I've been shooting wooden arrows exclusively for the last 8 or 10 years, and get great results and enjoyment shooting them. After using them for this long, I thought I had this wooden arrow tuning thing pretty well sorted out.
Turns out we're never too old to learn something.
Although I don't shoot it as much as my heavy bow, I thought I had my 55# longbow set up and tuned quite well, and I thought it was pretty quiet too.
After getting some curious (to me) bare shaft flight with it a week or so back, I posted about it here on tradgang. Some of the feedback got me thinking about tuning, and strings.
I'd been using my bow manufacturers stock 14 strand D97 strings and they have been good, but on a whim I tried an 18 strand BCY-X string.
Man-oh-man, that new string has made such a big difference. It's now a different bow. The arrows are definately flying better, and the bow is noticeably quieter too. I thought it was pretty quiet before, but now the arrow hitting the hay bale at 20 yards sounds louder than when the arrow is released.
Before, there was the occasional little left/right tail wriggle as the arrow flew downrange (still a tad too weak methinks now), but as they were shooting pretty good holes through paper more often than not, I assumed it was just me with a poor release. The few left or right "fliers" I put down to my much less than perfect form.
Turns out maybe it wasn't such a poor release or average form after all. Maybe the arrows were just on the edge, OK but not properly tuned as well as I had thought they were.
Probably should have thought of this before, because I've always shot my other, heavier bow considerably better than this one. Brain can be a bit slow sometimes.
Anyway, now with this new string, that occasional tail wriggle is GONE, and the arrows make bullet holes in the paper pretty much ALL the time, from 6 feet back to 24 feet, and every 3 feet between.
On the target bale, my first four arrows at 20 yards made a tight 2" group. In fact all of the two dozen shots I had at that distance could have been covered with the palm of my hand, all right on the aiming mark too.
And it wasn't just a once off good day either, it's been shooting like that every day for a week now, with at least a couple of dozen arrows every day.
Walk up/walk back one shot shooting practice has never been so much fun, from about 5 yards to around 33 yards, the shots all seem to stay within a couple of inches either side of the vertical line. Any little discrepancies up or down are purely my fault, and they are getting less and less.
Like I said earlier, I thought I had my two bows tuned fairly well, but now my tuning benchmark has definately been raised.
I've had an 18 strand BCY-X string on my heavy bow, a 75# longbow, for about 12 months and I KNOW I've got that one tuned spot on. It shoots so extremely well and is very quiet. But I'm keen to shoot it along side the 55# now.
Although it might take a while longer before I get to shoot my big bow, I've only worked back up to the 55#er after shoulder surgery 4 months ago.
I'm not exactly sure what changed when I changed strings. Thinking about it, maybe it made the arrows dynamic spine a little stiffer, but at the moment, honestly I'm not really concerned with what changed. The bow just shoots so good now, and I'm enjoying shooting it immensely.
Rest assured though, I have certainly recorded all the details of the string, brace height, silencer positions etc for future reference.
Never thought string material could make such a noticeable difference.
A happy coincidence perhaps, but I'll take it. I've never shot this bow so well, consistantly.
Thanks again to Chad and Daniel for sharing your infomation on strings and making them.
Best
Lex
Topic: Thought I had my longbow well tuned and quiet.......Not. (Read 380 times)
