Bareshafting with No Shelf

[YosemiteSam]

My little board bow is settling in nicely and I'm about ready to do the finish work.  Weighed in at 42# at 27" -- perfect for me.  It's nothing fancy or elegant to the eye but it's my own & it didn't come out at kid weight or bust within 100 shots so it's a success by my standards.

I had some 30-35 spine arrows that were already fletched & cut to 28".  I stripped off the feathers of one to get a better sense of the arrow flight.  It shows weak -- hitting about 10" left of fletched of aim when held vertical at 15 yards (left-handed).  I'm shooting straight off the knuckle with just a felt pad for a strike plate.  The total handle width is a little over 1/2" from center.

If I just shorten my draw a bit, the bareshaft hits about with my fletched at 15 yards but is pointed nock right all the way down (weak spine).  Stretched to 20 yards, the arrow tail is still nock right but then begins to guide the arrow left (shaft is steering) and it lands a foot or two left of fletched (sometimes off the hay bale completely).

My question is if getting straight flight from bareshafts is even possible when the shaft is bending around a wide handle.  Or is this just showing that I am just too weak and need stiffer spine?

[forestdweller]

Congrat's on your self bow.

Shooting off the knuckle is a lot of fun and feels more "traditional".

That being said I don't think it matters how wide the handle of the bow is.

If the arrow is tuned to the bow than the bareshafts should fly dead straight.

I'm just curious, whats your brace height?

Anything below 5" will cause really poor arrow flight in my experience.

5" to 6" seems to be a good brace to get good arrow flight with these board bows that tend to take some string follow.

Hopefully someone with more experience than me will chime in.

[Pat B]

How do the arrows shoot with the fletching on? If well, why bare shaft test them?

[YosemiteSam]

Forestdweller - brace height is just under 6.5".  The front inch or so of my fletching still rests on the strike plate.

PatB - okay, I think.  I don't trust my subjective observation since I've been wrong more than once on this sort of thing.  Bareshafts exaggerate everything so there leaves little doubt.

[YosemiteSam]

I shortened my draw incrementally (estimating with different anchor points) and got the bareshafts shooting straight at about a 20" draw.  At 3# per inch, that would mean I'm 18# under spined.  Seems odd that I'd need to go up from 30-35# spine to 50-55# on a 42# board bow with no shelf.  But the shafts were flying straight down the middle at that short draw (albeit not very fast).  If I'm figuring this wrong, please let me know.  Seems like it doesn't follow the general rules of thumb here.

[luv2bowhunt]

How heavy is the point that you are using? A heavier point will make an arrows dynamic spine weaker... just a thought.

It's fun to play around with stuff, but it seems like you may taking the long way around the barn.  1/2"+ from center, If you cant the bow over, get your aiming eye over the arrow and line it all up on a vertical from say 20 yards, what do the fletched arrows do?  There are lots of visual anomalies that can happen when shooting vertical with a side shooter.  Everyone gets their own cast out of any bow.  Some can go stiff, but most start out too stiff on spine choice.

[Bender]

Yes weak. Try significantly lighter points if you have them to confirm, before you actually cut any shafts any shorter.

As to WHY the OP wants to bareshaft tune, I would imagine that it may be because he would like to shoot more accurately.

Shooting with a shoot around riser like that is hard enough as it is without also fighting a sloppy set up.

[YosemiteSam]

Originally posted by luv2bowhunt:
How heavy is the point that you are using? A heavier point will make an arrows dynamic spine weaker... just a thought.

Just using standard 125s.

[YosemiteSam]

Originally posted by pavan:
It's fun to play around with stuff, but it seems like you may taking the long way around the barn.  1/2"+ from center, If you cant the bow over, get your aiming eye over the arrow and line it all up on a vertical from say 20 yards, what do the fletched arrows do?  There are lots of visual anomalies that can happen when shooting vertical with a side shooter.  Everyone gets their own cast out of any bow.  Some can go stiff, but most start out too stiff on spine choice.

That works fine for targets & with stiff arrows.  But on a hunting rig, I shoot all sorts of angles -- vertical, 20 degree, 45 degrees, 60 degrees, etc depending on how I'm sitting, standing & positioned with brush.  A little difference in point of impact is fine to me.  As you say, it's fairly easy to compensate.  But seeing the arrow visibly coming out at an angle seemed off to me & I figured broadheads would only exaggerate the effect downrange.

[YosemiteSam]

Originally posted by Bender:
Yes weak. Try significantly lighter points if you have them to confirm, before you actually cut any shafts any shorter.

As to WHY the OP wants to bareshaft tune, I would imagine that it may be because he would like to shoot more accurately.

Shooting with a shoot around riser like that is hard enough as it is without also fighting a sloppy set up.

Thanks, Bender.  I ordered some stiffer shafts & will play around with the tune when they arrived.  Some people like to standardize their shafts & vary the point weight.  I like to standardize my points and vary the shafts.