Tuning process

[Tegr0429]

Just bought some new taipan arrows from safari tuff. Just curious, what’s everyone’s tuning process? Bare shaft, paper tuning, etc?

 

[Wrench]

I crank out a bare with a machine screw and washers to figure out where I need to be. Slow motion video is a game changer too.

 

[dlee56]

I paper tune. Use hot melt to switch the weight up, combine that with cutting the arrow down to find a sweet spot.

 

[Wrench]

If you've never tried the screw and washer trick....try it. It can chew up a target that has a lot of miles on it.....but it let's you stack weight until you get tuned. Once the arrow flies true, pull the whole stack and screw and weigh it. If you can get within 20grs you'll probably be golden.

Once that's done, grab a fletched arrow and a broadhead and let them fly along with your fletched arrow and a bare. If you are correct, they should all shoot to the same point of impact at 30yds. Don't be alarmed if your bare is not parallel to the others....just where it impacts. If it hits sideways, you obviously have issues, but 15* out is typical.

 

[kfili]

If you've never tried the screw and washer trick....try it. It can chew up a target that has a lot of miles on it.....but it let's you stack weight until you get tuned. Once the arrow flies true, pull the whole stack and screw and weigh it. If you can get within 20grs you'll probably be golden.

Once that's done, grab a fletched arrow and a broadhead and let them fly along with your fletched arrow and a bare. If you are correct, they should all shoot to the same point of impact at 30yds. Don't be alarmed if your bare is not parallel to the others....just where it impacts. If it hits sideways, you obviously have issues, but 15* out is typical.

Specifics on that?
I'm a straight to bareshaft guy too would love to cut the time down on finding the sweetspot though.

 

[Wrench]

Specifics on that?
I'm a straight to bareshaft guy too would love to cut the time down on finding the sweetspot though.

Grab the longest 8-32 screw you can find (verify your size/pitch) and a pile of washers. Load up what you'd like to shoot.....say 175grs.

Shoot. Is it stiff?.....add washers. Weak.....subtract washers. When you make tune (arrow flight) pull the whole stack and screw and weigh it.

If you're shooting bare shaft, you'll want to err on the weak side as fletch will stiffen it a little.

What you'll end up with is a weight that you can extrapolate into your components to verify. If you came in at 215grs. You could go to 225 heads or 200 heads and 25gr inserts, 100gr inserts and 125 heads.....etc.

 

[Wrench]

If you are wanting a specific length of arrow for aiming, you can cut to that length and use this as well. Typically 1/2" of length will be about 50grs of point weight change.

Take a 30" arrow with a 200gr head and a 29.5" arrow with 250gr and they should be very close in spine.

And 2" is typically a spine weight change. If you had to cut 2" from a 500 you could shoot a full length 400.

These are all generalized numbers that will change on mfrs anomolies.....but will be very close.

 

[Dave0317]

The screw and washer trick is probably cheaper, but just as easy of a solution would be the “point weight test kits”. I got one that has every size from 75-200 grain points. Shatterproof archery is the one I got, and they sell on Amazon as well. Three rivers also has a test kit, their shipping was just a bit high when ordering smaller items.

I’m not an expert on tuning, so don’t take this as advice, just my opinion. I go straight to bare shaft tuning. In my compound experience, I found that the paper up close only gives a short range snapshot of what the arrow is doing, and I chased plenty of false positives with it. A barehsaft at distance tells the truth. And I found that a good barehshaft tune, meant that my fixed blades hit right with my field points too.

 

[Beendare]

You can get close with the Stu Miller Calculator...these days, I pretty much know from experience what will be close to tuned even with different weight bows

I start long and a little stiff then work down from there by starting to add tip weight until I get a weak reading, then fine tune.

I like- 125g- if necessary to fine tune, I can go up to 145g or down to 100g.
Shooting a couple bare shafts with fletched at 8y and 20y I set up my vertical first. You can hear the difference when your nok point is perfect up or down- no sound. If spine is off, you get all kinds of weird results making your exact nok point-the vertical adjustment- tough.

Once thats set, I then focus on weak or strong. I shoot long DL with long arrows- shaft is 31 3/8"- so I don't have a lot of room to play with length- I focus more on tip weight andkeep going up until I get a strong weak indication- then back off. If I'm cutting arrows down that are weak- I cut 1/4" at a time.

I have the test kit from 3 rivers- FP's from 70g to 300g that I use to see what works.

When I get close to tune which is fletched and bare shaft hitting together- I go up and down in tip weight to confirm. Assuming a 100g tip shows slightly strong...and a 150g tip shows weak- I'm golden. One thing I've found with ILF bows in that 64" and up range, they are pretty forgiving of spine. With a perfect tune and 125g....I can also shoot 100's and 150's without much loss of tune.

A couple things I've seen;
Sometimes when I'm not shooting well trying to tune is nuts....it will drive you crazy. If you can’t shoot fletched into a 6” circle at 20y- no flyers- don’t bother trying to tune.

Tight arrow noks can seriously affect the tuning process and has given me false readings more than once- its opposite of a compound where you DO want tight noks. Tight noks tend to show stiff with me.

I think it's important to know when you make a bad release......or bad shot and throw that result out. Only count the shots that felt right.
(Edited for clarity)

 

[nphunter]

If you are new to traditional archery the first thing I would recommend is to shoot and work of form for a while before ever trying to bareshaft tune. If you've been shooting and have repeatable form, good bad or whatever as long as it's repeatable then shoot a bare shaft and fletched. I have never shot a recurve through paper, just bare shaft and fetched until they hit together. Ethics has a field point kit with 100-300gr tips, those kits work good, start heavy and back off the weight until they hit together. The washer and bolt thing above sounds like it works too if you don't want to spend a couple of bucks on field tips.

I would start with a full length shaft, put a 100gr tip on and shoot a few times and mark where they hit compared to fletched, now take a 300gr tip and do the same, you will see the difference in impact with that much weight change. If the bare shaft moves further away from your fletched when you add weight cut the shaft shorter and try again because you're too weak. If you move to the opposite side of the fletched with the heavy tip than you're in the ballpark and just need to find the tip weight to bring them together. If it moves closer but not all the way you're too weak.

Again, if your form isn't consistent, you're wasting your time and just need to shoot some more and not worry about your spine right now.

 

[Beendare]

So true. Without repeatable good form…tuning is a waste of time.

 

[NEPkaspot]

Best investment I made was to purchase Precision Tuning for Bowhunters from thePush and TradLab. Has step-by-step process for anyone at any level and you have it for life.

 

[tradguy89]

It took me about a year before I felt that I could reliably tune my bows.

These days I know what shafts are gonna work in whatever bow. I can pretty much get it close to where I want.

I pick some arrows for the bow. Pick some broadheads and inserts. Those are all calculated based on what I know "about" works.

Ill fletch 3 and BS 3. I fletch about an inch up from the nock so I can trim if needed.

Tune for nocks first. Then Ill check BH. After that I will BS and FP tune for impact point, not nock orientation. 9 times out of 10, nock orientation was a form issue. Occasionally Ill use it for weak shafts and trim.

Check broadheads with BS, if its within the kill circle at 30yds, Ill call it good.

I like to check at short distances after getting the long done. I find that most of the time I am spot on. The times when i am not, its because my shot is off.

 

[ScottinPA]

Once form is decent, use calculator to get close and bareshaft to confirm then go shoot and have fun. Simple.

 

[Wrench]

I really encourage the use of slowmo video. You can spot the slightest collapse, head movement....arrow to rest attitude....everything. I put my daughter on a ladder over my shoulder and let the camera tell me what is up.

I've been through about 20 arrow changes over the years and now I can tell when my brace is off by a few twists.

 

[wyodog]

I with a new bow by making sure my brace height is where i want it to be. I'm looking for the sweet spot where my bow gets fairly quiet. After that, I put on the weight of head I intend to use and shoot a bare shaft. I cut off 1/4" at a time until the bare shaft is hitting nice and straight into the target at varying yardages. This has worked for me since the mid 90s.

 

[RuffleMyFluffles]

I use ArchersAdvantage to find a ballpark arrow length and point/insert weight and then bare shaft tune from there. I like that site because it gives a pretty good starting point as you can specify exactly what the arrow build is down to the arrow wrap length.

 

[Lentuk]

I bare shaft test with different weight field points to determine shaft size then tune for hunting season the same way with broadheads and practice blades.
I have 2 or three of just about every spine/size shaft out there in my arrow length to try in each new bow.

 

[GLB]

I have so many arrow combinations from past tuning that I just grab a few that might work on a new bow. I usally get pretty close that way. I will fine tune from there. I do all some times, bare shaft,paper tune, and finally broad head. Sometimes I can go straight BH tuning.

 

[Arcus Venator]

Lots of great advice on this thread. I use bareshaft and slow motion video. Messed with paper tuning along time ago and quit using that method. Proof is in actual shooting IMO.

When a bare shaft, fieldpoint and broadhead group at 20 yards plus, it has all come together.