Insert Tab A into Slot B

Mybo flames burn upwards

You've arrived at the club and there's excitement to get shooting but exasperation that you need to set up your bow first. You put your bow together quickly, get onto the line to shoot but there's that nagging thought that something is wrong.

What could it be ... ?

Putting their bow together becomes such an automatic thing with archers that you'll see them gossiping while apparently paying no attention to what their hands are doing. This is something of a "familiarity breeds contempt" scenario and can lead to bijou kit slips that results in sniggers, sighs and occasionally explosive reconstruction. Lets look over the most common issues:

A pretty common issue is putting your limbs on upside down. Top limb on the bottom. Bottom limb on the top. Invariably you will have got pretty far along in the build process when you notice so this one is exasperating. Once this was a disaster as your bow's tillering would be wildly out but these days there are tales of people shooting PB's and getting wins in competitions with the bow kinda upside down. Still, lets not add any more problems to your shootie. Check those limbs before you string the bow!
To resolve any issues ... Quite often the graphic on the lower limb faces you while the top limb graphic faces away. This helps out barebow shooters as they are not allowed things on the riser or limbs that can be used as an aiming mark but not all manufacturers follow this rule.
On Merlin's MYBO limbs, the flames always burn upwards.
And if all else fails, check the limb draw weight sticker ... it sometimes tells you which limb it is.

A little more dangerous is not seating your limbs correctly into the limb pockets. Here, we're not talking about that horrible sounding first shot as your limbs seat themselves .. assuming you forgot to twang the string after stringing. What we mean here is the total failure to seat the limb pocket bolts into their limb pockets. This results in the bolt and therefore that limb not being restrained. Result, first shot, the forces in the bow will literally throw that limb down range and there will be a stunned silence behind the line ... followed by some pretty full on mocking. The bolt shown in the picture to the right isn't seated into the riser and is sitting on top of where it need to be. ALWAYS make sure your limbs are correctly clipped in place.

Then there's the ever popular putting your string on the wrong way round. This will result in your nock point being horribly out of place. Usually the best way to remember is the big loop on the string goes at the top and will be the one you move while stringing. At least assuming it isn't a custom string and your string-maker was too busy watching the tv when he should have been concentrating on which way up your string was on the jig! Check where the nock point is on the central serving if unsure which way up it is ... nock point will be nearer the top.

Once you've got to this point it should be plain sailing ... except from here on its forgetting things.

The button is the favourite thing to forget. Many experienced archers never remove the button but when they do, they can and do forget to put it back. This will result in the arrow heading off in random directions when released.
Next its forgetting the sight. Getting to line, drawing up the bow and wondering where your pin went is something of a sobering moment and probably how half of the barebow community got their start! ... "Meh, cant be bothered getting my sight, I'll just shoot like this"
Then its a swarm of things .... Forgetting your quiver. Realize you haven't put on your bracer. Where is my finger/wrist sling? Tab? Glasses might figure in there as well if you wear them. And just when you've finally got onto the line and are set to shoot ..... there's no arrows in your quiver! AAAAAAHHHHHH!

So pay attention to what you're doing. Get everything sorted and chill out doood. You might miss an end taking your time but you'll hit the line calm and ready to go with all the bits you need to shoot ... Because a frustrated archer is a less than accurate archer and we all know how that ends!