Broadheads absolutely will not tune to FPs

[3forks]

I didn't read every post in this thread, and I'm also not as well versed in tuning as some of you guys, but If the OP's bow has the the FLX Guard on it - try backing it off a little at a time.

Bowtech FLX Guard

Last year I could not get my field points and broadheads to fly the same past 40 yards when the previous year I easily could. Paper tune was showing bullet holes and I tried everything I knew to do. Even the shops were out of answers.

I finally happened to run into a guy at the range who shot the same bow as me. He showed me that backing off the tension on the flex guard would allow me to get my field points and broadheads flying the same.

Anyway, I was still shooting bullet holes through paper after adjusting the flex guard, and my field points and broadheads group together past 70 yards.

 

[MuleDeerMike]

My brother has a press. I'll take a look at shimming.

 

[bsnedeker]

Skynet is right on, don move your sight, that is terrible advice. It is a veru minor tuning issue that is causing it and moving your sight wont fix that, it will only cover it up. I am amazed at the amount of people who do this and hit the field with an untuned bow.

If it's terrible advice, it's terrible advice that EVERY single bowshop I have visited has given me. It's also terrible advice that I have followed that, in the real world, has worked out just fine for me. I have never had a penetration issue by doing this.

Again, I agree with the theory that FP and BH's should hit the same. This year I worked really hard in the spring to make sure that my new Hoyt could do this, so I have tuned my bow to this point this year. However, my previous bow I found it impossible to do. No matter what changes I made they would not hit the same spot...BH's hit 6" left at 50 yards. I took it to 4 different shops in my area and every single one of them told me that trying to chase my FP's was pointless and irrelevant.

Bottom line, there is Archery Theory, and then there is the real world. In the real world I have found through personal experience that it did not make a difference for me. My old bow that I couldn't tune was maxed at 60 pounds and I got under 250 FPS and I passed through every single animal I have ever shot with two exceptions. On those two times I didn't get a pass through I was experimenting with Mechanical BHs and I attribute that, and ONLY that, to the inability to get a pass through. Using fixed blades my pass through rate is 100%.

If you have some real world experience to back up your claims I would love to hear them as I only have my own experiences to draw from. The more real world data we can share the better informed we will all be.

 

[bmart2622]

I have passed through every animal I have shoot too, except my bows have always shot field points with broadheads. Do some research into big name archers who shoot dozens of animals a year like Jim Burnworth or John Dudley and see if they condone moving your sight to cover up a tuning issue...I'll wait

 

[SKYNET KC]

There are plenty of guys who don't get passthroughs, using fixed blades on game as small as whitetail.

Yes, shot placement is important, blah blah blah. I would expect that correct shot placement is inferred with every shot you take at game.

Saying to just move your sight is painting with a broad brush. If your broadheads are consistently hitting a few inches different than your field points, you'll likely be okay as you are 95% of the way there as far as a good tune. But there are LOTS of guys who are off by a good foot and just move their site. THAT is not good arrow flight, and that WILL result in poor penetration. But where do we draw the line? 6 inches? 8 inches? It's kind of ambiguous - so it's best to just make sure it's tuned correctly.

As bmart mentioned, just because you have had success with something doesn't mean that someone else has had equal success. Every animal I ever shot with a sub 400 grain arrow and mechanical i blew through and dug my arrow out of the dirt. Why would I switch to what I have now being a 650 grain setup? Because empirical data shows me that it's failure rate is much higher than what I run now.

 

[KHNC]

Try some shots at 60 or beyond using lighted nocks as well. This will let you know right away if you have any wobble in your broadhead arrows. This is assuming you have already spin tested them to check for wobble. At least this will eliminate any possible issues with your heads or inserts.

 

[bsnedeker]

There are plenty of guys who don't get passthroughs, using fixed blades on game as small as whitetail.

Yes, shot placement is important, blah blah blah. I would expect that correct shot placement is inferred with every shot you take at game.

Saying to just move your sight is painting with a broad brush. If your broadheads are consistently hitting a few inches different than your field points, you'll likely be okay as you are 95% of the way there as far as a good tune. But there are LOTS of guys who are off by a good foot and just move their site. THAT is not good arrow flight, and that WILL result in poor penetration. But where do we draw the line? 6 inches? 8 inches? It's kind of ambiguous - so it's best to just make sure it's tuned correctly.

As bmart mentioned, just because you have had success with something doesn't mean that someone else has had equal success. Every animal I ever shot with a sub 400 grain arrow and mechanical i blew through and dug my arrow out of the dirt. Why would I switch to what I have now being a 650 grain setup? Because empirical data shows me that it's failure rate is much higher than what I run now.

Again, I'm not disagreeing with you..in a perfect world they should hit the same. I'm telling you what I've seen in real world situations and what my results are. As far as I can tell here, I'm one of only two people in this thread who has used a bow that is "out of tune" on an animal. The two people on this discussion with real world experience with it are telling you that it doesn't matter. If anyone has some real world experience that would contradict what I've seen I think that would be extremely valuable information.

If you don't have personal experience with it you are talking Archery Theory, which is all well and good, but I personally value real-world data over theoretical data.

 

[bmart2622]

bsnedeker, you probably arent going to find the "real world" experience you are looking for because most guys on here are skilled and responsible bow hunters who hunt with a tuned bow but I can point you to a number of FB posts filled with countless other keyboard commandoes that feel that "just move the sight" is an acceptable practice

 

[SKYNET KC]

Again, I'm not disagreeing with you..in a perfect world they should hit the same. I'm telling you what I've seen in real world situations and what my results are. As far as I can tell here, I'm one of only two people in this thread who has used a bow that is "out of tune" on an animal. The two people on this discussion with real world experience with it are telling you that it doesn't matter. If anyone has some real world experience that would contradict what I've seen I think that would be extremely valuable information.

If you don't have personal experience with it you are talking Archery Theory, which is all well and good, but I personally value real-world data over theoretical data.

The problem with that is you have to eliminate literally EVERY other possible factor for poor penetration, and the number of people that have setups to truly say that they did that are very, very few and far between. Even out of a group of guys that were pretty dedicated to arrow building on a facebook group I was in, less than 5% of them shot arrows that fulfilled the 12 penetrating factors outlined by the good doctor. I'm sure lots of us here have shot with less than optimally tuned bows. Hell, I KNOW I have. The first 10 or so deer I shot I screwed on a Rage the day season started and called it good. I know those bows weren't tuned.

Like I said, it's all anecdotal and extremely ambiguous as to when you need to tune your bow more to ensure good penetration. But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to tell that if a broadhead is hitting two feet off from your field points that something is probably off and there's a good chance that penetration will be less than desired.

 

[bsnedeker]

bsnedeker, you probably arent going to find the "real world" experience you are looking for because most guys on here are skilled and responsible bow hunters who hunt with a tuned bow but I can point you to a number of FB posts filled with countless other keyboard commandoes that feel that "just move the sight" is an acceptable practice

Lol, really dude? Did I insult you in some way? If so, it was inadvertent and I apologize. I'm trying to share my experiences with a guy asking a question. There is no need for you to start throwing shade.

 

[bmart2622]

^^^^^ I'm not sure what you are even talking about here but I am sharing my experiences as well

 

[jmez]

I would guess close to 80% of bowhunters use a bow that is out of tune to hunt with. The reason mechanical broadheads exist is because the majority of people want to simply screw on a broadheads and hunt. It's the marketing slogan for the number one seller.

Most everyone used to adjust their sights to BH point of impact 20 years ago when no one knew better. A lot of shops and archers still do. Doesn't make it right or better.

There is no theory involved, it is simple physics. Two identical projectiles in flight, one flying more straight than the other will have superior performance. I have more confidence in my set up when I get my bow shooting as best I can. To me that includes as perfect arrow flight as I'm capable.

I have yet to own a bow that I can't tune BH's to field points. Tuning bows is actually easy, unless there is something mechanical flaw in the bow. Mechanical flaws are pretty rare. The adjustments are small and take less than 5 minutes. What is not easy is shooting a bow in a correct, repeatable manner. That is only easy on archery talk where droves of people could win Vegas or a Fita world championship if they only had the desire to compete.

Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk

 

[MuleDeerMike]

In years past I was always able to lineup my FPs and BHs with this bow so I'm assuming it's my current arrow length and draw length setup this year that's affecting it. Same arrows as in the past but just shorter this year with a shorter draw length. But like others have said, maybe my cams are starting to lean a little as well and i need new bushings on the axles or something. I'll dive deeper into this after September but for now I'm just gonna move my sight the 1/16 or 1/32 over and call it good.

 

[wapitibob]

I have passed through every animal I have shoot too, except my bows have always shot field points with broadheads. Do some research into big name archers who shoot dozens of animals a year like Jim Burnworth or John Dudley and see if they condone moving your sight to cover up a tuning issue...I'll wait

Might take your own advise. Pay attention to the first 45 seconds.

How to Tune Your Compound Hunting Bow so your Broadheads Group with your Field Points - YouTube

 

[bmart2622]

I just watched a nearly 6 minute video on broadhead tuning that ended with him shooting field points and brodheads right with each other

 

[5MilesBack]

If you have some real world experience to back up your claims I would love to hear them as I only have my own experiences to draw from. The more real world data we can share the better informed we will all be.

My real world experience is that shooting BH's one day and FP's the next is very frustrating if the two aren't in sync with each other. And if the arrows aren't flying straight, it's equally frustrating doing a 3D shoot and watching your arrow fishtail to the target. I'm too much of a perfectionist to put up with any of that, regardless of penetration potential.

 

[MallardSX2]

Well then. At least we all know what side of the line drawn in the sand we stand on. lol

For the record, For the little amount you are off I wouldn't even mess with it if I had 5 days of free time. I would still move the sight and spend that 5 days scouting for deer.. lol

 

[bohntr]

I have passed through every animal I have shoot too, except my bows have always shot field points with broadheads. Do some research into big name archers who shoot dozens of animals a year like Jim Burnworth or John Dudley and see if they condone moving your sight to cover up a tuning issue...I'll wait

Ask Randy Ulmer this questions and see what he says....."1" difference.....move your sight".

 

[Brendan]

Ask Randy Ulmer this questions and see what he says....."1" difference.....move your sight".

Depends on the range. 1" at 80 Yards, I agree. 1" at 20 - he'd fix the tune...

I've never had a broadhead that I couldn't get to hit with my field points, unless there was another issue going on (Contact, Spine, Not spinning true). And, I also inherently distrust most shops. Too many guys who don't really know what they're doing, and those that do don't have the time to get into tuning like this with customers.

 

[bmart2622]

Like I said before, if you shoot a group of field points and broadheads nd they shoot as tight as your field point group you are good to go. I cant shoot a 2" group at 60yds with my field points everytime,so I dont expect to with broadheads, I can, however, shoot a 4-5" group at 60 yds, so if I shoot 2 field points and 2 broadheads in a 4" group at 60yds I am satisfied. Again, this pertains to ME and my standards that I follow.