This has been such a great learning experience. Thanks for entertaining this guys and for all the wisdom.
So last night I got a pretty good shock. I went out after work to shoot a bit like I have been. It seems every day when I look at it with a fresh set of eyes I can see a little more of what needs to be done.
I have the old trad lites and my new nitro stinger oranges. One of each is 4 4" fletched and 5-5.5" 3 fletched. I realized that my tail kick was worse on both 4 fletched arrows. It was still there slightly with the 3 fletched 5". And with a fresh set of eyes (and some daylight for a change) just slightly there with the old 5.5" fletched trad lite.
So I observe that the more feather in contact with the shelf the worse the kick gets. And the Old trad lite just looks the best because it has less spine and less feathers and largest profile of all.
It seems to me that the arrow is not flexing around the shaft enough to clear the feathers. This is also supported by noting that for the first time in my experience, flight gets worse with cock feather in.
I have to think more about this. I am baffled on how to solve this problem at the moment. Maybe I am just stuck with too stiff of shaft? My personal rule is to never buy on a whim and I did here. I had planned to get the AD Yellows with a .350 spine (same exact as the trad lites) but they didn't have any to try and I was surprised at how well the oranges shot bare shaft with no tuning at 20 yards. I think I screwed up.
Then since I was as 'tuned' as I could get at the moment, I took off my brand new SBD string and put on my old string just for a comparison. What I was looking for I didn't know, but wow was I surprised.
I strung it up, didn't set brace height but noted where it was (7-1/8" [7 is min]) and when I shot it I almost couldn't believe it. It was so much quieter it was almost not even comparable. I noticed the new string was louder when I first put it on but figured that was because it was new. I think the old one is also a SBD (looks exactly the same) but I am almost positive at this point that it has hush puppies and bow hush. And it seemed all the arrows flew better i.e. less kick. At this point I was utterly baffled and it was almost dark.
So I'll have to continue with that tonight. In the mean time, can we talk more about this:
Originally posted by Jake Scott:
A change in string material and construction type will also change a bows dynamic spine requirement.
I realize its a little late now but this is absolutely true.
Jake [/b]
If you need me, I'll be sitting here with my eyes crossed....