In my last post I
wrote about the purpose of a clicker and my experiences of when to add one to
your setup. In this post I'll be explaining the different types of clickers and
the pros and cons of each.
Clicker types
There seem to be
three main types of clicker available that I've seen.
• Blade clickers
that screw or stick to the riser.
• Sight block
mounted, magnetic clickers.
• Sight bar
mounted, magnetic clickers.
In my experience
the choice of which clicker to go with has mainly been determined by my arrow
length which at 31.5" has caused some problems. Many people using their
first bow kit will probably have been advised to get arrows an inch or longer
than actually needed until the draw length settles down. This is good advice
and worth sticking to but it can cause an issue with clickers at times.
For me to use a
blade style clicker I have to have the clicker extension plate attached to my
riser and only half the tip of the blade contacts with the extension while the
other half goes beyond it. Recently I had found that some days I could go
through the clicker with ease whilst other days I would really struggle. I
thought that maybe this was a form or tiredness issue. Then one day the true
reason occurred to me. As my clicker stuck out beyond the extension plate, each
time I packed my bow bag in the rucksack the other contents of the bag were
putting pressure on the clicker and moving it back a bit. As I didn't check the
position before each session I assumed all was well. When I realised what was going
on here I was quite embarrassed to say the least. So this meant I'd have to
either cut my arrows down or change to a different clicker type.
Enter the sight
block mounted, magnetic clicker. These clickers have a plate that mounts
underneath your sight block and uses the same screws and screw holes. Some
sight blocks come with screws that are too short for this (Decut 120 for one)
as everything is held on by only one or two threads (3/4 inch ones) so
sometimes some new screws are needed to
counter this (1 inch). For most risers these are the replacement screws you'd
need:
Sometimes a
spring steel blade clicker might not sit perfectly flat against the riser or
extension plate so you may need to give the blade a little bend to get it lie
snugly.
Sight block
mounted, magnetic clickers don't use the riser or clicker extension plate to
'click' against but instead have a block with a magnet that shuts hard when the
arrow point moves past the wire of the clicker. The nice thing here is that
after the 'click' the clicker becomes pretty much invisible behind the riser.
It also means it's easier to see if you've clicked early without having to look down at the tip of the
arrow. These clickers also tend to be a bit louder than the blade style ones
which on a busy shooting line can be helpful to prevent you releasing on your
neighbours clicker. These clickers can also allow a bit more length on an arrow
if, like me, a blade one puts you at the end of the extension plate.
The third type
are the sight bar mounted clickers. These slide onto your sight bar and as a
result can be moved along the bar for positioning. I've not used one of these
myself but can see the benefits for archers with long arrows. But you do need
to bear in mind that these ones are adding a bit more weight forward of your
pivot point, not necessarily a bad thing. But they can also be problematic when
trying to put your sight back into the sight case as they protrude a fair bit.
Other than this they work in the same way as the sight block mounted magnetic
clickers.
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Next time I'll be
looking at the love / hate relationship with clickers, setting the clicker
correctly and how I'm learning to relax through the clicker.
Until then - Good
ends to all!
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Junior Archery Website
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