Primitive Archer

Main Discussion Area => Shooting and Hunting => Topic started by: Black Moshannon on November 17, 2022, 09:32:36 am

Title: Fixed crawl shooting breakthrough
Post by: Black Moshannon on November 17, 2022, 09:32:36 am
Hi all, it may seem dramatic to call it a breakthrough but what else can I say. After watching the Push on YouTube and listening to the podcast for some time I still had refused to break down and do a fixed crawl because I heard a variety of concerns with selfbows and was not sure how I could apply it to a more primitive application but today all that changed. I set up one of my bows as an experiment with middle finger roughy pulling just at balance point of bow center with a fixed crawl setup at 22 yards. I first locked a ninety degree nock point in with another tie on nock point made of waxed linen. This was my biggest concern, that the arrow wouldn’t be held securely. But with my nocks already cut to clip on for my three under shooting they clipped and locked right in with the second nock point underneath. Then I played with How far down to crawl and ended up with roughly 5/8 below and a point on of 22 yards. This is so short down from the arrow that the lower nock point was just continued down into one large wrap to 5/8 below where my tab contacts against it. Feels very safe and secure. Then all the rest was shooting as per usual, with my paying attention to the important details of the shot cycle. Anchor was the same, all the same. I was stunned to see the results, the shot felt entirely different. It seemed like the arrow was releasing so much cleaner off the string. Minor windage errors cleaned right up. And the gap is the really exciting part. My maximum gap is 10 inches at 12 yards. At five to ten yards the gap is like five inches. At fifteen yards the gap is around 8 inches and gets smaller again going back to 22 yards. So aiming now is so easy it feels like I’m cheating. I just put the point right below the target, run the shot with discipline and bam, I’m in. Only complaint is it seems the shot is a little noisy. I’ll deal with it, the payoff is going to be huge. Just had to throw this post out here. Will see where it goes from here.
Title: Re: Fixed crawl shooting breakthrough
Post by: Black Moshannon on November 17, 2022, 10:04:43 am
Just as a point of interest related to this I have also changed up my gear to match the style I am shooting in as far as I am now building 66-68” ASL style bows with stable cut close to center rigid grips. I just finished a hickory and yesterday another elm one. Again making shooting much easier than my formerly shorter working handle and very unstable little bows which I either used for firewood or selling if they were halfway decent. Moving on to doing only what works trying to make “stylistic” stuff was not cutting it 
Title: Re: Fixed crawl shooting breakthrough
Post by: StickMark on November 17, 2022, 08:28:30 pm
Regarding historical styles versus not exactly historical styles, I see your point.
Each state and area has its own regulations.  Driving back to the Ozarks, I kept seeing places in the plains and prairies to set up a close ambush. In Utah this fall, saw dozens upon dozens of pronghorns feeding in the fields and right up to the stacked round bales. A brush blind or Haybale Blind and I might bring a shorty sinew bow.

Yet, stacking arrows is a nice feeling, and I enjoyed reading your journey.
Title: Re: Fixed crawl shooting breakthrough
Post by: Allyn T on November 17, 2022, 09:08:30 pm
I have no idea what fixed crawl means
Title: Re: Fixed crawl shooting breakthrough
Post by: Black Moshannon on November 17, 2022, 10:11:26 pm
Regarding historical styles versus not exactly historical styles, I see your point.
Each state and area has its own regulations.  Driving back to the Ozarks, I kept seeing places in the plains and prairies to set up a close ambush. In Utah this fall, saw dozens upon dozens of pronghorns feeding in the fields and right up to the stacked round bales. A brush blind or Haybale Blind and I might bring a shorty sinew bow.

Yet, stacking arrows is a nice feeling, and I enjoyed reading your journey.

I hear you on that close ambush, that’s my dream goal. I’m getting rid of treestand I just bought cause shooting out of it I just couldn’t get the angle right and I was going to impinge my shoulder again. It’s ground hunting or nothing for me. Just read G Fred Asbell ground hunter Bible. Love it.
Title: Re: Fixed crawl shooting breakthrough
Post by: Black Moshannon on November 17, 2022, 10:52:54 pm
I have no idea what fixed crawl means

It’s something for nerds of archery. Basically goes like this. Instead of hooking the string directly where the arrow nocks you “crawl” down the string below the arrow to some degree. What this does is basically allows you to set your own impact point.  As you “crawl” down the string, you are pitching the arrow more downward, with the nock end coming up towards your eye, so the further you crawl down the more the nock end comes up in line with your eye so you are sighting down it more directly. You anchor in the same spot on your face every time.  So how far you crawl has to do with how low your anchor point is, and your facial shape, because what matters is the distance between your eye and the arrow nock. The further below your eye the nock is, the more the arrow is pitched upward and the bigger of an arc you will be dealing with. So the lower you anchor, the further out your point on is.  You have the basic understanding that the arrow rises and falls in an arc and you have a point on impact distance where when you aim the arrow directly in center of target spot, you impact there. In between that distance and the target you would have to aim somewhere below target as the arrow will rise into the target due to the pitch of the arrow. That’s gap shooting, having to hold off the target somewhere below. Obviously beyond your point on distance you’re aiming above the target. So with using a crawl, or stringwalking as they say, basically what you are doing is for any given distance you crawl down the string to some degree which reduces the pitch of the arrow and eliminates having to aim below the target and instead, you aim right in the center every time.  And these stringwalkers mark up their tabs so they have marks for different distances and they just check the distance to the target, set their hook so far below the arrow nock, and make the shot. Each shot is aimed directly on target, although some set it to be aimed just below because it’s mentally tough to make a shot which the sight totally blocks the target and you want the target in your sight picture.  The further down you crawl, the more the arrow is pitched downward and the closer your point on becomes, and vice versa. This is good for field archery and 3D where there’s no rush to make the shot and you can figure out the distance or you know the distance. It’s not good for hunting especially with an animal rapidly closing the distance coming in to you so these guys have come up with the fixed crawl for hunting. It blends gap shooting and string walking like so: you set up a point on distance of your choosing by crawling down the string a certain distance. So say you want a 25 yard fixed crawl, you might set your hook 1/2 inch below the bottom nock below the arrow. So now you mark that point on the string by setting a THIRD nock point there under which you hook when you draw the bow. Now you have a permanent 25 yard point on. In between that distance and the target, and then further out, you will aim above or below target (gap shooting). The big benefit of this is that your gaps are quite small now as compared to hooking the string right under the arrow. In fact with the right weight arrow and fixed crawl setup you can literally have your gaps so small that you are aiming merely a few inches below the impact point at common hunting distances. For me, I have a pretty long neck and I have to anchor fairly low on my face to keep my shoulders low and keep the load of the bow in my back. This means that the fixed crawl really solved the issue of the arrow pitch. Some guys have a short neck and can anchor with arrow literally right under eye and with that plus a really heavy arrow you could get your gaps pretty small and maybe not have to bother will all this stuff. The main thing that this all revolves around is this notion of being able to aim the arrow either right on or very close on the target. It’s way easier and far more accurate. Having a big gap with the arrow aimed way below target is detrimental to accuracy. And I also like to fool around with waxed string tie on nock points, leather tabs, and all this fussy stuff and getting a rig together that does what I need it to on target
Title: Re: Fixed crawl shooting breakthrough
Post by: GlisGlis on November 18, 2022, 04:56:49 am
thankyou Kenneth
watched "the push". Very well done!
Title: Re: Fixed crawl shooting breakthrough
Post by: Allyn T on November 18, 2022, 06:33:58 am
That was a great explanation thank you. I'm glad you found something that works well for you
Title: Re: Fixed crawl shooting breakthrough
Post by: bradsmith2010 on November 18, 2022, 04:27:29 pm
congrats on your shooting, I have never tried that,, glad it working for you
Title: Re: Fixed crawl shooting breakthrough
Post by: Black Moshannon on November 19, 2022, 01:42:09 am
Appreciate the replies. Setting up another bow tomorrow to shoot this. The first bow is loud with this method. I might have to do wool string quieters. My bows not going to be fast enough to beat the sound. Still having to experiment with exactly the best placement for a balanced draw but that’s the fun of it all