Ok, I'm stumped and need some advice!

I am a trad veteran around my area and I get asked by a lot of folks to help them out. Usually this goes very well and the person asking for the help goes home with some new knowledge and a much better tuned set-up.

I do most of my tuning by paper tuning and have no problems with just about any bow. I shoot through the paper and can instantly see what I need to do to make my arrow tune to my bow. I shoot split-fingered and employ a very low anchor.

On several occasions I have been helping guys out and I have had one major problem that I cannot figure out and need someone to give me some ideas.

I have had 3 different guys come to the shop for tuning help that I just could not get tuned. These 3 guys were all 3-under shooters. In all 3 instances they would produce a tear in the paper that indicated a very weak spined arrow. No matter what we did with the arrow or which direction we went (stiffening up or weakening) these guys kept showing the same tear in the paper.

One of the guys I had try a split fingered release and presto.....a near bullet hole. He was a very new shooter and changed to a split fingered release and has been improving since. The other two guys were set on a 3-under release and I could not get any further with tuning or give them any ideas as to wht needs to change.

If anyone has any experience with this and can give me some suggestions to try I would appreciate it. Both the guys that I could not help were noticably frustrated when we finished.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Bisch

[McDave]

You evidently have a lot more experience with tuning than I do, as I have only myself to experiment on. However, I have tuned a lot of bows to shoot 3 under, as I enjoy buying and selling bows and shooting different bows.

I have never had a problem tuning a modern recurve to shoot carbon or aluminum arrows. However, I also like to enter longbow competitions where wooden arrows are required. I have found it difficult to tune wooden arrows to shoot in the lighter weight longbows I would like to use in competition.  It seems  that within any reasonable range of what I want to shoot, they indicate weak. I could go to a really heavy arrow, but that would defeat the purpose of what I want to do.  So I just trust the feathers to straighten them out and they shoot pretty well.

I assume with your experience, you know to start tuning with the nock point set too high and the shaft purposely weak to avoid false positives, so I won't dwell on that. But I do believe there are certain bow/arrow combinations that resist 3 under tuning, apart from whatever problems the archer may introduce into the process.

[Randy M]

If the bow was tillered for split fngered shooters vs 3 under, I wonder if that would make the bow shoot wonky regardless of arrow spine?

[RC]

My Mohawk showed weak till I eased the nock up  higher than when I shot split.
  Crazy but if my elbow is a bit low on the string hand and don`t pull through it shows weak...seams it would be oppisite.RC

[toddster]

Randy hit it on the head.  I had few people with similar problems.  If the bow is not tillered or designed for shooting 3 under, then the limbs will not be in time and the arrow will leave the bow erraticly.  Now that being said, that doesn't mean a person cann't take a bow tilled for "split finger" and shoot it 3 under and not hit a taget at 20 yards, you can.  But you will not get it to paper tune, or bare shaft tune.

[Caughtandhobble]

Bisch,

I'm sure you saw this... Try two string nocks, one below arrow nock to prevent the arrow from sliding down during the release. This has worked well for me for some time.

[OBXarcher]

I have had the same thing with several bows. It was always a torqueing release. Elbow to high and back of the hand not parallel the string.

[LongStick64]

I would check where the finger pressure is and if they are pushing up on the arrow.

[babs]

a stick on rest like the one bear sells has helped me alot, I think ken beck said this on masters of te bare bow 2. some people cant get good results shooting off the shelf he said. just my 2 cents cant hurt to try

[BobCo 1965]

Did changing from 3 under to split change the vertical tear at all or did it stay exactly the same and only change the horizontal tear?

[Dawnpatrol]

My guess is finger pressure. I'm willing to bet they have a callus developing on their bottom finger from string pinch and to much downward pressure. Try putting more pressure on the middle and top fingers closer to the arrow. Bet they get better flight. Probably not a tuning issue. In my experience you can tune around a bow tillered for split.

[RedShaft]

Did you ever see the footage of how the arrow drops in slow motion from a 3 under shooter? thats when they dont have 2 nocking points.. could that cause it? i know its showing too weak, but maybe the arrow slides down the string upon release and then kicks off the side of the shelf showing weak arrow? maybe something to check out..