Paper tune overrated for whitetail hunting?

[ethanbillingsley]

Not that I am a subject expert by any means and seeing as there are so many on here I was just curious to see what the thoughts on paper tuning were. Growing up my dad bow hunted my entire childhood and he just shot tennis balls off the roof with his compound bow for practice and that was good enough for him to harvest more than enough deer. Most of the archery hunting in my area, S.C., wouldn't result in me feeling comfortable shooting past 35ish yards at a deer. Most of that is inexperience for me but still I am curious as to if this is something that is make or break.

 

[Mighty Mouse]

I would say paper tuning does tend to be overrated, but that's not an indictment of tuning in general.

Paper tuning is just a starting point toward the ultimate goal (for a hunter) of getting broadheads to land alongside field points. A well-tuned bow allows you to switch between practice mode (field points) and game mode (broadheads) without adjusting your sight, confirms that your arrow is flying straight right off the bow, confirms that you have sufficient fletching to steer your broadheads, and minimizes the effects of less-than-perfect shot execution during the moment of truth.

Paper tuning is a good starting point to get in the ballpark and can be done at close range indoors. Bareshaft tuning is a good intermediate step to confirm/refine your tune at distance and saves wear on your target because you're not shooting broadheads. But those two methods are both optional and can be skipped with no harm done. Broadhead tuning (shooting BH alongside FP at distance then adjusting your bow until they group together) is the ultimate test.

While its true that the closer your shots are, the less being out-of-tune will hurt you, hunters should still treat broadhead tuning as mandatory IMO.

 

[Trial153]

I dont think paper tuning in over rated at all. If I can get a bare shaft to shot clean through paper at 10 yards I have yet to see a bow I couldn't shoot to a very similar POI at medium distances with SOME well made broadheads. Notice I say some braodheads, cause not ALL broadheads shoot well.
I wont take my bow out of tune to shoot a particular Broadhead. Unfortunately that is what some people when they "Broadhead tune"

 

[Jpsmith1]

First "new" bow I bought i asked about paper tuning. Coming out of the 80s and 90s into the later 00s I expected to at least send a couple through paper.

We don't do that anymore. You just set this and that and it's fine.

I could SEE the arrows bending dang near in half at 20 yards.

Several trips back and forth before they agreed to shoot thru paper and it had a terrible vertical tear that took the tech several hours to tune out.

Between that experience and some other negative interactions, I have a new shop

 

[Hussar]

I don't believe it to be overrated. It's a fantastic starting point to save someone a bunch of time, headache, and target wear. I use it as a starting point for any new bow, or after a string change.

I think people get hung up on a bullet hole = a perfect tune. In reality, a broadhead hitting with a field point at distance is a perfect tune for a hunter. It really should not matter that you have an imperfect tear through paper if your field points and broadheads are hitting together at 30 yards (or whatever your max effective range is).

 

[WoolyBugger]

It’s the best way to start tuning so I don’t think it is overrated in the slightest. Thinking you’re done at that point is overrated.

 

[Ashy Larry]

Had new strings and limbs put on my Levitate last week. Shot it in a hundred or so shots and went to paper tune. Bad nock left. Took to shop and had them shim the bow. Shoots a bullet through paper. Today I shot bareshafts thru paper and moved the rest slightly to get a bullet. It’s raining now so I haven’t “confirmed” tune but I would imagine I can now shoot at 30 and have bareshaft, fletched and broadhead hitting same POI. That’s a good feeling.