Quiver Strap

The weather when I got out of work this afternoon was absolutely gorgeous, so I took myself to the range for some solo practice. Now that I've got breathing consistency down as a habit rather than something I have to consciously focus on, I wanted to try paying attention to other variables in my shooting--especially my draw, and my release.

Draw wound up being the main focus today.

I have an inexpensive back quiver that I bought at Pennsic more than a decade ago. It's got a single strap, and it doesn't stay in place very well. For years I've toyed with the notion of adding a second strap to help anchor it in place, but I never actually did it--the slipping was inconvenient in that it made it harder to reach my arrows, but I didn't think it actually affected anything besides my speed round. I'd just adjust it back into place when it slipped too far, and keep shooting.

Well.

Because I was focusing on draw specifically, I noticed that the slipping DOES affect things. At full draw, my string rests against the right side of my chest in a particular spot. However, as the quiver strap slips, it gets in the way. This either causes me to underdraw (because I stop when the string hits the strap, rather than my chest), or to draw at a weird angle (to go around the strap). The results became glaringly obvious as I did a few comparison ends:

Six arrows at twenty yards.
In the photo on the left, I did not adjust the quiver strap at all and let it slip wherever it went as it moved when I shot. The low shots were my last arrows--a product of a shorter draw, because the strap was in the way. In the photo on the right, I adjusted it after every two shots, putting it back into its original position. While there was still some vertical variation, it was a much tighter grouping. The variation may have something to do with my release, or it may yet be related to some other issue with my draw--I'll keep focusing on that over my next couple of practices to see if any other explanations become apparent.

The variation caused by the strap became even more noticeable when I fired twelve arrows. When I did so without adjusting, my shots landed all over the place--and one missed entirely. The vertical variation was again because of the shortened draw. I believe the horizontal variation occurred when the strap slipped even further and I began to draw around it, so the string once again touched my chest, but in a different place. When I adjusted the strap after every two shots, the grouping again improved dramatically and my arrows were all within the blue rings or better.

Having to adjust every two shots is, of course, not an ideal situation--especially for timed ends. I may have to revisit the notion of adding a second strap to my quiver. Or, maybe I should pick up a hip quiver and experiment with that.

Or I could just master the technique of holding all my arrows in my bow hand, and do without a quiver entirely. 😆