BARESHAFT QUESTIONS

[JESSE69]

WHAT DOES SHOOTING A BARESHAFT SHOW YOU?DUMB QUESTION,THATS WITHOUT FEATHERS RIGHT?HOW WILL THIS HELP ME,I'VE READ A LITTLE ON HERE BUT IAM STILL A LITTLE UNCLEAR.  

[BLACK WOLF]

In order for a bareshaft to show anything of importance...you need to make sure that you have established at least some consistantcy in your form or it can end up being a lesson in frustration.

The bareshaft will indicate how tuned your bow and arrow combination are.

A bareshaft that flies straight without any porpusing or fishtailing or groups well with your fletched arrows indicates that your equipment is tuned properly.

When you tune your bow and arrow...your arrow will be more accurate, more forgiving and have more penetrating potential than equipment that isn't tuned.

Ray  

[O.L. Adcock]

There are 2 different methods, the one Ray discribes is a recipe for frustration, the other works very well and is NOT dependant on good form.
You can do exactly the same tuning with wide matched weight broadheads so you don't have to "bare shaft" to get good tuning. Bottom line is whatever your bare shafts or wide broadheads are doing, so are your field tips.

Ray said, "A bareshaft that flies straight without any porpusing or fishtailing"  Most of that is caused by your form and equipment quirks you can not fix, therefore is futile to try to get shafts to fly "straight". Most that strive to get shafts to fly straight wind up being over spined ..O.L.

 http://www.bowmaker.net/tuning.htm

[JESSE69]

THANX GUYS,I HAVE A LITTLE BETTER UNDERSTANDING.

[Hard Head]

O.L.: If I were to buy new carbon Express could I cut them to my 26" draw and then tune them?? Or leave them full length and haft to cut them to a better tune
? Reason I ask is that I do not have a cutter and can buy them cut. Help me please. THANKS  - Hard Head -

[O.L. Adcock]

HH, Sure you can but you are taking away a tuning option. If over spined you'll be forced into point weight only, assuming you are as close to centershot as you can get.....O.L.

[Hard Head]

O.L. - Understand. THANKS HH

[Shooterboy]

Originally posted by O.L. Adcock:
There are 2 different methods, the one Ray discribes is a recipe for frustration, the other works very well and is NOT dependant on good form.
You can do exactly the same tuning with wide matched weight broadheads so you don't have to "bare shaft" to get good tuning. Bottom line is whatever your bare shafts or wide broadheads are doing, so are your field tips.

Ray said, "A bareshaft that flies straight without any porpusing or fishtailing"  Most of that is caused by your form and equipment quirks you can not fix, therefore is futile to try to get shafts to fly "straight". Most that strive to get shafts to fly straight wind up being over spined ..O.L.

  http://www.bowmaker.net/tuning.htm  

[Shooterboy]

I am new to this forum and can only speak from my own experiences.  I tend to agree with Ray "Black Wolf" in his assessment of "bare shaft" tuning including his point related to "good form"; however I have seen and been able to be successful with bare shaft tuning without perfect form. One year ago, I converted from the Compound bow to traditional so I have had one year of the learning curve; I read the books, watched the videos and then started applying what I learned. I also attended a Black Wido Shooting Clinic and saw first hand how Mr. Ken Beck used bare shaft tuning for all twenty attendees to get the arrows shooting straighter, regardless of form and there were a lot of brand new shooters and some with two years or more with descent form.  I am a big fan of O.L. as I bought an ACS Z CX Longbow and actually won the second day "shootout" at the Black Widow Shooting Clinic. I agree with Ray in that form does make a difference, but this Shooting Class of 20 had form all over the place and we all saw how shooting bare shaft and paying attention to the arrow in flight as well as the impact position (target may flaw the impact position) can clearly indicate high/low nock or weak/stiff shaft.  I don't believe that the nock left or right requires perfect form to clearly see; at the shooting clinic, I watched most of the 20 shooters go through this and it was clear and obvious to everyone that the arrow was flying nock left/right or high/low and when an adjustment was made (added point weight, etc.), the arrow flight was improved, most of the time. This was not a scientific study, but the results seemed to be very beneficial to everyone's shooting and I believe everyone benefited from Mr. Beck's approach to tuning.  

I did my own bare shaft tuning prior to attending this class and interestingly enough, most of my bare bow tuning instructions came from O.L. Adcock's site, A&H Archery and Black Widow's websites.  With relatively poor form initially, I was able to get my bare shafts shooting very straight with groupings that were within the fletched shafts with a lot of shooting.  I used a lot of different methods and most worked to confirm the others.

Summary - bare shaft tuning did work for me even with less than "desirable form" and it worked for the attendees at the shooting clinic.

[BLACK WOLF]

LOL...yep...here's the 2 (TWO) different methods I touched on      

The Kick Method supported by Black Widow where the archer tries to eliminate any fishtailing (stiff or weak kick) or porpusing (to high or to low nock) and the Planning Method supported by O.L. where the archer tries to get the bareshaft to group with their fletched arrows      

I've personally used the Kick Method for years because that is the one I first learned how to do and my form and release are pretty good to get consistant results.

I've been able to tune bareshafts this way to hit Clout polls at over a 100yrds.

It's a thing of beauty to get your bareshafts flying perfectly...but the reality is...if your bareshafts are flying perfectly straight...they will be just a tad stiff once you put feathers on them so I actually make my bareshafts fly with a very slight weak indication. I than fletch them up and paper tune them to totally dial them in.

No one really needs to be as anal about their tuning as I am but if you're looking for perfection in your equipment and your abilities...I highly suggest you tune your equipment to the best of your ability...whatever tuning method you may choose.

Ray    

[BLACK WOLF]

I agree Shooterboy!

Everyone can benefit from doing some form of tuning even if their form is less than perfect but based on my experience...the Kick Method supported by Black Widow can be a lesson in frustration for SOME people who are really struggling with form issues or a specific aspect of their form.

The Planning Method or the Broadhead Method supported by O.L. are the better ones,IMO for beginners and intermediate archers...and that doesn't mean that Advanced and Expert archers need to use the Kick Method.

Ray