Tillering For Fixed Crawl

[WoodBenderDW]

Has anybody ever set up their selfbow  (or sinew backed bow) to shoot with a fixed crawl. If so, what did you do differently when setting it up or when tillering?

[upstatenybowyer]

Not sure what a "fixed crawl" is. 

[burchett.donald]

  Fixed Crawl is a shooting technique...If you are going to shoot this way, pulling from below 90 degrees, I would pull from there on my tillering tree to achieve some balance...I have walked strings way down at times and it caused lots of vibration and noise due to limb timing....I shoot 3 under and tiller from my finger contact point with the pull rope...I would recommend tillering for your Gap Shooting-Fixed Crawl below 90 degrees from your shooting hand-finger point...
     The picture below shows a leather strap simulating my fingers below the white nock that is attached to the string...I tiller for my style of shooting...
                                                                               Don                         

[burchett.donald]

  3 under and balanced in hand...

[Del the cat]

Yup, I always say a bow needs to be pulled on the tree in the same way as it will in the hand...
Del

[bradsmith2010]

also ,,, the bow needs to shoot well and that will be obvios as you are tillering the bow,,
make adjustments as needed,, with the way it looks as a starting point ,,, and the way it shoots for your final tiller,,

[Badger]

   I prefer to keep the arrow going back and forth level or close to level with the arrow pass. I sort of compromise here and tiller about where my middle finger goes shooting split finger. The balance of the bow obviously responds to how it is drawn but I don't find the balance forces noticeable if they are close. I know that when you let go of the string the tiller shape instantly goes to the arrow being the pressure point. A perfect tiller when drawn would not necessarily be a perfect tiller during the shot. Like Brad says, how it shoots is really what matters.

[Dances with squirrels]

Very nicely done, Donald. It appears you've got dynamic balance's number there. That bow should shoot quiet, dead in the hand, send an arrow straight away from the onset, and the tiller should remain stable... so long as otherwise, the design and construction allows.

I just did another couple of tests here on the tree with a test bow, since I'm always trying to prove myself wrong.... but didn't 

It showed me yet again that a symmetrical, straight-standing bow... with a neutral grip on the handle, should have its stronger limb on the SAME side of center as the string hand, to achieve balance.... which is contrary to what is usually advocated and shown in practice.

So to address the original poster.... if the bow is straight standing at rest, held in a relaxed neutral fashion, and the fixed crawl is below bow center, the bottom limb should be stronger by some degree. That degree will be determined by fault during tillering by supporting the bow's handle level on the tree and adjusting limb balance, while pulling the string from the string hand's fulcrum, so that the hook on the string comes straight down perpendicular to the shelf, the whole way to full draw.

[burchett.donald]

   Perfectly stated "Dances with Squirrels" Limb balance-timing is what we achieve by good tiller from a given point on the string...I also disagree in the theory that the string goes instantly to the tiller shape and that the arrow is the lone pressure point upon release...Way to much oscillation going on for this to be possible...Attached is a video sample of radical oscillation upon release...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKau3tWWYqQ
                                                                                                                                                Don

[half eye]

well now, that picture is worth a thousand words
rich

[Dances with squirrels]

...and thousands of true arrows. 

[Badger]

  I have seen this debate going on for several years with great shooters and builders on both sides of the camp. One guy said it best I thought when he addressed someone on the opposite side of his camp. He said either you are really good, really lucky or it just doesn't make all that much difference. I can understand tillering for perfect tiller at draw points to protect the tiller, that makes sense. But believing that a bow returns the same way it is drawn doesn't ring true. The point the arrow is holding it back is the tiller shape of a shooting bow, otherwise it wouldn't be delivering the energy to the arrow as the string would be slack.

[PatM]

   Perfectly stated "Dances with Squirrels" Limb balance-timing is what we achieve by good tiller from a given point on the string...I also disagree in the theory that the string goes instantly to the tiller shape and that the arrow is the lone pressure point upon release...Way to much oscillation going on for this to be possible...Attached is a video sample of radical oscillation upon release...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKau3tWWYqQ
                                                                                                                                                Don

  The arrow is gone in those images.

 I do find it funny that people obsess over strike plate thickness and center cut etc. and then shoot off a vibrating clicker.

[willie]

the effect in the video is said to be a distortion caused by the camera shutter.

[Pappy]

  
 Pappy