Broadhead Flight Issue

[jlw0142]

I have been practicing every day for months with my new V3x, which I got last September. I got to where I was shooting a 3-inch group at 60 yards with my field tips. Absolutely crushed a whitetail buck and doe, both at 30 yards, this past season. But, I had to sight my bow in to the broadheads because they were shooting slightly left of my field tips. I am shooting QAD Exodus broadheads, 100 grain. When I shot the deer, I was not practicing out as far as I am now so I did not notice a significant difference in flight and I just resighted. But now, at 60 yards it is really flying way off from my field tips. I adjusted the rest the other day just how it says everywhere I read online to do, but it continued to shoot consistently left. I am not understanding and I am wondering if this has to do with the broadheads? It's just to the point that its ticking me off and making me not want to shoot because I am a perfectionist and this amount of uncertainty is unacceptable, especially with turkey season approaching. If anyone has any advice on what I could do to fix it at home, that would be great. I will eventually take it to the bow shop if I can't get it worked out, but its a bit of a drive from my house. So all suggestions are welcome, thanks.

 

[SDHNTR]

Calm down and take this as an opportunity to learn... Don't get frustrated. This is part of bowhunting.

Usually, when BH groups wont close in with FP groups after rest adjustment it's because of one of a handful things. What I would check in order:
1. are your arrows are spined properly (stiffness) for your setup - tell us what your working with.
2. you may have arrow/vane contact somewhere - take some lipstick and put on the edges of your vanes and fire an arrow. Any marks left anywhere on the bow? The rest or the cables?
3. Is the bow in spec? ATA length and brace height proper? Cams timed proper. If not, take to shop and return everything to spec.
4. Are you shooting off the shelf arrows with straight vanes? You want some helical with fixed broadheads.
5. Grip torque. You need to shoot with a relaxed bow hand that is not inducing torque. I like a low wrist grip.
6. Cam lean. Are the cams to your bow leaning off to the side at full draw. Have someone stand directly behind you and look.
7. Centershot. Rest adjustment is off and arrows are not coming off the bow straight.

Lets start with that list.

 

[Rob5589]

Sounds like you need to do some tuning. I do paper and walk back tuning with my compounds. Many do bare shaft as well.

 

[jlw0142]

Calm down and take this as an opportunity to learn... Don't get frustrated. This is part of bowhunting.

Usually, when BH groups wont close in with FP groups after rest adjustment it's because of one of a handful things. What I would check in order:
1. are your arrows are spined properly (stiffness) for your setup - tell us what your working with.
2. you may have arrow/vane contact somewhere - take some lipstick and put on the edges of your vanes and fire an arrow. Any marks left anywhere on the bow? The rest or the cables?
3. Are you shooting off the shelf arrows with straight vanes? You want some helical with fixed broadheads.
4. Grip torque. You need to shoot with a relaxed bow hand that is not inducing torque. I like a low wrist grip.
5. Cam lean. Are the cams to your bow leaning off to the side at full draw. Have someone stand directly behind you and look.
6. Centershot. Rest adjustment is off and arrows are not coming off the bow straight.

Lets start with that list.

Thanks for that. So, I am shooting just shy of 65 lbs, 26" DL I believe with 350 spine arrows. Full helical on my arrows. I will certainly try the lipstick drill. But yeah, thanks for the feedback man, lots to think about and work on.

 

[bigunit]

Did you move the rest towards the broadheads or towards the field points? There is a pile of misinformation floating around about bow tuning. How far from the riser is your rest?

 

[Mighty Mouse]

The typical fix for broadheads hitting left of field points is to either move the rest to the left or shift the cams to the right. Below is a handy reference chart showing adjustment techniques for various tuning methods:


On your bow, cam shifting is done by swapping the spacers ("top hats") that sit between the cam and limb. Swapping top hats requires a bow press. Ideally you want to put your rest at 13/16" ± 1/16" centershot (distance from inside of riser to center of rest fork/cradle) then tune by adjusting top hats.

 

[jlw0142]

Did you move the rest towards the broadheads or towards the field points? There is a pile of misinformation floating around about bow tuning. How far from the riser is your rest?

I moved the rest toward the field points. I’ll have to get back to you on the riser question, what distance should it be?

 

[bigunit]

I believe its 13/16" for mathews . move it towards the broadheads. A very small amount at a time.

 

[jlw0142]

I believe its 13/16" for mathews . move it towards the broadheads. A very small amount at a time.

Oh okay, thank you. I'll definitely check out that measurement for the riser. The tool in the video I watched said to move it toward the field points, opposite of the broadheads. People really shouldn't be giving advice if they don't know what they're talking about.

 

[bigunit]

It's not exactly an exact science. Different people have different opinions. Dudley says to move fp towards bh and that has never ever worked for me. I get bh flying with fp out to 80 yards. It's difficult and everything has to be perfect. I've always had better luck with mechanicals so that's what I use now but the exodus is a great head.

 

[Zac]

Easiest thing to do is go to your shop. Insist on bare shafting out to 20 if that is possible. They will be able to shim your cams for you. Once your bare shaft, and fletched are hitting the same POI at 20, you can proceed to take your rig home and fine tune it at 60. No need to screw with a bare shaft anymore. Simply shoot enough of a sample size to know where your broadheads are hitting in relationship to your field tips. Then move the rest TOWARDS the broadhead. Like others said, this will be a microscopic movement at 60. Hopefully you have a micro adjustable rest.

 

[Billy Goat]

On that bow you want to set your rest at 13/16", then shim your cams before you make adjustments to the rest. Once you are between top hat sizes (broadheads move from being on the left to on the right of FP's) then you move the rest.


You might have vane clearance issues tho. So make sure you aren't getting contact on the cable guard, I just use foot powder on the vanes.

 

[JNDEER]

Not that this is a cure for bad form or an out of tune bow (even if micro out of tune).

Have you tried other BH? I am not a world class archer, but those QAD did not group well for me and MANY other fixed blades did.

Have you spun the BH on the shaft? If they wobble they won't fly well.

 

[cuttingedge]

I had issues getting the QAD's to fly well out of my "speed" bow. They shot pretty well out of my normal bows.

Are you planning to take shots on live animals at 65 yards? People will hammer me for saying this, but 65 yards is not an ethical shot on whitetail deer. I have been bowhunting those critters for over 4 decades and limit my maximum shot to 35 yards, even with fast bows.

A deer can move so very quickly long shots are risky. I would rather pass on the shot than risk making these magnificent animals suffer a long, miserable death. Ethics are an integral part of hunting. You are taking a life. Respect the game and do everything you can to prevent suffering.

 

[jlw0142]

I had issues getting the QAD's to fly well out of my "speed" bow. They shot pretty well out of my normal bows.

Are you planning to take shots on live animals at 65 yards? People will hammer me for saying this, but 65 yards is not an ethical shot on whitetail deer. I have been bowhunting those critters for over 4 decades and limit my maximum shot to 35 yards, even with fast bows.

A deer can move so very quickly long shots are risky. I would rather pass on the shot than risk making these magnificent animals suffer a long, miserable death. Ethics are an integral part of hunting. You are taking a life. Respect the game and do everything you can to prevent suffering.

I somewhat agree with what you’re saying about ethics and whitetails, but I’m mainly concerned about a desert mule deer hunt I have coming up next season. Plus, accuracy at that distance really matters to me for practice purposes. The more accurate I am from 60+, the easier a 30-40 yard shot is. In addition, I’m bowhunting turkeys this season and just a minuscule flight difference can make a significant difference on something with vitals as small as a turkey’s. But yeah, I respect your opinion on that and I think it’s a good opinion to have!

 

[jlw0142]

Not that this is a cure for bad form or an out of tune bow (even if micro out of tune).

Have you tried other BH? I am not a world class archer, but those QAD did not group well for me and MANY other fixed blades did.

Have you spun the BH on the shaft? If they wobble they won't fly well.

Gotcha. Yeah, I spun them with no issues at the shop when I got them but I should do it again since I’ve had issues. Can you let me know what broadheads you’ve had success with? I have been considering Slick Tricks, but am open to suggestions. Love the exodus and they cut like hell but can’t use the swept blades in Idaho and if I still can’t get them flying right after heeding all this advice, I’m switching.

 

[cuttingedge]

I somewhat agree with what you’re saying about ethics and whitetails, but I’m mainly concerned about a desert mule deer hunt I have coming up next season. Plus, accuracy at that distance really matters to me for practice purposes. The more accurate I am from 60+, the easier a 30-40 yard shot is. In addition, I’m bowhunting turkeys this season and just a minuscule flight difference can make a significant difference on something with vitals as small as a turkey’s. But yeah, I respect your opinion on that and I think it’s a good opinion to have!

I ended up going mainly with mechanicals. I have killed a couple of turkeys with them and the results were very good.

I will probably run mechanicals for elk this season. Being able to trust where my shot is going is paramount.

 

[jlw0142]

I ended up going mainly with mechanicals. I have killed a couple of turkeys with them and the results were very good.

I will probably run mechanicals for elk this season. Being able to trust where my shot is going is paramount.

Yeah, makes sense. I really don’t want to switch to them but I may end up doing it I guess

 

[Billy Goat]

If you can't get an exodus swept to fly, you got issues.

The full blade is less forgiving, but they will work too. Just depends on how repeatable your form is.



I'm not saying it's you, can be a multitude of issues, but switching heads because they won't impact with your FP'S ain't fixing your arrow flight problems. Next you will be chasing penetration issues cause your arrow isn't leaving the bow right.

 

[4rcgoat]

Didn't see it mentioned, but you could try nock tuning those arrows