Is building out your side plate a lot a bad thing?

[Matabele]

Just been playing with the Dynamic Spine Calculator and in order for an 29" Axis 300 with 385gr up front to spine correctly out of a 70# bow, it said I needed to build out the side plate to 3/8".

Is this ok, or are there problems that could arise if you build it out too far?

[Shawn Leonard]

Dont understand the question, the most a bow is cut past center would be 5/16ths. and that is a whole lot. If you are saying ya want it 3/8ths. from center I would say you will run out of shelf on any bow I know of. Why not just go up to a .350 and shoot the 385 up front? Shawn

[jrchambers]

i wouldnt worry do much just make the arow fit the bow you can ad a little but if it is substantial you should combine all aspects of arow tuning cutting shorter if able a little les weight up front and a little shelf should get you there more reasonably.

[mooseman76]

Shawn, I think he is asking about the side plate being built up so it is 3/8" before center...Mike

[COOCH]

I'm not sure about building your sideplate out that far seems a little excessive to me.Im not sure if this will help but I'll add my 2 cents I'm shooting a 70# @ 28 bighorn recurve drawing it 29 It shoots an axis 340 w/433 grains up front cut to 29.5 BOP with a 8" internal hardwood footing they fly perfectly.I did't change the side plate at all.Hope this helps.

[pdk25]

Building it out that far wouldn't leave much, if any room for an arrow.  I think that is what Sean is saying.  I know that you can build out your sideplate, but for me I usually find it easier to adjust point weight on the arrow.  In this case I agree with Sean, I would be more inclined to get slightly lighter spined arrows since it seems like the point weight is really getting up their already.

[mooseman76]

yep, now I see that.  I read it wrong the first time...Mike

[daveycrockett]

A little goes a long ways!

[ishoot4thrills]

There's nothing wrong with building out your side plate to accommodate an arrow that is too weak. As long as your arrow doesn't fall off of the side of your shelf! I built out the side plate of my Predator recurve so I could shoot some 2016s that I had weakened by adding weight up front inside the shaft to shoot out of a lesser poundage draw weight bow I had before. It was a lot quicker putting material behind my side plate than it would've been by taking all the weight's out of the end of my arrows.(I had hot-melted 87 grain rifle bullets behind my inserts.)
 
Adding material to your side plate is very simple if you have some extra strike plate material to begin with. I use industrial Velcro with adhesive backing. It's easy to remove from your bow and just stick a little piece on the side of your shelf plate and then cut out the shape you want from another piece and stick it on top of the little piece that you built it out with and you're done. If it's too much then remove it and trim the material down a bit until it's right. Works real well, especially if you don't have an arrow cut-off saw. Anyway, it worked extremely well for my setup.

Doug

[Matabele]

Great info, thanks for the input everyone.

Shawn, I mentioned 3/8” of an inch as that’s what was recommended by the calculator. It measures 3/8” from the center line of the bow to the farthest edge of the strike plate where your arrow butts up against. I just measured my FireFly and reckon I could get away with building out the shelf to 3/8”…just, and that’s only cause I was thinking of using the skinny Axis. Like you were saying ¼” is prob more practical. I was wondering though what the cons are to doing this…more paradox to overcome, not as forgiving etc?

You said why don’t I move to a .350? Did you mean .250 maybe, as .350 would be weaker and make the prob worse. I think the Axis FMJ Dangerous Game is available in .250 spine.

Interesting stuff Cooch that you are getting enough spine, you’ve basically duplicated the setup I was aiming for. Did you try bare shafting this setup? Id be interested to know how they were flying.

Thanks again.

[COOCH]

Matabele that arrow setup was showing slightly weak when bare shaft testing even when I fletched a few they were better but still weak.when I started playing around with an internal footing they were almost perfect I refletched and now they are tack drivers.The 8" internal footing made all the differnce.Funny thing is I have soom axis 300's and they are giving me fits trying to tune them out of the same bow they keep showing to stiff.