Getting Back Into Archer - Tuning Questions!

[pjohnson8168]

After a long absence I am getting back into archery, have no problem going to a bow shop to help if I cant make good progress but I like to tinker so hoping to tune myself. My question is....holy crap there are a thousand different tuning methods.

- Bareshaft tuning (close and at a distance)
- Paper tuning fletched (close and a distance)
- Nock tuning
- Broadhead tuning
- Walk back tuning

Where do I start!

Thanks

 

[Mighty Mouse]

The end goal of 4 of those 5 tuning methods (paper, bareshaft, walk back, broadhead) is the same: broadheads hitting the same spot as field points. In my mind, broadhead tuning is mandatory for a hunter, the other methods are optional precursors.

I personally start by shooting bareshafts through paper at 6' and 12' and make adjustments until I achieve "bullet hole" tears. Next I shoot fletched shafts through paper to check for vane contact and make sure I'm still getting bullet holes. I start with paper mainly because I can do it in my garage any time I want regardless of weather or time of day. My next step is to shoot bareshafts and fletched shafts side-by-side out to at least 20 yds because up-close paper tears can sometimes be misleading. My final step is to shoot broadheads and field points at distance and make fine adjustments until they're hitting together.

Nock tuning (aka, indexing) is a means of compensating for radial variations in the spine of each individual arrow. I don't methodically nock tune each and every arrow anymore, but I do number all my arrows, keep an eye out for repeat "fliers" while shooting, and individually nock tune any arrow repeatedly landing outside the group.

 

[5MilesBack]

"Nock tuning" is basically tuning your arrows. The others are all intended to get the arrow to come out of the bow straight.......getting the arrow and powerstroke both lined up together. Then as long as your arrows are spined within reason for you and your bow and you have enough fletching to correctly steer your BH's, then you should be good to go. Of course then there's also trying to perfectly tune in your draw length, your form, and bow stability, etc, etc. You can dive into this as much or little as you want. Some of us are perfectionists more than others.

 

[pjohnson8168]

Thanks guys - that is helpful information, sounds a bit more straightforward than all the shenanigans you read about other places. Appreciate the responses.

 

[Blktailhtr]

They pretty much nailed it. I nock tune with bareshafts thru paper before fletching to get things lined up from the start. If the closest range allowed broadheads I would go straight to that next but usually i shoot bareshafts and I am normally really close by the time i go to the broadhead range. For my target setup i just do nock, paper and then walkback out to 80. Hardest part there is just getting a day where you dont have wind

 

[robertsdp2]

I do the same process as Mighty Mouse. Just don’t try to do them all because you will make yourself crazy. Paper tune, then fine tune so your broadhead hit with your field points and you’re good to go

 

[Zac]

All of those methods are basically the same except walk back tuning. That may work yet the physics behind it don't match up so I can't reccomend it. Basically you move your cams towards the tail of the arrow and your rest towards the point. Paper tuning is the most basic principle because you have an obvious representation of the point, and the tail. Bare shaft tuning uses the same concept. Your fletched arrow is your control. A bare shaft that hits to the left or right of the fletched shaft will have a corresponding opposite tail reaction. For example, a bare shaft left of the fletched shaft is a right tear. A bare shaft right of the fletched shaft is a left tear. This is because the arrow is planing in flight without the assistance of the drag from the vanes. A bare shaft high would be a nock low tear, and a bare shaft low would be a nock high tear. You are going to treat all of these the same. Follow the point with the rest as long as you are in the manufacturers reccomended center shot range. For larger tears you are going to either shim your cams, or twist your yokes in the direction of the tail. The only thing to add is that broadheads will act exactly like bare shafts.

 

[Samdemarais]

In my opinion, which isn’t worth much, if you don’t shoot a lot and your form may not be perfect I would skip the bare shaft tuning. My list would be, after perfect draw length


1. cam timing
2. Set all sight axis properly
2. Arrow/ rest contact clearance
3. Nock fit
4. Proper arrow spine
5. Paper tune with vanes
6. Torque tune
7. Broadhead tune

 

[540-Virginian]

The end goal of 4 of those 5 tuning methods (paper, bareshaft, walk back, broadhead) is the same: broadheads hitting the same spot as field points. In my mind, broadhead tuning is mandatory for a hunter, the other methods are optional precursors.

I personally start by shooting bareshafts through paper at 6' and 12' and make adjustments until I achieve "bullet hole" tears. Next I shoot fletched shafts through paper to check for vane contact and make sure I'm still getting bullet holes. I start with paper mainly because I can do it in my garage any time I want regardless of weather or time of day. My next step is to shoot bareshafts and fletched shafts side-by-side out to at least 20 yds because up-close paper tears can sometimes be misleading. My final step is to shoot broadheads and field points at distance and make fine adjustments until they're hitting together.

Nock tuning (aka, indexing) is a means of compensating for radial variations in the spine of each individual arrow. I don't methodically nock tune each and every arrow anymore, but I do number all my arrows, keep an eye out for repeat "fliers" while shooting, and individually nock tune any arrow repeatedly landing outside the group.

may be a dumb question, but im a dumb guy... when you bareshaft paper tune up close, then go to 20 yards to BS tune, then you do your broadhead head tuning, arent you eventually cancelling out your close up BS tuning? So could you just skip to the 20 yard 20 BS tuning, then make a little tweak here and there for BH tuning?

And when you adjust for BH, wouldnt that impact your bareshaft tuning because adjusting the rest takes very little movement to throw things off?

Ie, is the goal to maintain perfect bareshaft arrow flight with all the tuning? Or is BS tuning a step to get you in ball park as you work up to a final BH tune? Make sense?

 

[jallen2003]

I think starting close with BS tuning (say 10 yards) is just to make sure you aren't crazy off before going to 20.

I haven't been at it that long, but I found paper tuning a waste of time for me. I BS tune to 20 yards and once I get that I check BH flight. I've only done this with 2 bows, but each time after BS tuning to 20 yd my fixed blade BH were grouping the same as FP at 50yd.

Also I don't get trying to BS tune past 20. Maybe 30 is ok, but my bareshafts were nosediving when I was going to 40-50yd.

 

[540-Virginian]

In my opinion, which isn’t worth much, if you don’t shoot a lot and your form may not be perfect I would skip the bare shaft tuning. My list would be, after perfect draw length


1. cam timing
2. Set all sight axis properly
2. Arrow/ rest contact clearance
3. Nock fit
4. Proper arrow spine
5. Paper tune with vanes
6. Torque tune
7. Broadhead tune

Curious how you correct nock fit? I havent found a set of nocks with a variety of sizes to fit a specific string. Sounds like youd have to redo the center serving, or get new arrows? or can you just squeeze or sperate the nock plastic (that to me seems like itd weaken it and break it)? Im new to this stuff so sorry if its a dumb question.

PS i agree and learned later rather than sooner (unfortunately) that form should be focused on before sweating bareshaft tuning.

 

[Samdemarais]

Curious how you correct nock fit? I havent found a set of nocks with a variety of sizes to fit a specific string. Sounds like youd have to redo the center serving, or get new arrows? or can you just squeeze or sperate the nock plastic (that to me seems like itd weaken it and break it)? Im new to this stuff so sorry if its a dumb question.

PS i agree and learned later rather than sooner (unfortunately) that form should be focused on before sweating bareshaft tuning.

Nocks will have different throat diameters. For instance I had black eagle R nocks on my Spartan arrows and then I got a new set of GAS strings and the R nocks were way to big so I bought Easton x nocks and they snap on nicely. You want to nock to snap on but you want to be able to spin the nock back and forth with out it turning the string.

 

[Billy Goat]

Shoot bareshafts up close incase you find your form isn't what you think it is. I generally start with bareshafts, usually at 20. Bareshafts to me are to keep from burning up my broadhead target. I'll get my bareshafts dialed in, then broadhead tune at distance.

Curious how you correct nock fit? I havent found a set of nocks with a variety of sizes to fit a specific string. Sounds like youd have to redo the center serving, or get new arrows? or can you just squeeze or sperate the nock plastic (that to me seems like itd weaken it and break it)? Im new to this stuff so sorry if its a dumb question.

PS i agree and learned later rather than sooner (unfortunately) that form should be focused on before sweating bareshaft tuning.

Adjust nock fit with different sized center serving.

 

[Samdemarais]

Nocks will have different throat diameters. For instance I had black eagle R nocks on my Spartan arrows and then I got a new set of GAS strings and the R nocks were way to big so I bought Easton x nocks and they snap on nicely. You want to nock to snap on but you want to be able to spin the nock back and forth with out it turning the string.

Nocks will have different throat diameters. For instance I had black eagle R nocks on my Spartan arrows and then I got a new set of GAS strings and the R nocks were way to big so I bought Easton x nocks and they snap on nicely. You want to nock to snap on but you want to be able to spin the nock back and forth with out it turning the string.

That’s just how they fit on the serving. You also want them to fit properly in between your nock sets or d loop. If you take all the point weight off your arrow, so take field tip off and or insert out and draw the arrow back it should stay down on your rest the whole time, if you have bad nock pinch the arrow will likely lift off the rest as you draw it.

 

[Billy Goat]

In my opinion, which isn’t worth much, if you don’t shoot a lot and your form may not be perfect I would skip the bare shaft tuning. My list would be, after perfect draw length


1. cam timing
2. Set all sight axis properly
2. Arrow/ rest contact clearance
3. Nock fit
4. Proper arrow spine
5. Paper tune with vanes
6. Torque tune
7. Broadhead tune

I had someone labeling pens in a barn once, their numbering was the same.....

@@

 

[jallen2003]

PS i agree and learned later rather than sooner (unfortunately) that form should be focused on before sweating bareshaft tuning.

I did find bareshaft tuning to be a really good indicator of form issues. On my first bow i couldn't get rid of a nock right without cams rubbing cables and/or rest way out of center shot, so i moved everything back to "center" and started making small changes in grip pressure and anchor points.

 

[Mighty Mouse]

may be a dumb question, but im a dumb guy... when you bareshaft paper tune up close, then go to 20 yards to BS tune, then you do your broadhead head tuning, arent you eventually cancelling out your close up BS tuning? So could you just skip to the 20 yard 20 BS tuning, then make a little tweak here and there for BH tuning?

And when you adjust for BH, wouldnt that impact your bareshaft tuning because adjusting the rest takes very little movement to throw things off?

Ie, is the goal to maintain perfect bareshaft arrow flight with all the tuning? Or is BS tuning a step to get you in ball park as you work up to a final BH tune? Make sense?

Not a dumb question. Broadhead tuning trumps all other methods because that's how I hunt and my ultimate goal is to get my hunting arrows hitting the same spot as my practice arrows. I start with other methods out of convenience and to save my targets from the wear and tear of broadheads. Using a tuning progression of paper > bareshaft > broadhead, I've rarely had to make any adjustments during the broadhead phase, and those that I did make were very minor. If my broadhead tuning were to suggest major changes, I ultimately would make them, but only after I had replicated the results multiple times with multiple arrows and spin-checked my arrows to re-verify proper broadhead/shaft alignment.

 

[Junibravo]

For a relatively new bow hunter, this tread is very useful in my efforts to perfectly tune my bow.
One thing i have never figured out is where does sighting in fall into the whole tuning a new bow process.
It my arrows are off when shooting at a distance, am i not sighted in correctly or is my tuning off?

 

[Mighty Mouse]

For a relatively new bow hunter, this tread is very useful in my efforts to perfectly tune my bow.
One thing i have never figured out is where does sighting in fall into the whole tuning a new bow process.
It my arrows are off when shooting at a distance, am i not sighted in correctly or is my tuning off?

The goal of tuning is to achieve the same point of impact with both field points and broadheads. The goal of sighting in is to put the point of impact behind the sight pin. I would recommend first sighting in well enough to keep your arrow on the target at whatever distance you'll be tuning, then tuning, then adjusting your sight to match the post-tune POI.

 

[406unltd]

I’d bareshaft if you hunt and don’t want to buy a ton of broadhead targets. This method has always given me great results. If it’s not something you’re comfortable with, that’s ok too.