# FITA Stabilizer Setup



## grantmac (May 31, 2007)

Out of curiosity why would you not be interested in the primary function of the stabilizer set-up?

-Grant


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## Warbow (Apr 18, 2006)

grantmac said:


> Out of curiosity why would you not be interested in the primary function of the stabilizer set-up?
> 
> -Grant


Is inertial stabilization during aiming the primary function? Or anti-torque during the shot? :dontknow:


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## caspian (Jan 13, 2009)

the arrow takes a few fractions of a second to go from loose to breaking free of the string and entering free flight.

stabilisers will help damp any motion during this period, but I suspect the effect is very small indeed compared to the one of helping the archer orient the bow correctly so the arrow will hit the desired mark in the first place.


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## theminoritydude (Feb 11, 2013)

I suppose claims of aiming stability can be backed up by some mathematical examples? Maybe not mathematical, but with some sort of a model? 

Because if that were true, Ki Bo Bae would have shot a very different score in Antalya that year.....


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## Joe T (Apr 5, 2003)

caspian said:


> the arrow takes a few fractions of a second to go from loose to breaking free of the string and entering free flight.


A high velocity bullet will only interact with a sheet of glass for a very short period of time.....
A spark in an explosive atmosphere will only have a very short time duration......

There was a thread here recently about how stabilizers will affect the tuning of a bow, again underlining that "short time" is a red herring as regards bow/arrow reaction.

As for aiming stability, this is why archers run up and down mountains with a rucksack full of stabilizers on their backs.... 

Being serious if you want to know how to set up a stabilizer system just take at look at the setups used by the six Koreans winning all the medals at the Vegas WC final last week.


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## leschrader (Jun 26, 2012)

Here is a good read on Recurve Stabilization.......

http://tenzone.org.uk/Equipment/stabilisation/pdfs/stab4a4.pdf


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## Houngan (Oct 19, 2007)

I'm about to plunge into the V-bar world, having only used a long rod so far. Is there any rough guide for sizes, such as a 6'2" guy with a 29" draw at 43# should get a bar roughly X length or X weight? Or is it all just feel of the individual? Also, is there a good-enough V-bar that everyone recommends? What's the Toyota Camry of stabilizer setups?


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## Kendric_Hubbard (Feb 5, 2015)

Thanks, my main concern is reducing out of plane motion of the bow as the arrow is leaving the bow


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## theminoritydude (Feb 11, 2013)

Houngan said:


> I'm about to plunge into the V-bar world, having only used a long rod so far. Is there any rough guide for sizes, such as a 6'2" guy with a 29" draw at 43# should get a bar roughly X length or X weight? Or is it all just feel of the individual? Also, is there a good-enough V-bar that everyone recommends? What's the Toyota Camry of stabilizer setups?


Where do you reside?


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## Houngan (Oct 19, 2007)

theminoritydude said:


> Where do you reside?


Ha, that's the question, isn't it? Louisville. South of FITA land, and the only coach/recurve shooter in the city besides me has gone dark, so I have no opportunity to test equipment or try someone's setup. Or even make it to any matches unless I drive 2-3 hours.


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## theminoritydude (Feb 11, 2013)

Kendric_Hubbard said:


> Thanks, my main concern is reducing out of plane motion of the bow as the arrow is leaving the bow


http://www.archerytalk.com/vb/showthread.php?t=2377901


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## theminoritydude (Feb 11, 2013)

Houngan said:


> Ha, that's the question, isn't it? Louisville. South of FITA land, and the only coach/recurve shooter in the city besides me has gone dark, so I have no opportunity to test equipment or try someone's setup. Or even make it to any matches unless I drive 2-3 hours.


Are the equipment available to you predominantly North American made? Because if that is the case then there is very little that I could do for you. Most of the stuff we use here are Korean, with the exception of Hoyt.


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## Houngan (Oct 19, 2007)

theminoritydude said:


> Are the equipment available to you predominantly North American made? Because if that is the case then there is very little that I could do for you. Most of the stuff we use here are Korean, with the exception of Hoyt.


I have everything available to me from Lancaster, but obviously it gets expensive to return things that don't work. My riser is W&W, but just general "front rod X inches with Y weight is typical" would help.


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## theminoritydude (Feb 11, 2013)

Houngan said:


> I have everything available to me from Lancaster, but obviously it gets expensive to return things that don't work. My riser is W&W, but just general "front rod X inches with Y weight is typical" would help.


Sounds a little like one of my wife's student's measurements. He uses a 28 inch HMC plus + 8oz with 11 inch side rods + 3oz, 45 deg flat Vbar, 6 inch extender, Fivics top stabs, on a CXT and Wiawis limbs. He just shot 340 a week ago.


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## Kim Jong Skill (Dec 19, 2014)

Houngan said:


> I have everything available to me from Lancaster, but obviously it gets expensive to return things that don't work. My riser is W&W, but just general "front rod X inches with Y weight is typical" would help.


I typically see front stabs ~30inches some people go just under if you're planning on getting an extender (moves the center of mass forward so you don't need as much weight on the front rod). Typical side rods are around 12 inches. The real trade off between length is you can get away with using less weight for the same effect (given you have a reasonable length already). As for weights I would just use the default and maybe buy a handful of weights to play around with. In theory though you should use as much weight as you can comfortably hold for a long period of time. That being said, obviously it doesn't matter as much since many of the Korean's last weekend weren't using the 10oz+ that Brady and Oh-Jin typically use.


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## Ten_Zen (Dec 5, 2010)

Houngan said:


> I have everything available to me from Lancaster, but obviously it gets expensive to return things that don't work. My riser is W&W, but just general "front rod X inches with Y weight is typical" would help.


For a starting off, avg build guy, looking for a reliable standard, I recommend the following:

W&W HMC 22 or HMC Plus, or doinker Advancee (or alumi comp), using whatever weights you like (I use mostly Doinker 421 weights as my end caps, with rubber and stainless fender washers in the middle). There are different philosophies as to how to set up your stabs. MOST people like a very forward heavy setup (more torque on the front end, strong roll on follow through, common Korean setup), in which case I would recommend a 30" long bar with 10-12" side bars and a 5" extender (with an optional top limb supressor). Personally I prefer a more balanced setup (like many top american archers such as Brady and Jake, the center of mass is close to the riser, and rather than rolling, the bow "bows" slowly after the shot). This setup uses 15" side bars, a 34" long bar with little or no extension (optional top limb supressor okay). The weights should be about 2 to 1 back to front (each side rod has about as much weight as the front rod). Hope that helps!


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## Stick & String (Feb 1, 2003)

As a novice to Olympic Recurve setups. What is the purpose of the (2) v-bars? Is it to balance the weight of the extended sight and long stabilizer?


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## MJAnderson68 (Nov 15, 2013)

This is almost identical to mine, with the exception I have 30" stabilizer and 3" extension. A little extra weight on the left side to offset the weight of the sight and I added weight to the front as I had a small pop up at the end of my shots that disappeared with an extra 4oz.



Ten_Zen said:


> For a starting off, avg build guy, looking for a reliable standard, I recommend the following:
> 
> W&W HMC 22 or HMC Plus, or doinker Advancee (or alumi comp), using whatever weights you like (I use mostly Doinker 421 weights as my end caps, with rubber and stainless fender washers in the middle). There are different philosophies as to how to set up your stabs. MOST people like a very forward heavy setup (more torque on the front end, strong roll on follow through, common Korean setup), in which case I would recommend a 30" long bar with 10-12" side bars and a 5" extender (with an optional top limb supressor). Personally I prefer a more balanced setup (like many top american archers such as Brady and Jake, the center of mass is close to the riser, and rather than rolling, the bow "bows" slowly after the shot). This setup uses 15" side bars, a 34" long bar with little or no extension (optional top limb supressor okay). The weights should be about 2 to 1 back to front (each side rod has about as much weight as the front rod). Hope that helps!


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## Houngan (Oct 19, 2007)

Thanks for so much good information, everyone. I don't exactly understand what stabilizers do at this point, but I know my bow rocks backwards with my single rod, so i'll get it in balance and then start playing it forward.


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## trajanbeil (Mar 30, 2014)

Any advice for someone who is much shorter and smaller? Like 5' 4" with a 26" draw length and 22.5 lbs draw weight? I'm currently using a cheap 28" long rod with two weights on the end (not sure how much they weigh) that make it 29" for total length. Not sure if something like a 30" long rod with extension and then 12" side rods would just be too unwieldy for someone my size.

I was trying to spy on the Koreans' stabilizer setups but I'm unable to tell what they are from just a glance...


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## theminoritydude (Feb 11, 2013)

trajanbeil said:


> Any advice for someone who is much shorter and smaller? Like 5' 4" with a 26" draw length and 22.5 lbs draw weight? I'm currently using a cheap 28" long rod with two weights on the end (not sure how much they weigh) that make it 29" for total length. Not sure if something like a 30" long rod with extension and then 12" side rods would just be too unwieldy for someone my size.
> 
> I was trying to spy on the Koreans' stabilizer setups but I'm unable to tell what they are from just a glance...


We had one case like yours, just that she's was shorter, had a draw of 24"(or less...), also maxed out at 22lbs. I removed her original grip from her 23" CXT and fashioned a grip for her that effectively extended her draw by 1.5", put her brace height at 7", 12 strand Angel Majesty, X10 820 shaft with tungsten 100gr points, short limbs. To balance the bow, we used a single 26" HMC plus, used an SF axiom junior sight to reduce the weight on top.

One of the competitors called foul on us after our girl defeated one of his girls in an elimination round. But he couldn't explain which rule we had broken. This was at 30m.

Since then we had returned her to something more conventional, she's now working towards her goal of 50m. Despite that, she's still unable to wield a setup with a pair of side rods that would balance her bow in a way that stabilized her shots. She's on a special diet to increase her physical strength.

The way I see it, getting to a Korean setup is not your priority. I could give you the exact specifications anytime for archers like Chang Hye Jin or Kim Yu Mi or Kim Min Jung, but it would be useless to you as it would not perform on you as it does on their anatomy. It just won't match.


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## mahgnillig (Aug 3, 2014)

Trajanbeil, check out my thread about looking for a lightweight stabiliser setup from a week or so ago. I'm slightly smaller than you and find a 34" overall length with 12" side rods to be unwieldy and too heavy. There were some great suggestions in that thread of what to look for. I'm working my way up to dealing with the extra weight and will be getting a W&W setup as recommended in that thread.


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## Ten_Zen (Dec 5, 2010)

Stick & String said:


> As a novice to Olympic Recurve setups. What is the purpose of the (2) v-bars? Is it to balance the weight of the extended sight and long stabilizer?


The v bars help stabilize motion in the roll axis (holding the bow vertical, this is the axis that runs along the long bar). Like the long bar, they simply make it harder to rotate the bow, just in a different plane of motion.


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## limbwalker (Sep 26, 2003)

> Being serious if you want to know how to set up a stabilizer system just take at look at the setups used by the six Koreans winning all the medals at the Vegas WC final last week.


 

Joe gets to the heart of the matter in short order.


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## Ten_Zen (Dec 5, 2010)

Houngan said:


> Thanks for so much good information, everyone. I don't exactly understand what stabilizers do at this point, but I know my bow rocks backwards with my single rod, so i'll get it in balance and then start playing it forward.


If the bow "pops up" before it rolls that could be a technique issue. I know sometimes I will unintentionally shift my pressure on the grip to the bottom of my hand just before release, which causes the bow to jump slightly upward before it rolls. This usually happens when I let my sight go beneath the mark at full draw. This breaks my sequence and I attempt to correct the low sight placement by shifting my grip pressure to the bottom of my hand. I am not sure what technique you use, but if you approach the target from the top down like most people, I would look into this.


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## theminoritydude (Feb 11, 2013)

Houngan said:


> Thanks for so much good information, everyone. I don't exactly understand what stabilizers do at this point, but I know my bow rocks backwards with my single rod, so i'll get it in balance and then start playing it forward.


Add weight to the bottom of your riser until the centre of mass of your bow is at the same level with your wrist, the part that is at the base of your palm, right before the thumb. That will stop the backwards roll.


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