Bare shaft tuning ..... Question ?

[4D]

If you tune your arrows with no feathers , then glue your feathers on , does this stiffen the arrow shaft or make the spine more flexible and weaker ?  Thanks for any input .

[katman]

Any weight added the the rear of the arrow will make it shoot stiffer. Most will tune bare shaft slightly weak compared to fletched.

[olddogrib]

I think you'll find the consensus is that some folks prefer to leave bare shafts slightly weak. Adding weight (fletching) to the tail end of an arrow will slightly stiffen it. Lol, Kat was split second faster on the draw!

[BigJim]

I don't think it is quite that critical. Most guys arrows are so out of tune and they still think they fly like darts....but I guess if you can get it to fly that good, why not.

In reality, if you were to get a perfectly straight bare shaft, it would probably be better than slightly weak since the broad head of the exact same weight would still prefer or handle a slightly stiff shaft.

Remember that a perfect tune requires a perfectly consistent shooter...where do you find that person. It is certainly not me.
Bigjim

[katman]

4D, if you plan to hunt once you are close with bareshaft tuning switch to broadhead and field point fletched shafts impacting as close to identical as you can. Some of us take tuning to the extremes, may not be necessary since a lot of guys/gals kill critters and according to Jim "most guys arrows are so out of tune"(which I agree with).

Depending on type/style broadhead that may require a straight or slightly weak bareshaft for me. I don't care which one, the braodhead/field point comparison figures that out. I never had a broadhead do better with a slightly stiff bareshaft, but will log that into the data bank as Jim has been at this a long time. Yeah I can get anal about it, something to do in off season requiring shooting my bow and that's good.

So I answer your question with stiffens it dynamically.

[the rifleman]

I agree with big Jim.  I do make every effort to tune my set up, but and I may be in the minority, I find I do make changes as I continue to refine my form throughout my journey.  I find that some days a variance of 40 or 50 grains of point weight makes little difference while on other days it does--- again weakest link in my set up is me.  If my broadheads hit and group where I look I am happy.  In short, I do tune slightly weak because in my hunting I find myself in positions that may result in a shorter draw sometimes, but never result in a longer draw.  I get great penetration on deer with a 42 pound longbow so I am satisfied.

[John3]

Accept NO nock left (weak) when tuning... A touch of nock right is unavoidable for some shooters style and will be right down the middle with a longer broadhead on the front when fletched...  In all my years I have never noticed any issues what so ever after fletching regarding more stiff... I should add that I accept nothing but perfect arrow flight when bare shafting and then I "super fine tune" after I fletch the arrows using broadheads.  Yes I tune my arrows with the broadheads attached.  Spend the time and accept nothing but perfect broadhead arrow flight.

[Friend]

I hunt with hi range EFOC or Ultra EFOC arrows which are much more forgiving in bare shaft tuning.
When bare shaft tuning out to 40 yards, all my fletched shaft BH tipped setups are on point within my effective hunting range.

Note: a range of 30 to 40 yard bare shaft tuning may be plenty. I have had experiences where when seemingly spot on at 20 yards that my BH's marked 4"s off...adjusted brace ht, then bare shaft, field point and BH shared the same mark. Sometimes I just forgoe bareshaft tuning and just tune field points and Broadheads. However, some of my practice seesions are bare shaft only so bare shaft tuning is often the norm. The Broadhead flight always takes presidence over bareshaft tuning.

[BigJim]

The bigger the broad head the stiffer the shaft will need to be.  This is in reference to length and girth even though they may be identical weight.

I'm not satisfied unless my broad heads fly where I look, period. If they do that, field points will too.
We know that field points can fly where we look even if they don't look good doing it.
BigJim

[Broken Arrows]

The bigger the broad head the stiffer the shaft will need to be. This is in reference to length and girth even though they may be identical weight.

This statement is very true I have experienced this last season. Same weight BH but shorter and they all tended to hit to the left of the longer BH. This is the first time I have heard of this and I was wondering what was going on I do shoot ok but my form is far from prefect. I stayed using the longer BH with great results.

[gonefishing600]

Originally posted by Friend:
The Broadhead flight always takes presidence over bareshaft tuning.

[fmscan]

Great input guys at 69 yrs old, I still have soooo much to learn...