yesterday I got to test out my new to me morningstar and found my 45-50 arrows where kicking left right out of the gate when shot showing a weak spine.
the bow should be about 53# @ my draw and 45/50's are usually pretty matched to the hill style bows, so like Kirk mentioned above I removed the thick 1/8" leather side plate and tried the bow at its max brace height with no sideplate at all this time and the arrows now looked pretty darn good with no noticable kick at release,,the real test would be the final test with a wide two blade broadhead.
I think with all my tuning I'll start 1st by taking the plates right off and go from there on the bare shelf maybe blue masking tape to cover the finish,, I always tuned to the exisiting strike plates but I think removing them (only if they are thick) moves the process along a lot faster.
I guess this would be for people real serious with tuning and might be on the extreme side but point is the side plate and changing the center shot is a bigger deal than i thought.