Broadhead Tuning Question

[Brandon Pattison]

Is there any reason why you would want to tune any other way? It seems that this is the last thing to tune.

Start out like this:

Check Cam Timing, Fletching Contact
Paper Tuning/Yoke Tuning
Walk-Back Tuning
Modified French Tuning
Broadhead Tuning

Any words of wisdom from my fellow OCD guys?

 

[Sonoran]

OCD guy here too.. This is a brief summary of my order or tuning with a new bow:

Get bow set to factory specifications.
Get draw length & dloop length dialed perfectly
Set rest center shot using modified french tuning at 3 yds and 60 yards (quicker than walk back tuning)
Yoke tune with at elast 2 bareshafts and a fletched arrow to 20 or 30 yards. (I also address my shooting form at this time if my barshafts are not hitting together)
Micro tune rest shooting broadheads (Wac em' exit) at 80 yards. (if needed)

This process can take some time but the bottom line for me is getting a bareshaft to leave my bow with the best nock travel I can get. Once I acheive this broadhead tuning is usually already done for me because of the prior tuning with bareshafts. I also play with draw weight to see if my groups tighted up at long range with different poundage settings ( +/- 2 lbs in either direction.) It has worked very well for me on my Carbon Element....

 

[RUTTIN]

I have always paper tuned my bow and have not had any problems with arrow flight and broadheads so far. How do you guys yoke tune? I have heard of this but have no idea how to do it, thanks in advance.

 

[Brandon Pattison]

I have always paper tuned my bow and have not had any problems with arrow flight and broadheads so far. How do you guys yoke tune? I have heard of this but have no idea how to do it, thanks in advance.

http://forums.bowsite.com/TF/bgforums/thread.cfm?threadid=410744&messages=13&forum=2

Not that I want to steer anyone away from here but this is a good starting point.

 

[RUTTIN]

Thanks franklinmanklin, that explained a lot for me, greatly appreciated.

 

[Nick Muche]

What is Bowsite?

 

[Chuffness]

Does anyone bareshaft tune ?

 

[jmez]

I usually just walkback tune and then broadhead tune. I use the walkback to get close.

If broadhead tuning is the end point, like it is for most hunters why go through all of the other steps? You change things to get to to the same endpoint.

 

[Brandon Pattison]

Thank you!

I usually just walkback tune and then broadhead tune. I use the walkback to get close.

If broadhead tuning is the end point, like it is for most hunters why go through all of the other steps? You change things to get to to the same endpoint.

 

[Brandon Pattison]

Forum site. There are a lot of bows for sale. There is a nice traditional section there. Most trad guys are like guys on here: nice, down to earth, and helpful.

What is Bowsite?

 

[Sonoran]

I usually just walkback tune and then broadhead tune. I use the walkback to get close.

If broadhead tuning is the end point, like it is for most hunters why go through all of the other steps? You change things to get to to the same endpoint.

Jmez I used to feel that same way but I think yoke tuning with a bareshaft really is worth it! If you just walk back and then go to broadhead tuning you still have missed an opportunity to address both horizontal and vertical nock travel as the arrow leaves the string. I know you can get it close with the rest and the nock height but on some bows you may end up with a less than ideal final rest position. If you think about it the straighter your arrow comes off the string the less potential there is for planing with fixed blade broadheads and your vanes have less work to do right out of the gate. I can tell you that broadhead tuning has become a very minor thing since I went to bareshaft/yoke tuning my bow and if I have to move my rest it may be 1/32 or 1/64 of an inch if at all when shooting at farther distances with broadheads. I am certainly no expert on this and actually I first explored bareshaft tuning after reading some comments from Darin Cooper in Joe Bell's precision bowhunting book (which is a great resource btw!) I would love to hear Darrin's opinion on this as he could explain this way better than I can......

 

[jmez]

Interesting as I used to feel as you do now. I would spend days going through the different tuning methods tweaking things and then always finish off with broadhead tuning. Once the bow was broadhead tuned, If I shot through paper, walk back, bare shaft etc it was always off with those others. If I changed things to get a good tear again then my broadhead tuning would be off and I would have to change that again. Felt like all I was doing was chasing my tail so started skipping most of the steps because it really wasn't doing me any good.

Then I took some shooting lessons. Over the last year I have had everything but my anchor point changed. Tuning a bow is easy, shooting a bow correctly and more importantly, consistently is very hard. IMO, the average bowhunter, which I would consider myself, can't shoot well or consistent enough to get much benefit from all of the super tuning methods. If you don't have proper and consistent form all of the tuning in the world won't help you. Prior to taking lessons you would have never convinced me of this nor would you have convinced me that I shot a bow very poorly.

Since I've taken the lessons and blind bale shooting for three months my tuning has changed quite a bit. I set the rest on center, set the arrow level and take out cam lean. I get a bullet hole and bare shafts group with FP's and I haven't needed to broadhead tune. If my BH's aren't with my FP's it is something I am doing not a tuning issue. I think far too much emphasis or blame is placed on tuning and not near enough on correct and consistent form. It isn't because of any tuning methods that it has gotten easier for me, purely a form and consistency issue. I still struggle with it every day.

I would love to hear Darin's thoughts on this as well. How I see it now is that you set a bow up correctly and anything you have to change from that point is detuning the bow or changing the bow to your specific form. Unless there is something wrong with a bow any of them will put an arrow in the same hole all day every day with a hooter shooter. When we get a hold of them all bets are off.

 

[dreamingbig]

I have found this thread very useful. My shuttle Ts are dialed into my fieldpoints now as are magnus stingers and magnus snuffer ss. Thanks all!

 

[Sonoran]

Jmez we are pretty much on the same page and I agree with much of what you're saying. I too put a huge emphasis on my form and draw length than anything else. I don't put an emphasis in paper tuning anymore because it does not tell me all that much with a fletched arrow. Franklin mentioned he he had a Carbon Element RKT and I was speaking somewhat towards how I tuned my CE RKT. Every bow is different and many can get a way with setting the cam lean to zero but not the CE RKT in my experience. It takes a ton of work to keep your form conistent and I sure struggle as well at times too. I did not mention this earlier but aside for adressing perfect nock travel, point of impact bareshaft tuning also tells me something equally if not more important and that is consistency in ones form. When bareshaft tuning I always use at least two bareshafts. Regardless of the tune of the bow if one can't get two bareshafts to group tighly together at a minimum of 20yds then bareshaft tuning is of no benefit to me at this point. Shooting bareshafts is very unforgiving of form inconsistencies and much more so than a fletched arrow with broadheads. I use bareshafts to tell me if my form is consistent and if it's not then like you it's back to the blank bale with a hinge release.

"How I see it now is that you set a bow up correctly and anything you have to change from that point is detuning the bow or changing the bow to your specific form."

This is the only thing I disagree with. I don't set up my bow to be shot my a machine and putting cam lean into a bow or moving your rest off of dead center is not de-tunign it in my mind. To me I am tuning it to work in harmony my arrows and my form which results in the arrow leaving coming out of the bow as cleanly and as straight as possible. If I were to set the cam lean to zero on my bow then I would have had to change my form drastically to compensate for poor nock travel. I dont even know if this is possible because even a hooter shooter will not group a bareshaft with a fletched arrow if the nock travel is way out of whack. One thing is for sure and that is there is more than one way to get maxiumum forgiveness out a bow and if it comes from dead on consistency in form for you with your bow then that's all that matters. Heres to shooting straght this season.........

 

[horseshoe]

as a hunter, i try to make it simple. if your arrow is flying good before u shot a BH, screw one on and take a 20 yd shot. if its close, dial it in to the fld pt by adjusting the rest. then start moving back and dial it in at longer yds. u should only have to try the other methods if u have a serious tuning issue. as for form, the only real issue that would only affect the BH more than the field pt would be torque in the grip. relax to a proper grip and alot of problems go away!

by the way, generally, i have found that you adjust the rest in the direction to move the BH impact towards the fpt. however, i just BH tuned my pse omem to shoot 125 grn steel force 4 blds and had to go opposite! this phenomenon used to be mentioned even in the easton arrows old tuning guide. just my 2cents...good hunting!