the string. In the half way on your string there is a thicker section called middle section. It will not divide evenly in the middle, instead the upper part of the middle section will be shorter.
Thread first the string's upper loop as far towards the limbs wider end as it goes. By doing this it enables you to now thread the lower loop in its place on the gouge. Make sure that the string will be placed just in the middle of the lower limb. Now pretighten the string by stretching the upper loop towards the end gouge. Make again sure that the string is going on the centre line of the limbs and the lower loop is still in its gouge.
Now is the moment
to string the bow. For the first time don't try it alone! Ask someone the
secure you for you might fail. How? Lets first look the stringing procedure
as a whole before coming back to that.
Place the lower limbs tip on your right shoe's inner sole edge (not
underneath your shoes). Take with your left hand's forefinger and thump a
stand by position like in the picture above. Grab the riser in the window
section with your right hand and start pulling the riser towards your
belly whilst bending down the upper limb and the same go slide the string's
upper loop forcefully with your fingers towards the gouge. There it should
now be on its place! Back to the possible misplacement I was referring
earlier. If you fail to get the upper loop properly from the both sides of
the limb into the gouge, it may suddenly loosen up and the limps tip might
hit in your eye! The other awkward situation which might happen is that if
the other cord of the loop is still out of the gouge and you are out of
power to continue you end up in a situation not knowing how to proceed!
There you need the assistance to bend the limb so that the loop goes the
right way in its place. DON'T LOOK STRAIGHT AT THE LIMP TIP with your face
fully turned to it, look sideways so nothing happens with your eyes!
This may sound a bit too cautious, but
believe you me I have seen many bleeding eye browses! Fortunately nothing
more serious than that.
To prevent any hazards on the stringing your
bow, please ask somebody how know how to string the bow to help you and
insure that nothing serious happens to you!
 |
| Place the tip of
the lower limb on the side of your shoe above the sole, grab the
riser from the window cutting, place your left hand's index finger
and thump to a position where you can help the string loop to
slide straight into the gouge.. Turn your face away and begin
simultaneously to pull the riser towards you and pending the upper
limp towards the ground. Don't stop, do it firmly the whole way
down in one go. That's it! Make sure that the loop stays in the
gouge. |
 |
| The
loop should slide in one go all the way up to the gouge! |
UPWind manually the plunger first tight trough the plunger placement hole from the back of the window section on your riser.
Remove the covering foil on the double sided attachment tape on the back of the arrow rest. Then carefully attach the arrow rest lined up both vertically and horizontally around the plunger tip. Just in the middle. Don't yet fully fasten down it, since you might need to move it a bit! Now make sure that the arrow rest wire is not hanging downwards. It should point out on the level, but of course the wire is in an angle towards the front part of the riser. If everything is ok press the arrow rest firmly into its place.
In
the some recent riser models there are two plunger holes besides each
other. Use the one nearest to the grip's pivot point (posterior).
The arrow rest is attached just in the
middle
of the plunger tip, so that the wire
don't hang below the horizontal line.
UPMost of the archers use a double nocking point system. You can live with only one too, but in the beginning it is wiser to have two. All given nocking point heights are measured always from the lower edge of the upper nocking point! The nocking point height is different for all archers, but normally it is between 9-12 millimetres. Try first to set it on 10 millimetres.
Place your brace height gauge on the string from the clips and then make sure that the front of it is precisely on the arrow rest. Between the clips of the gauge there is a shot scale from which you can read the exact height.
Do the nocking points first of painter's masking tape, so that the upper point's lower edge is on the 10 millimetre. The other (lower) nocking point should be so much more down that the plastic nock fits nicely but somewhat loosely in between the two nocking point tapes. There must be a little space in between the points because at the full draw the angle of the string is such that your fingers might press the nock and your arrow might jump off the rest.
Proper nocking points are made of tread or bobbing mixed with a drop of glue or ready made metallic nocking points which you just press with pliers on the string. Use here the painter's tape, since you are going to change the height many times during your arrow tuning.
The smallest masking tape is too wide, so cut a 4 millimetre wide slice of the tape and make the other end shaped like in the picture above. By doing the slanting shape the tape rolls around the string so that you can cover it with a drop of glue to make sure it is holding. Exceed with the glue the tape so that the nocking point is fixed also to the middle section of the string. The glue is important because it doesn't only prevents the paper tape of sliding on the string, but also smelting in the rain.
During a short session of arrow testing you can leave the nocking points without the glue cover, since it is faster to chance without waiting the glue to dry. When you think you have found the right level ad the glue to be on the safe side.
Don't use any electrician's plastic tape for
your nocking points! Sun will heat up the glue on that and it will begin
sliding on the string without you noticing it!
Place the brace height gauge
on the string from the clips and
exactly on the arrow rest.
You can see your nocking point height
from the gauge's back scale.
Do your nocking points first
like this of painter's masking tape.
UPThere is a base part which should be fixed with the screws first on the riser. The sight extender mounts on that separately. To make the base firm it is advisable to but some double sided tape underneath. then lock the base with the screws to the wholes on your risers right side. Don't wind the screws with force because it may brake the threads in the aluminium riser. If the screws won't go properly in, check first that there is no finishing paint in the threads. If still not going in check that you have the right sort of screws for your riser. Some of the European or Japanese made sight might have the treads in millimetres.
Then just but the extenders rail into the slot and tighten the sight on your bow with the wheel.
If the sight pin is still
unattached, place it in its right position through the side adjustment
mechanism. Remember to secure the pin underneath the mechanism with a tiny
Allan screw.
UPIn the window cutting there is a small screw hole for fixing your clicker. The clicker angle on the riser depends on your arrow length. The ideal position of the clicker end however would be about two centimetres from the plunger tip towards the front of your riser.
It is though advisable not to use the clicker yet. You are just preparing your arrows and you should leave them a bit too long for the start. If you are trying to draw your too long arrows thought the clicker, it will only distract your practice. You don't need the clicker for a long time, so just tighten it in its place and leave it waiting.
Since your arrows are or
will be a bit too long for you (see link preparing your arrows) you need a
clicker extender plate on your riser if you like to use the clicker
in this
early state of your career.
For the
stabilizers there are several mounting holes in your riser. To mount the
long stabilizer use the hole in front of the bow slightly below the grip.
If you have bought yourself also the side stabilizators you first place the
extender rod in it and fixt the V-bar first on it and then the side rods
to it. In some V-bars there is also the possibility to change the
horizontal and vertical angles of your back stabilizators. Adjust them
first slightly leaning downwards in an angle of app. 45 degrees. To do the
fixing precisely so that both back stabilizers are exactly in the same
level and angles, use your brace height gauge on the string to guide you
from both sides.
You can set additional weight bits on the
ends of your stabilizers to balance the overall weight of your bow. The
bow balance should be such that the bow is drives to slant a bit frontward
and downwards when holding it gently by the grip.
In the start try to but as little
additional weights on the stabilizers in order to keep the weight of your
bow down. A too heavy bow will tire your bow hand muscle.
UPNow that you have your bow ready, it is the next step to prepare your arrows. Provided if you have not bought ready made arrows.
Go next to Preparing
your arrows link.
UPas the common courtesy for all archers. Please read it, copy it, refer it or print it free! :) pirkka.elovirta@saunalahti.fi