So as I've posted in some previous areas on here I received a new bow back in August. I contacted the bowyer with my thoughts on an arrow setup and he said it sounded good. I took his word that I was on the right track as he was the designer of the bow. I mean, he would know right?
So my bow is a reflex/defex design, 55# @ 28". I pull 27-28" and I wanted a heavier head on my arrows. I chose 55-60 douglas fir arrows with 160 grains up front. My friend and I built the arrows and they seemed to fly good. I didn't bare shaft and didn't paper tune as I thought I was good to go.
As the hunting season went on I passed on a few shots that would have been tricky to attempt and I'm glad I did looking back on it. As I shot on my off days from hunting I was noticing that my arrows were hitting nock high and to the right. At first I thought it was me and my angle to the target. Well, I changed that and squared up to the target. Nope, still nock high and right.
I'm a left hand shooter so I knew I was weak and maybe a little off on my knock point. So I pulled out the paper tuner I have and fired a few shots. WHOA! I was way off. I was getting a horrible tear up and to the right. About the 2 o'clock position on a watch face. I couldn't shorten the arrow really and the only other option would have been a lighter tip weight which I didn't have.
I talked it over with my buddy Dennis and he had some 60-65 fir shafts and various tip weights I could mess around with. Groovy, I took him up on the offer and tried it out. I tried everything from 30" down to 28" arrows. Tip weights from 125, 145, 160 and 190. All of them still showed too weak.
I broke down and bought a test kit from 3 Rivers and anxiously waited. In the mean time I messed around with some different numbers and Stu Millers calculator. It was showing me I should try 75-80 or 80-85! So when the kit arrived I grabbed an 80-85, cut and tapered it to 30" and tried a shot. This is what I got:
As you can see from my notes on the paper I cut the arrow in half inch increments and kept at it. Once I got to 29 I cut by 1/4" increments. That is the top two tears that are unmarked. Once I cut it to 28.5" I got the result I was looking for.
As you can see I'm still a little nock high but that was quickly remedied with a new nock set. So I'm dialed in and have some stiffer spine arrows on the way.
The moral of the story is don't assume. I'm glad I didn't take a shot at any animals yet this season. A marginal hit would have been unethical to say the least. Tune your bow and arrows folks. We owe it if we're hunting with them.
-Jeremy
Paper Tuning Lesson
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Re: Paper Tuning Lesson
A very good point, Jeremy. Many times I think we obsess over minute details like how straight a shaft is and overlook the big picture...like paper tuning. It's such an easy task but so frequently gets left undone.
Aim small, miss small!
Re: Paper Tuning Lesson
Good stuff Jeremy; thanks for sharing.
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Re: Paper Tuning Lesson
Excellent post, Jeremy! I can't wait to tune my bow to woodies this week too.