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Hunter4life
01-13-2007, 08:35 PM
I have had a compound bow for a few years but have never tried to tune anything myself. I have had Wayne from big game archery balance the limbs and setup my bow but as far as I know its never been properly tuned. Its been shooting fine as far as I can tell but I think its possible to get it even better. Where would you start to make sure everything is tuned? I read articles on paper tuning but never really get around to doing it, is that a good place to start?

h4l

Eagle1
01-13-2007, 11:08 PM
I have had a compound bow for a few years but have never tried to tune anything myself. I have had Wayne from big game archery balance the limbs and setup my bow but as far as I know its never been properly tuned. Its been shooting fine as far as I can tell but I think its possible to get it even better. Where would you start to make sure everything is tuned? I read articles on paper tuning but never really get around to doing it, is that a good place to start?

h4l Thats a great place to start, a pro shop can only tune YOUR BOW only so much as every ones grip,stance,anchor,release, so on is different. You have to make time to tune the bow to your shooting style, if you bow hunt you owe it to the game you hunt, as a perfictly tuned arrow will fly true and have better penitration than one that flys wonkey{ good tech term}
If your able to get some coaching as well or even some one thats been doing archery for awhile to help you out.Balancing the limbs may work for Wayne but you might be a 1/4 turn top or 1/2 turn bottom, Robert Ragsdale has some good articles on tiller tuning.

Bow Walker
01-14-2007, 07:57 AM
Eagle 1 (Bill) is a pro shop owner, so he knows what he is talking about. If you understand "paper tuning" and you say that the bow has been set up by a shop, then go ahead and make yourself a paper tuning target. This will let you see just exactly how your arrows are flying and whether you need to adjust anything.

An easy paper tuning target can be made by removing both ends from a large cardboard box and taping a sheet of paper over one opening. Put the cardboard box about 5 yds in front of your regular target butt - you don't want to lose any arrows.

Stand about 7 - 10 yards in front of the paper tuning target and shoot an arrow through it, into your regular target. The resulting tear in the paper will tell you a lot about how your arrow is flying.
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/Paper_Tune_Chart.JPG

Hunter4life
01-14-2007, 09:28 PM
BowWalker, about the picture you put in your post. Don't you just move your sight when you hit high/low or left/right? Its lot simpler then moving nock points and the rest. I thought paper tuning is more about seeing if the arrow flies straight instead of whirling around.

4ptbuck
01-14-2007, 09:37 PM
The pic represents how to tune broad heads, as compared to field point. Field points tune easier. Look at the legend. The 3 arrow field point is represented by the center group.
The tuning with nock and rest is to group the broadheads to the fieldpoints. If both fly true and to the same poi then you're pretty much in tune.

4ptbuck
01-14-2007, 09:38 PM
Also the pic represents one aspect of tuning. It is not paper tuning. Paper tuning does involve looking for tears, and trying to achieve bullet holes.

Bow Walker
01-15-2007, 09:16 AM
BowWalker, about the picture you put in your post. Don't you just move your sight when you hit high/low or left/right? Its lot simpler then moving nock points and the rest. I thought paper tuning is more about seeing if the arrow flies straight instead of whirling around.
4pt is right in that the picture is geared towards tuning broadheads. Although the principle(s) are similar.

I paper tune with field points and look for that "bullet" hole - outlined by the fletching marks. I have yet to bare shaft paper tune.

Yes I do adjust center shot and, nock point when paper tuning. When you get to the paper you should not be too concerned with grouping yet. Save that for after you get your arrows flying right.

Hunter4life
01-15-2007, 08:01 PM
The pic represents how to tune broad heads, as compared to field point. Field points tune easier. Look at the legend. The 3 arrow field point is represented by the center group.
The tuning with nock and rest is to group the broadheads to the fieldpoints. If both fly true and to the same poi then you're pretty much in tune.

Thanks for the clarification. When you move your nock point or rest won't that also affect where the field points hit? If so how would you get your broad heads to hit the same place as your field points?

4ptbuck
01-16-2007, 01:32 AM
back and forth,... back and forth....

Bow Walker
01-16-2007, 08:24 AM
Thanks for the clarification. When you move your nock point or rest won't that also affect where the field points hit? If so how would you get your broad heads to hit the same place as your field points?
The idea is to first get your arrows (tipped w/ field points) flying true - out of your bow - that takes the bow out of the equation (hopefully) when trying to tune broadheads to fly true.

Some people cannot get b/h's to fly with their field tips at all. So they just adjust their sights for b/h's and then readjust for 3D, so long as the grouping(s) are tight in both cases and those groups are not far apart.

That's just some people. I don't know anyone (personally) who does this though. Everyone I know takes the time to sort the problem out.

willyqbc
01-16-2007, 08:47 AM
That's just some people. I don't know anyone (personally) who does this though. Everyone I know takes the time to sort the problem out.

I am fortunate enough to have a seperate bow for 3D and hunting so I tune my hunting bow exclusively for broadhead flight. My broadhead will not hit with my feild points but the bow is tuned for the tightest groups with the broadheads I shoot. I think the biggest reason people tune the broadheads to the same POI as the feild points is that they only have one bow and want to be able to practice and go to 3D's etc and know that they are hitting where they want to without changing the sight box all the time. That is not to say that I don't think you can't get great flight out of your BHeads by tuning them to your feild points....I just think its a little better to tune the bow for B-heads specifically if you have the luxury of more than one bow.

Chris

Onesock
01-16-2007, 08:59 AM
Hunter4life has a good question. If your bow is tuned so field points fly 100% and you move your nock point or rest to tune your broadheads, won't that then throw your field point adjustments out? Just curious.

willyqbc
01-16-2007, 12:44 PM
Onesock...i believe you compromise a little on each to get them to "meet in the middle" so to speak. When my broadheads are dialed in to their best groups my feild point groups suffer slightly and vice versa so, as stated above that is why I tune only my broadheads on my hunting bow. Honestly though if you ask anyone who knows me they will tell you i am a little particular about this stuff....some might even call it obsessive compulsive:lol: and the differences in group size I'm talking about....most people wouldn't give it a second thought...I'm just a little crazy at times:lol:

Chris

Eagle1
01-17-2007, 09:10 PM
I have 3 bows, whats yer point, or better yet field point?:twisted:

Heres the thing, screw a broadhead on your arrow, now your putting wings on the front of the arrow and it will steer it.
Put on the broadhead, stand it on a piece of glass or mirror and spin the arrow, if the broadhead spins true, no woople right at the insert, thats good, if it moves you can try it on another arrow, if not it will need a little tweaking, make two v bocks and attach them to a board so that one block is just infront of the fletch and the other is just behind the insert, give yourself a little room for different lenth broadheads, stand a block at the tip of the broadhead, slowly spin the arrow if its true put a mark on the block dead center of the tip
Now do your other arrows, you can tell which way the broadhead is out, put slight pressure to move it to center { be careful not to much pressure at once, you might have to do this a couple of times, CAREFUL broadheads are sharp, DAN!! use a small block of wood } Aluminium arrows you can just heat it slightly and give it a tweak, or turn it some.
Now all broadheads are true, shoot your field points, group of 3 or 4, then shoot a group of your broadheads, micro ajust your rest and nocking point till the groups come together, move only one thing at a time, IE arrow rest for right to left then nock for uo/down. I do this from about 30 meters.
a little stiffer arrow spine usually tunes with broadheads a little better.
I try to line up my blades with the fletch, in my books it seems to help.
I shoot Rocky Ironheads, 100 g and American Broadheads Sonic out to 50 meters right with my field points.
Remember if your broadheads are longer than your field points that will change the FOC and it could be harder to tune both to shoot in the same group.
Again this takes time cause you want to shoot the best arrows you can, and you owe it to the game you hunt. A true flying arrow gets better penatration.

Bow Walker
01-18-2007, 08:08 AM
If anyone is interested there is a good DVD out about tuning your compound. Here's the link. http://www.archerytalk.com/vb/showthread.php?t=421370

George Ryals IV (4th) is known far and wide (in the States) as "Griv".........he's an archery guru - one of many.

Another is Earl Rugland a.k.a. Le Earl. His DVD's are really good. I've got 2 of them. http://www.archerytalk.com/vb/showthread.php?t=266383&highlight=earl+dvd

They are worth the money.