The Archery Project
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The Archery Project
How to Know If Your Bow Was Set Up Wrong (Checklist + Fixes) | FRIDAY KILL NOTES
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Your groups drift, your bow feels jumpy, and broadheads don't impact with your field points. Let’s fix that with a simple, proven order of operations that turns chaos into confidence. We walk through the exact checkpoints that separate a smooth, accurate setup from a tiring fight: start with draw length that matches your body, lock a reliable anchor, set peep height to your natural sightline, then move into center shot, cam timing, and smart, minimal rest adjustments.
We dig into the details that actually matter at the target. You’ll learn how to find a true starting draw length from wingspan, why your string should touch the tip of the nose and corner of the mouth, and how light facial pressure preserves clean arrow flight. We explain why being overbowed destroys form, how a neutral grip reduces torque, and what a well-timed cam system feels like at full draw. When it’s time to tune, we set center shot to spec and use cam shims for macro corrections instead of cranking the rest sideways. The payoff is predictable: field points stack, broadheads follow, and your confidence climbs.
Along the way, we share how a good pro shop evaluates fit, spots half-inch mistakes that change everything, and guides new shooters without pushing speed over control. You’ll leave with a checklist you can run at home or bring to your tech: fit first, peep to eye, center shot level, time cams, shim for left-right, micro the rest, verify with paper and distance, then confirm with broadheads. Whether you’re a new archer or getting back into the game, this process helps you diagnose fast and fix what matters so the bow and the archer work as one.
Ready to shoot with less guesswork and more confidence? Follow the checklist, subscribe for more archery deep-dives, and share this episode with a friend who’s chasing groups. Got a tuning snag we didn’t cover? Leave a review with your question and we’ll tackle it next.
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All right, folks, how to know if your bow is set up wrong. So we did a podcast last week, right, talking about good shops versus bad shops, kind of red flags, things to consider. And I saw there was quite a few comments on it, and I kind of wanted to touch on it because there's a lot of questions. If you're new to archery, you don't know exactly what to look for. You don't know what's wrong, you don't know what's right. So the goal with this is to kind of educate, provide some value, and help you out in, you know, seeing if your bow is maybe not set up correctly. So thanks for joining me today on the Archery Project. I am Zach Placea, and that's what we're diving into. Um, you know, because like I said, if you don't know your bows set up wrong, and you just the bow just feels off, right? You feel like you're fighting the bow, you constantly have to re-zero the bow. Your arrow flight seems to be kind of wonky. Um, it's gonna make your archery experience honestly terrible. And sometimes it's not always the bow, though, right? We see this a lot. Everyone's like, my bow's messed up, my bow's not shooting good. Turns out it's the guy behind the bow, right? The one drawing the bow back, shooting it is the actual problem. So if your fundamentals, technique, and stuff are not consistent, not how they should be, your bow also will not perform as it should. Uh, mainly because let's be real, you're the issue. And no one wants to believe they're the issue, but we all go through it and we all struggle with it from time to time. So I wanted to kind of create kind of like a checklist again, some boxes you can look at and check to see if, you know, maybe you're the problem or the bow is the problem. So, and this is important, like I said, right? There's consequences if the bow is just not set up as it should, right? It's just never gonna shoot correctly or accurately, or the biggest thing consistently, right? You might hit the where you're aiming at from time to time, but you know, then you'll notice there's a flyer here, a flyer there. You just feel like you're fighting it, your arrow flights bad. If you're a bow hunter, your broadheads are sh all over the place, which as a bow hunter, like that's the most important thing. Your bow needs to shoot correctly so those broadheads impact where you want them to hit, right? Because if not, you're missing animals or worse, wounding animals. And then the other thing, you right, you lose confidence again, miss animals, target panic develops, a whole host of issues. Um, and I would say confidence is critical. It is everything when it comes to archery. Because when you're confident with your equipment and with yourself, you just perform better. It's just more fun, and you can actually shoot and challenge yourself and shoot accurately, especially when we talk about distance and stuff like that, right? Um and like I said, there's two ways you can look at it, right? Poor setup, poor equipment setup, or poor technique and fundamentals, right? And if your bow equipment is set up cor incorrectly, no matter how good of an archer, you're never gonna be able to shoot that bow correctly. And vice versa, right? If that bow is set up correctly, but your technique and fundamentals are off, same thing, right? So let's go ahead and jump into some of the most common mistakes that we see come through our shop, right? And this is whether you're setting the bow up yourself, right? Because you ordered your bow off Amazon, maybe, right? You ordered it direct from the manufacturer, maybe a bear bow, an expedition bow, something where you can get direct, or you ordered it through a through a big distributor like Lancaster, right? And you decide you're gonna set it up yourself. There's some things you need to consider. The first um piece of encouraging advice would be go to a pro shop. But if you're not gonna do that, you're gonna do it yourself. Here's some things you need to look at. Uh, the first common mistake that we see is draw length issues, right? The wrong draw length, whether it's too long or too short. And I'll give you the best way to find your starting point for your draw length. And this is the starting point. This is not the end-all be-all. This is just to get you started because let's be real, your draw length can shift one way or the other based off the release you're shooting, how you anchor, body mechanics. There's just a lot of different things when it comes to setting draw length. But this gives you a pretty good starting point. So you're gonna take your wingspan, stretch your arms all the way out, and you're gonna measure fingertip to fingertip, and you're gonna divide that by 2.5. And that's gonna give you that rough starting point, right? And that's where you can get started drawing, draw the bow back, check it and see how it feels and what it looks like on you. Um, and if you're doing this yourself and you don't have a buddy looking at you or somebody who knows how to set a bow up correctly, you can take and set your phone up and record yourself with it. One thing with draw length that we want is when you draw that bow back, that string needs to be tip of the nose, the corner of your mouth. What we see a lot of people kind of struggle with is either the draw length is too short, right? So whenever you draw the bow back, the string is in front of your face. Excuse me, I'm trying to put my hand over the mic. The string is in front of your face, and you there's no contact, right? So you're never consistent. An anchor point is critical, and the correct draw length allows you to have that consistent anchor point, right? If it's too short, you can move all around. There's no contact on your face whatsoever. The other thing is if it's too long, right? Some people like to game their draw length, right? Maybe their draw length's a little bit shorter. They want to get more speed out of the bow. It's not, in my, it's in my opinion, it's not worth sacrificing good technique and good form to chase speed by gaming it with your draw length, right? We see some guys instead of taking and tipping those corner of the mouth and anchoring correctly, they're grabbing the back of their head. The anchor part, their anchor point is further back on their face, which equals more facial pressure, which if you have more facial pressure, it can push that arrow out of alignment and cause poor um arrow flight issues. So it's incredible it's critical you get that correct anchor point. Uh, and and it should be comfortable. It should naturally, or excuse me, that correct draw length to get into anchor. It should, the the bow should come back naturally, right? You shouldn't be overextended anyway. You shouldn't be crouched up. You should be able to stand up nice and proud, good posture, draw the bow back, and it should come back and it should be tip of the nose to corner of the mouth. It's important that this front shoulder is down and out away from your actual jaw, right? We want it down and out to kind of flare your lad out, not crunched up against your jaw. We see that whenever draw length is wrong, right? Either there's a bend in the elbow, which is no wrong, right? Or the shoulder is super crunched up. There should be a natural little bit of a bend in the elbow, nothing crazy. We want bone-on-bow contact, pushed out, shoulder down and away from the jaw. When the bow is at full draw, again, string, tip of the nose, corner of the mouth, that arrow should sit below the eye, between your chin and that lip, and set slightly in that little pocket right there. And that is typically perfect draw length, right? Because whenever you start, if your draw length is wrong, whenever you start shooting hard angles, right? Awkward positions out of a stand, if your draw length's too long or too short, you just can't get comfortable and you won't be consistent. Right. So it is critical that you set your draw length correctly. I'll say it again. Start by measuring your weak wingspan divided by 2.5. That gives you a really good starting point. Moving in from draw length is the anchor point, right? They kind of go hand in hand. Excuse me. Your anchor point, archery is all about consistency. You have got to be consistent in what you do. And the way you are able to be consistent when shooting a bow is making sure your anchor, you know, your anchor point is spot on. There's a couple ways to look at this, right? Depending on the release that you shoot. Right? If you're somebody that shoots a wrist release, which a lot of our new archers do, they kind of gravitate towards it. They're cost effective, easy to learn on. Um, there's a couple ways that I like to anchor with those. One of them being, I like to take my knuckle and I like to put it right behind my jaw. The other way is take your hand and grab the corner of your jaw. And that allows, whenever you draw that bow, to be in a the same spot the same way every time, right? You have those touch points. And as long as your release is set correctly, the neck is not too long, not too short, right? We need to find that happy medium spot where that um neck is typically you can wrap your finger around that trigger. That anchor point is gonna work great with that draw length. If you're shooting a handheld release, what I like to do is I like to split my jaw, right? Right there. That arrow, again, is gonna be under the eye, somewhere between your jaw or your chin in that lip, right in that little pocket. And you should be able to hold, draw that bow with good posture, come back naturally. You're not overextended, you're not in a vulnerable position, that you can hurt yourself. Everything just feels right. And you'll be amazed at how rock solid you feel in your stance when it comes to aiming. Because if your anchor points off, your draw length is off, typically you start to induce muscle fatigue. If you're using all your muscles to hold this bow, you become a little bit shaky and then you become inconsistent and not accurate whatsoever. So it's very important that you work through those. Um, anchor and draw length are critical to shooting a bow well. Um, and depending on the bow that you shoot, your draw length should be able to be adjusted in either half-inch or quarter-inch draw length adjustments to really fine-tune the fit of it, right? It's something I would encourage you to play with. If you're doing it yourself, if you're going to a shop, that's how the bow should feel. I mean, they should really take the time with you to set the draw length up correctly, right? And it's sometimes it is hard with new archers to teach them how to anchor and how to draw a bow correctly. That's why typically we start on a lower poundage option, just so that they can get set up correctly and drawing the bow as they should. Right. From there, the next thing that it moves into is your peep height. If you don't have the correct draw length, you don't anchor correctly, your peep height is gonna be off. Right? The peep sight is the rear aperture that splits the string that you line up with your sight on your bow. And peep alignment is critical. And another thing, too, with your peep height and setting it is the higher you can get your peep, the more yardage you can get out of your site. So, and that's got to be with reason, within reason, right? We don't want to overstretch ourselves where we're trying to get the peep height as high as we can to get more distance out of the site, then you become inconsistent and um unaccurate. So peep height is critical for accuracy and hitting what you want to hit. So, same thing, you need to make sure that you get into anchor correctly, right? I'll say I like when we work with new archers, we're constantly hounding tip of the nose, corner of the mouth is where that string needs to be. Not too far back, not too far forward. That's the happy medium for most people. And whenever we go to set the peep height for somebody, uh one thing you can do or a little trick you can do to make sure that your peep height is set correctly is draw the bow back, get into anchor, and close your eyes, right? And then open your eyes. If that peep does not naturally sit where it needs to to align with your scope, then you move the peep site. You never move your head to the peep site. The peep sight should move to your eye, right? That is critical. We see people all the time where a peep's in a bow and they're like, oh yeah, I can see it now, or they duck their head, right? We don't want that. You should be able to stand up nice and proud. You do not want to be ducking your head to get in your peep site, and you don't want to be off the string to where you're trying to look through that peep site. You need to be anchored correctly, and that peep sight needs to be moved to your eye. And whenever you're looking through a peep site, it should halo your scope perfectly. If you have scope shadow on left or right, up or down, that's not proper a peep alignment. So you need to be able to adjust your body and the way you hold that bow so that everything lines up correctly, right? And peepite, again, is critical for accuracy. Draw length, anchor, peep height. If your draw length is wrong, your anchor is going to be wrong. If your anchor is wrong, your peep is height is gonna be wrong. So you need to set them in that order, right? With peepite, it's important that that peep is moved to your eye. Do not, whenever the tech is helping you, set that peep. You need to make sure that you are anchored and locked in and not moving, and you tell them whether it needs to go down or it needs to go up. And they will. A good tech is going to take their time with you on the fit process for a bow. Because, like I said, if it's not set up correctly, you'll never shoot it well. And it'll just ruin your archery journey right away. It won't be fun, you'll be inconsistent, and you won't be able to evolve in it, right? Because we know these platforms are super capable platforms, right? You go to total archery, we shoot these bows out over 100, 120, 150 yards accurately, right? We're we're aiming at something and hitting it. And that's all due to proper bow setup, right? And then fundamentals that come along with it. They all work together. Um again, peep height should meet your eye, not the other way around. Always have the peep moved to you. Head position um controls consistency. So you need to make sure your head is constantly in the right position, right? You're not ducking, you're not overstretching, you're naturally standing up proud, standing up nice and straight. Your chest is open, you're coming back, you're drawing getting the anchor. That nose is on the tip of this, um, that string is on the tip of the nose corner of your mouth, and that peep sight is moved to your eye. And there should be light facial pressure on that string, right? You should not have to bury your face into that string. It should be nice and light because when you start putting too much facial pressure into a string, it pushes that arrow out of alignment and it causes poor arrow flights out of the bow. And you'll notice that when you put the bow through paper. If you put too much facial pressure on that string, that arrow is going to give you a weird tear. So every input into a bow has an output, whether good or bad. So all inputs need to be good to have all good outputs. Um, bow, shooting a bow requires a lot of effort, a lot of skill, a lot of time behind the bow. It's a skill you develop over time. So don't get frustrated with it. Um, and that's what we're trying to do here, right? With these podcasts and stuff is just try to educate and help you guys along the way. And if you guys do have questions on this stuff, you can always reach out to my shop at Extreme Outfitters and my techs, uh, we'll be more than happy to help you out. So, you know, there's that. The other thing, too, is draw weight. Um, seems kind of um silly, but it's not because we see a lot of guys either really end up overbowed, right? Where they're drawing, the bow is too hard to draw, right? They're strong enough to do it, but they just don't have the technique, right? We and this can come down to ego and a lot of things, right? And I would assure you, I would rather see you draw a lower poundage bow correctly than draw a heavy poundage bow wrong. It puts you in a vulnerable position to where you can hurt your shoulders, right? We know that. Um, and you just fatigue too fast. You won't be able to shoot the bow. If you don't spend time behind it or you're new to archery, it's worth having a bow dialed down a little bit before you max it out, um, just so you can develop that technique and form. You're not chasing speed at this point, you're learning a new skill. Humble yourself. Right? Do not end up overbowed. I'm you may want to shoot, you may be a huge dude that can draw 80 pounds, but you're brand new to archery. You don't need it yet, man. Um, get good at shooting a bow, and then I would say work your poundage up. Um, because what we see happen is, you know, guys will get a bow. And even if it's a 70-pound bow, you'll be more than capable, like most people, of shooting a 60 to 70 pound bow after you shoot a bow for a couple weeks, right? Because it's technique, it's form, it's muscles you don't typically use. It's a new sport, right? With a new sport, new things, new learning curves come. Um, and we just don't want to see you overbowed to where you can only shoot that bow five to 10 times and then you can't shoot anymore because you're too fatigued. At full draw, you're shaking real bad, you're struggling to get it back, you're putting yourself into awkward positions to get the bow back. That sets you up for failure and then potentially to get hurt. So I would encourage you to make sure that that bow is not set too high of a poundage. You can always work up to it later. If it's a 70-pound bow, dial it down to 60 pounds, man. Have it set up for 60 pounds. Come back to the shop after you've been shooting for a little while, get it set up at dial it back up to 70 pounds and retune the bow. Um yeah, I just I hate to see people that end up overbowed. You know, if you know us, we love shooting high poundage bows. I personally do. I'm all about it. Um, and I don't see anything wrong with it. But it is a problem if you are not good at it and you don't understand the basic fundamentals. Uh, so don't let your ego get in the way, humble yourself, dial the bow back, enjoy shooting the bow, and then work through the process and become better at this and then dial the bow up. Um, I would highly encourage that. Um, you know, from there, after those, the initial setup stuff is, or you know, setting you up on the bow is when we look at um the actual setting the bow up, right? So one thing that I would encourage you, and and this is not for you to like berate and look over your tech shoulder if you're going to a shop and constantly question what what he's doing. No, this is not what this is about. This is just giving you an understanding of how this works so that you can double check the work that's done. But there's a really you can really ruin a relationship fast with the with a shop if you're over their shoulder questioning everything they do, if they're a highly qualified shop and they know what they're doing and they have their process set up. So this is not what this is about, but this is just providing you education. So you can look overlooked, you can look over the work that has been done to your bow and have a rough idea of, yeah, this bow set up correctly. I'm the problem. Or no, they didn't take the time to set this bow up. The bow is not set up correctly. I need to go somewhere else, or I need to learn the skill in order to set it up myself. So I just throwing that little, you know, two cents out there. Um, because like I said, you'll burn a relationship real quick if you just constantly are questioning everything your tech's doing who is a qualified tech. So err on the caution with that. But looking at the setup process, right? Whenever you buy a new bow, like we talked about, the bow's got to be set up correctly. Um and the bow's got to be timed, the bow's got to be tuned, all that set up to you. That's why buying a bow is if you're new to it, going to a shop makes the process that much easier if you have a good shop because they will take the time to do all these measurements and show you how to anchor and show you how to draw the bow and um making sure your peapite is set correctly and everything's aligned correctly. Um, and setting your center shot and timing. But that's what I wanted to move into now is like this center shot of the bow, right? We see this a lot. People setting up their own bows. Center shot is supposed to be set to specific measurement, right? The center shot of the bow is where the arrow runs through the riser of the bow based on through the arrow rest on that bow, right? So when we set bows up, majority of your modern bows now, when you mount a rest, an arrow rest to the riser, the center shot should be set at 1316 to 78 of an inch from the riser. The arrow is going to run typically through the burger hole of that bow. For the most part, right? Those are really good starting points. What we see people do is when the arrow is not flying correctly, this is usually people who are working on stuff themselves. Sometimes shops do it. I don't know. They overcorrect for poor flight by moving the arrow rest one way or the other and overcompensating that way, right? When in reality, what we like to do, or what you should do, is you should set the center shot correctly to those bow specs, right? 13 16ths from the riser, seven eighths from the riser, center through the burger hole, right? With your knock point, the arrow should be level, right? And then after you've gone and you've timed the bow, right? The bow, when you draw the bow back, the cam should roll over and sync if it's a dual cam bow. And then you go and you shoot it through paper, assuming you've got the right arrow and everything built through it, built for it. And then you look at the paper tear that you get, right? Maybe you get a hard knock left, a hard knock right, whatever it is. What we see people do is instead of adjusting the cams, shimming the cams, they'll take and just make all their adjustment in the rest. So when you look at that bow, the arrow is pointing hard left or hard right to get what people think is a good tear-through paper, which is wrong, right? We want to set that arrow rest and we want to make all of our macro adjustments in the cams. All your new bows now have the ability to shim the cam. Even your mid-price point bows for the most part at this at this point. Whether it's a deadlock um cam technology, it's a Matthews Limbshift, it's an XTS tuning system from Hoyt, it's the EZ220 shim system from PSE, it's the new expedition shim system. All these bows have the ability to be shimmed left or right. And when you're getting paper tear or poor arrow flight and you need to correct for it, you need to make your adjustments in your cams. And then once it's very, very close, you can take and make those little bitty micro adjustments within the arrow rest, but it should not take much. For the most part, now those bows can be. Set at 13 16ths from the riser and level. And as long as the cams are been adjusted, you'll get bullet holes all day. Um, what we see is people taking with broadheads and stuff, they'll just move the arrow rest one way or the other. You do not want to do that. That arrow, typically, whenever you're standing over a bow, you should be able to look over the bow and see that arrow almost split through the limb bolt depending on the bow that you're shooting, right? When you see it hard left or hard right one way or the other, that is wrong. Same thing whenever you're looking at the bow when it's level. That arrow should not be too knock low or too knock high. The bow should be level. And when it is and it's set up correctly, it'll perform optimally as it should, right? We see that a lot. You'll come in and there'll just be somebody's got an arrow rest on there, and that arrow is just not level correctly. And yeah, it might fix it at a certain distance, but eventually it's going to get worse and worse the greater the distance gets. So that's why the bow has got to be leveled and set up correctly. The adjustments to correct the paper tear are within the cam. And then you can micro adjust if you even need to within your rest, right? That's why I like a micro, a micro adjustable rest, right? If you're broadhead tuning or you need to make those fine adjustments, you can do it with clicks versus a rest that doesn't have micro adjustability. I think it's a good investment. Um, but that's another critical aspect with it because we see that all the time. And um it causes problems, right? Outpast 20 yards, like, oh, I got a bullet hole here. But the further the distance gets, the worse that arrow drifts one way or the other. Um, so don't do that. If you don't know how to set the bow up or tune the bow correctly, I would highly encourage you to go to a shop to do it with a professional. Look up reviews, find a good one. It'll just make your life that much better. Because as most of you guys know, if if you shoot bows or shot bows long enough, if the bow can't, if the arrow doesn't fly good with the field point, it's definitely not going to fly good with a broadhead. So that's why it's critical the bow is set up out of the gate correctly, flying true with a field point. It's set up and tuned as it like it should be, flying, getting true, good arrow flight. And then when you get a broad head strapped on there, you can make those little adjustments if you need to within your arrow rest typically. So be cautious with that, guys. I know a lot of people want to do their own their own tuning and um and stuff. And if you don't, you don't do it enough, it can become difficult. There's a ton of great resources out there. So um look into them, but understand the process to setting a bow up and how it should be set up correctly so that you're not making these mistakes that are going to negatively impact you come hunting season when you put that broadhead on there, or when you decide to step back and shoot those far distances and the bows or arrows are just all over the place. Um, there's a process to this, and you need to follow that process. Uh, so just another critical point in setting a bow up. Um, and you know, you know, the big question, you know, with this stuff, right, is like how do shops get it wrong? Like, and and it does happen, right? Um, a lot of times it has to do with time, pressure, high volume of people running through, inexperienced techs, um, and or not watching shooters form, right? Because if you come in and you tell me that you're a 28-inch draw length, I'm gonna say, okay, cool, and then I'm gonna get a measurement on you. Or I'll set it up at 28 and we'll assess you, right? And that's the big thing. That's where the advantage of having a good tech is, is they can assess you in this. Like you may have been shooting, this happened to me. You may have been shooting 28 inches your whole life, and then you go to a good shop and they're like, man, you're just set up wrong. And you're like, but it feels right. And it's like, hold on, let me do this adjustment. And then you're like, wow, that feels way better. And you would have never known, right? That's why it's great to have somebody assess you and walk you through the process to help you with that, right? From your shop process to the setup of your bow, uh, having somebody else, another set of eyes on you, can key in onto those things where they're like, oh man, yeah, if we make a half adjustment in your in your draw length, and you're gonna be fit better. Or hey, you're anchoring incorrectly, right? You're too far back or you're too down low on your chin. You need to be here. And then, okay, now we need to make the adjustment in the peep site. And all of a sudden it feels more natural. It's easier to shoot the bow. Your shoulders don't hurt. Um, and oh, all of a sudden now I've got more yardage out of my uh bow site because my peep height, I wasn't crunching my head. So there's just a lot of little things um to consider, a lot of variables when it comes to setting a bow up. And I know this is kind of a rant, uh, but there's just a lot to consider. Um, and the best way to do this is really go through a checklist, in my opinion. Uh, we have them in the shop, right? Like the step-by-step process of what you need to go through and check. And um, draw length, draw weight, anchor, peep height, tuning the bow, center shotting the bow, all those things, we kind of go, we we work through that process. So by the time everything's all said and done, you understand why we went through the process, what each aspect of the process entailed, why it was important. And now when you move over to shooting the bow, you understand it, right? Because again, if the bow is set up perfectly and it's shooting as it should, and you just have poor former technique, the bow still isn't gonna shoot good. You need someone to help you with that. And that's typically what a good archery shop is gonna do. They're gonna teach you, walk you through the process of why they're setting up because you're gonna be right there watching them. And then they're gonna take you on the range, help you get it sighted in and show you the basic fundamentals, right? It's not a full one-on-one most of the time, but it is a great starting point where you can say, hey, this is critical. This is how you anchor, this is how you execute a shot, this is how you grip the bow, right? That's another massive aspect of it that we see with people with new shooters is death gripping the riser. They don't grip the bow correctly. So they squeeze the riser, and then you look up at the string, and the string's halfway off the track, and you know, it's just it causes poor arrow flight. There's so many variables that are into a that you put into a bow that if any one of them is wrong or off, it's gonna impact the bow in the flight of the arrow negatively. So take your time with it, go through it step by step, or seek out a good shop, or a friend who's done this, and I would say be cautious there. There's a lot of people that think they're better than what they are. Somebody who has a lot of experience when it comes to setting up bows to walk you through the process and just watch you, right? Because you, if you come in our shop and you're like, hey, something feels off, one of the first things we're gonna do is say, All right, step back here, draw the bow back. Cool. Your draw length's too long, your draw length's too short, your anchor is off, you're scrunching your head with your peep sight, your arm is crunched up. We can dissect those issues and then correct them. And then all of a sudden you're like, wow, this is way more fun now because I'm shooting a bow correctly. So uh a lot of things um to consider. And uh, one of the hard truths for a lot of people is accepting that the bow is set up correctly and you're the problem. We've all been there. Right? I go through it sometimes. I'm like, oh, my bow just feels off. And it's just me. I just haven't spent enough time behind the riser, right? Torque in the bow, grip pressure, inconsistent anchor, punching the trigger, all of those things can cause a great shooting bow to not shoot so great. So the shop may have done everything right, and you might just be the issue. So take that into consideration. Hunt humble yourself enough to know that as well. Um, if you've got a well-respected shop, you know, they probably did you a good job and you're just the problem. It happens to me. So happens to the best of us. All things to consider though, um a good setup does make proper form that much easier uh and amplifies good form. And while a bad setup will also amplify bad form, right? If it's the bow just feels like it, like I'll give you a prime example. If the bow is not in time, right? You draw the bow back and it feels really jumpy. Like some bows are like that, some of your more inexpensive bows, but where it just feels like there's no valley at all, the bow may be out of time, right? So the cams aren't hitting in sync. So the bow wants to run away from you. Um, so again, a lot of a lot of moving parts, but all things you need to look at and consider whenever getting a bow set up. Um, and I would highly encourage most people to learn these things because it helps you dissect issues with your bow. So you don't feel like you constantly need to go to the bow shop for little it for little issues, right? Where you could fix them yourself. Um, whether it's a center shot issue, maybe because you've got the equipment to do it, you know the bow is out of time. And it helps the expedite your process in the shop too, because if you go in and you don't have the equipment, you're like, hey, my bow is out of time. And they're like, Oh, let me put on the drawboard and check. And they're like, Yep, you're right. Everything else is good. You're back out the door, you're not spending a bunch of time waiting in the shop having to dissect problem by problem. Um, so again, I highly encourage people to uh learn how to work on their bows. There's a lot of gatekeeping, I think. Um, but in my opinion, I took it upon myself to learn it, and that's how I ended up starting a shop. Um, not everyone wants to go to that level, uh, but it's it's a good skill. It's a fun skill, in my uh opinion, and it just makes you more confident with your equipment. I'm not saying you you have to learn everything, but I would say there are some basic things you should understand with your bow, you know, and your shooting process that just makes it that much more fun, especially if you're gonna invest in it heavily. Why not spend a little bit more time, learn a little bit more about it, and be open-minded. I personally believe in the take of being a student of the game indefinitely. I always am. I always feel like I'm constantly learning. My texts are much better than I am, right? And I'm constantly learning from them guys and everybody. Um, I enjoy watching and learning from people uh and and trying it out, and maybe it works for me, maybe it doesn't. Um, but I'm a firm believer you can always learn something from somebody. Um, so that's why I'm big on sharing what I have learned and the educational shot side with you guys. You may not agree with everything, but these are just my experiences and I like to pass them along. So again, that's it, man. Make sure you guys take ownership of your problems, right? If you are the problem, take ownership, accept it, accept that, learn to be a better shooter, right? If the bow isn't set up correctly, take it back to the shop or take it to a new shop or invest the time to learn to set it up yourself. If you guys ever have questions, we would be happy to help you out and answer any of those questions that we possibly can. But just, you know, Archery's a journey, man. It takes time. There's a lot of years that go into it to constantly become better, be more proficient with it, and you will always learn something and learn something new. These bows are constantly evolving. They are machines and they can be absolutely shot accurately out to some serious distance, and it is a ton of fun. But that only happens if you and your bow are in tune together, if the bow is set up correctly, and you are, as an archer, are somewhat proficient. You don't have to be a professional archer, um, but you are able to work through a shot process and shoot that bow accurately and consistently. So that's it, guys. I appreciate you guys always listening. That was my rant for the day. I just wanted to carry on from last week about you know good shop versus bad shop. And I just want to kind of key in on some areas that we see where people are weak or constant issues that we see with the setup process and the fundamentals for shooting the bow. Um, and again, become a student of the archery game, man. It's fun, it's it's a blast. And you don't necessarily need to outsource all of your understanding, right? Take some of it, take the time to learn some of it. I know you guys who are uh true archery enthusiasts do, but if you're new to it, I would encourage you to brush up on um some of the basic fundamentals and skills, be able to apply them yourself so you can dissect issues yourself. Um, yeah, that's it, guys. Once again, I appreciate you guys. I got to get back to work. If you've got questions, drop some comments, give us some feedback, let us know what are common issues that you see or what are issues that you're having, and maybe we can help you out. Um, or maybe somebody else in the comment section can help you out. So, again, I really appreciate you guys. I hope you guys enjoyed this episode, and we will see you guys in the next episode of the Archery Project. Thanks, guys.