Drying Feathers

Now that we are in the outdoor season there is an opportunity to shoot in all kinds of weather. Weather itself effects the way we shoot, and you can read my earlier blog about different weather conditions and their effects on shooting. As competitive archers, we love our equipment. We have invested time, money, and countless hours in finding the perfect setup for us. So,once the tournament is complete we need to care for our equipment. We need to have our equipment in perfect condition for the next tournament.

Perfect shooting conditions rarely require additional maintenance, however not all tournaments are shot in ideal conditions and rain has the potential to do the most damage if not dealt with immediately since metal rusts, wood warps and fletching matte.

Once out of the weather, take the time to properly and thoroughly dry all your equipment. Using a clean dry cloth, wipe down your limbs, riser and stabilizer. Carefully dry your sight making sure not to lose your sight marks or damage your scope. If you use a spotting scope or binoculars make sure no water has damaged or fogged up the lens.

Finally, carefully dry your arrows by wiping the shafts dry. Plastic Vanes can be dried using a clean dry cloth however feather fletchings will need to be air dried so that are not squished. If your fletchings, plastic or feather, are matted, you need to open them up again and allow them to air dry by following the following guide:

How to dry your feathers

You will need: your arrows, a pot, water, and an oven/stove

  • Fill a pot with water and bring to a boil
  • Hold each arrow’s fletching over the steam
  • Patiently wait for the fletching to start to open up. Remember the fletchings will open the rest of the way as they dry.
  • Place the arrow in a clean dry spot with the points facing down until dry.
  • Repeat for all your arrows and turn off the stove.

Taking the time after a rainy tournament to attend to your equipment, can save you money and grief.

For the Love of the Game

“Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing” is a well-known sports quote however winning is NOT everything!

Sports have the perception of big money so there are lots of different pressures to succeed. It is very common for any athlete to feel stressed which can come from thinking you need to be the absolute best and win every time. Sometimes young athletes continue within their sport, bottling up the stress and feelings to the point they break-down mentally or collapse physically and end up dropping out of the sport hating it. You can feel resentment towards your sport by being forced to compete.

The reality is, only a couple of sports produce big money contracts and then only a couple of athletes ever make the big bucks. Archery is not a big bucks sport and you need to do it for the love of the sport itself and not the thought of some large paycheck.

Whenever you start to feel pressure, resentment or giving it up completely, stop and try to remember what you loved about the sport in the first place. You may want to take a short break to regain your passion again. Archery is a sport for life and that can be a long time to be miserable.