Sunday 21 October 2018

Sighting In Some More

I took the crossbow over to Now Strike Archery fairly early and had the ground all to myself in glorious sunshine
It's impressively fast and flat out to 30 yards with only slight elevation needed on my scope mount.
As the range increases the downward component of velocity increased as the arrow accelerates downwards due to gravity, making the trajectory more curved and the bolts were briefly visible in flight. The changes to the scope mount were much less than with the Boo/Yew prods, so much so that I got it sighted out to 60 yards.
I didn't spend too much time trying for tight groups, I was just trying to get the elevation about right for each 10 yard increment, shooting about 6 bolts at each range.
What surprised and confused me was that when I sat on the rear sill of the car (with the hatchback open) and leaned against the rear pillar to get a solid shooting position I always shot high!??
I actually put two shots over the boss when trying to shoot like that, but I found them both.
Discussing this with my brother later in the day, it turns out that this is a recognised effect with spring type air rifles which have a similar slow action with a moving mass (apparently they are bad at shaking up scopes too). Trying to hold too solid increases the effect of the recoil (and possibly the reaction to a fairly heavy trigger pressure), whereas holding more lightly allows the bow (or rifle) to find it's own balance/stability due to its inertia. (dunno if that makes sense)
When I stood and shot in a more relaxed manner without gripping the crossbow so hard, I shot much better.
With all the shots the horizontal dispersal was minimal, it was only the vertical variation that gave any trouble.

All in all a good session, the only minor problem being that I forgot my arrow puller, and it was hell's own job pulling the bolts from the target, so much so that I felt my back complaining, so I quit while I was ahead.

Tomorrow I can review the marks on the wheel of my adjustable scope mount and compare with theoretical figures, making minor adjustments and engraving decent marks onto the wheel.

The only outstanding question was the draw weight.
So, in the afternoon, I got the bow bolted down at floor level and drew it via a long double hook of 6mm steel bar with the spring scale on the end.
Turns out it's 108# which is about what I expected.
I took a quick (rather shaky) video showing the arrangement used for measuring draw weight.
https://youtu.be/1JVTiy5BKXk

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