I think carbon shafts are about the best thing out there. However I also feel they are the most difficult to tune for newcomers. Aluminums are for sure the easiest. Here are a few tips for people just trying out carbons that have helped me.
For one, go to
www.bomaker.net and read O.L.'s part about bareshaft tuning. But when you start doing this, make changes VERY SMALL! When you start cutting down carbon shafts, a little bit goes a Long way. Cut a quarter inch at a time. Don't just start cutting them down a half inch or an inch at a time. I like to get my fletched shafts and my bare shafts to group within a few inches of each other at 20 yards, with the bareshafts grouping slightly to the right for a right handed shooter.
Don't skip O.L.s steps either. The first step that he talks about is figuring out where your nock point should be. If your nock point is off, you can get some weird readings on your bareshafts versus your fletched shafts. Get your arrow grouping so that the nocks are always close to each other as far as up and down before you start messing around with cutting the shafts. Start out low, and then move up. not the other way around. Make sure you make small adjustments here. 1/32" can make a major difference. It has been my experience that nock points in the wrong place will normally make your arrows seem stiffer than they are due to bouncing off the shelf or fletching clearance problems.
When you are doing your bareshafting make sure that you are using points that are exactly the same weight as your broadheads.
Finally, when you think you have your arrows tuned, put a broadhead on and see what happens. Your broadhead will reveal any problems.
Last but not least, when you finally have everything in order, write it down. Make sure you know exactly where your brace height is and your nock point when you get everything flying good. This will save you alot of agonizing time if you ever forget.
I've been shooting carbons for a few years, but I still have a hard time tuning them in comparison to aluminum shafts. Once I finally get them right, I love them, but they can be really frustrating to tune.
I will also add this. Grizzly stick shafts are by far the easiest carbon shafts to tune that I have ever tried. I'm sure it has something to do with the tapered design. There is less chance for fletching clearance problems, plus they recover much faster than most other shafts. For those who are getting ready to try their first set of carbon arrows, I highly suggest that you try grizzly sticks first.
Topic: Tips for tuning carbons. (Read 2085 times)
