Confused about bareshaft testing results.

[rwarrich]

I baretested 3 different spines of arrows today and am now very confused.  I am shooting a longbow with a 52 lb draw at 29 inches.  It has a shelf and appears to be cut to almost centershot.  I shot 45-50, 50-55 and 55-60 spined cedar shafts full length with 125 grain field points.  After shooting for a while, the shafts all were nock right, which indicates that I am over spined.  Another thing that surfaced was that all the shafts 'curved' to the left from center, anywhere from 2 to 3 feet, with the heavier spines being farthest.  I also noticed that it seemed to be a rattle when I shot, like the shaft hitting the side of the shelf.  Not sure what I need to do to correct this.  Shafts have been gone through and straightened as needed and the points spin true.  Any and all sugestions are welcomed and appreciated.

[jacobsladder]

when you say full length..how long exactly.? are you right handed or left? what type of longbow? and fastflight or dacron...need some more info..thanks!

[rwarrich]

I am shooting a right-handed 72 inch hickory longbow with a shelf that appears to be cut to the centerline of the bow,maybe 1/32 inch past.  I have a Flemish string of dacron, the arrows measure 31 1/2.  I am not familiar with the 'styles' of longbows so I can't tell you that, I purchased this bow off of **** from a gentleman who rough-cuts and rough forms the bow to your specifcations and you do the finish sanding.  I have been shooting this bow for a year now and am trying to improve my accuracy by getting more familiar with tuning a bow and arrows.

[jacobsladder]

thanks for the info! To start with ..becareful bareshafting woodies..they can crack when hitting the tartet at an angle... i think you would be better off fletching 3 of each arrow and shooting them from 30 yds with your broadheads and see how they fly... if you find one that flys well with a broadhead..then you know youll be good with a fieldpoint.. I will give you my best guess...if this is a hickory selfbow..im guessing that the bow is probably cut just shy of center.. assuming the bow has been tillered correctly, i would say you would want to lean towards the weaker shaft... the arrow needs to be weak enough to bend around the riser..i still think that the 50/55 should be plenty weak at 31.5".... try raising your nock point up to around 3/4" high..this should clean up any contact with the shelf..... hold your bow vertical at 30 yds and shoot all 3 shafts again fletched... you should find the one that flys the best.. assuming you hunt i'd tune them with the broadheads on them..... 10 yds is too close..back up to 30 and give the arrow a chance to recover from paradox and tell you what theyre doing..if you see a ball of feathers heading to the target with no wag or porpoise.. youll be good to go... It is possible to get a false reading where a weak arrow slaps against the riser and heads left...giving a false stiff reading... but i really dont think this is the case....good luck and let us know how it goes!

[McDave]

I don't think you're going to get all the accuracy and performance you can out of your bow until you can shoot a bare shaft that gives a weak indication, i.e. nock left, and then back off a little from that.  The indications you are getting, with the heavier spines impacting further to the left, are consistent with an overspined shaft.

You may be getting nock right because you just need to keep trying weaker spined arrows, either by going down further in spine weight or by adding more weight to the tip.  Or, you might be doing something with your form that is causing the rattle you hear and is causing the arrow to veer off to the left.  Either way, it needs to be solved or you're not getting maximum performance out of the bow.

A longbow that is not cut to center-shot is going to require a weaker spined arrow than a recurve that is cut to center-shot.  If you're shooting an arrow that is too stiff, it may be impacting the riser because it doesn't have enough paradox to clear the riser.

[jacobsladder]

Bareshafting is the way to go providing you have perfect form and excellent release. The correct arrow can show stiff the first time you collapse or short draw...Honestly, i really like O'Ls process..Woodies can be damaged easily during bareshaft testing.. I also forgot to mention to check for nock tightness....good luck!

[rwarrich]

This has just got me really confused.  I have shot my older arrows, fletched and shorter that the bareshafts and indicate just slightly overspined and they don't curve to the left like the bareshafts did. How could my arrow spine be 5-10 lbs below my draw weight?  Is it possible that my rest is right of center?  It doesn't measure that way but I have had stranger things happen to me before.... I am going to leave the bareshafts alone and build out the side of my rest some and see what happens.  Also, where should the arrow contact the rest?  Mine sits on the rest at the front of the bow, I seen mention that is should rest somewhere over or behind the back part of the grip.

[McDave]

The further out you move your strikeplate, the weaker arrow you need, so if you build out your strikeplate, you will need a weaker arrow than if you don't build it out.

Take two pieces of white adhesive tape and stick one across the middle of the top limb and one across the middle of the bottom limb.  Mark the center of each piece of tape.  Then hold the bow with the string facing you and center the string on the marks.  Look straight across the string at the arrow shelf, keeping the marks centered on the string, and you should be able to tell how close to centershot the shelf is cut.

It is entirely possible that your arrow spine should be 5-10 lbs below your draw weight if you are shooting a longbow that is not cut past centershot (so that the arrow itself is actually centershot, which would be very unusual for a longbow).

[snag]

If the bow is center cut or there abouts you definitely are NOT going to be shooting less spine weight than you bow. Especially with only 125gr tips. I would think that with such weak shafts for your bow they are whipping against your riser and showing stiff. I would go to 60-65# shafts and cut down to tune. Do you really want to shoot 125gr tips? If not, and you want a heavier broadhead or field tip use that weight when tuning. I think you'll see some good results with a heavier spine arrow.

[McDave]

I agree with what snag is saying if your bow is cut past center.  However, given that it is a partially home built hickory longbow, it seems unusual that it would be cut past center.  It might be worth checking, as I outlined above, to see where the strikeplate actually is with respect to the centerline of the bow.

[jacobsladder]

I agree with McDave... it would be unusual to have a hickory home built longbow cut to center...most likeley shy of center...a bow like this usually requires 5-10 pounds less spine to shoot correctly....

[rwarrich]

Well guys, I checked where the strikeplate is and as far as I can tell, it lines up with the right side of the string, making it slightly cut past center and since it runs nearly straight up the center of the bow, making it almost centershot.  I did some more testing today and built out the plate.  I took some thin leather and duct-taped it to the plate and the arrows showed great improvement.  Even the rattle disappeared.  I ended up building out the plate nearly a 1/4 inch with leather and duct tape.  The 45-50 shafts showed more weaker than the 50-55 shafts showed stiff.  Even the older fletched arrows that are cut to 29 inches to the back of the field point flew almost perfectly, maybe a little stiff.  So, my choices are to either go with heavier shafts or permently build out the strike plate and use lighter shafts like what I have now.  Guess I am going to have to try shooting more each way and see which I prefer....was able to place 4 out of 6 arrows into a 6 inch circle at 20 yds with the built-out plate, not bad for just testing.  One of the major things I did notice with the plate build out was that it was shooting quieter, so that will also be a consideration.  Well, got nice weather this weekend, so more testing will get done.