Getting back into it

[Camp Creek]

I finally got back into bow hunting this year after several years off and found this site searching for instructions on a European mount.  After a mostly successful shoulder surgery, I was able to work back up to shooting a longbow I had made back when there were two Germanies and people thought Milli Vanilli sang their own songs.
After blowing the dust off of a tackle box with a JoJan fletching jig and an assortment of points, nocks , glue, etc. I was good to go after a call or two to 3 Rivers for some shafts and fletching.  No deer with a bow this year, but I had forgotten how much fun it was to hunt with a bow.

In the off season, I want to really fine tune everything and would like some thoughts and expertise on my plan:
Just got a test pack of douglas fir shafts from Surewood and plan on paper tuning with those to determine best spine and length.  I want to shoot at least 160gr head, so I'm trying to hold that constant if possible. 
Is paper tuning the best way to go?  The cedar arrows I have now seem to leave a nice clean hole.
Any thoughts on fletching tape instead of glue?  I'd never seen that before.
Is there anything else new in the past 30+ years I should look into?
The whole traditional trend seems to be much more popular now!

Thanks

[Wudstix]

Start back simple and slow.
 

[Orion]

Welcome back. 

Fletching tape works about as well as glue. 

Big changes over the past 30 years are carbon arrow shafting and low stretch strings, and I suppose carbon limb laminations and super recurve designs as well as hybrid bows (generally shorter bows with recurve (pistol grip) handles and extreme deflex/reflex limbs).     

Paper tuning was primarily introduced and popularized by wheelie shooters after they switched to trad bows.  Probably some trad folks who looked at wheelie shooters and just thought it was a good idea as well.  Not everyone does it, and it usually doesn't work too good with wood shafts because unless you''re already close to the correct spine, the arrows can leave the bow at a substantial angle and break when they hit the back stop behind the paper.

Same problem with bare shaft tuning, which is very similar.  With bare shafting, the orientation and location of the bare shaft arrow on the target is used to assess spine match to the bow, and to adjust it if necessary by changing arrow length and or/point weight, brace height, nock point height, etc.  A good number of trad shooters use this method, particularly those shooting carbon arrows.  There are probably old threads on this site dealing with bare shaft tuning.  If not, the internet is full of them. 

Though a lot of folks do use these tuning methods.  There's also a lot of folks who don't. Many wood shooters get to the correct spine through trial and error shooting different spines such as you will be doing with your test kit. They just cut the shafts to the length they want, fletch them and see which shoot the best.  Not as precise, but good enough in most cases.

Have fun. 



 

[Camp Creek]

Thanks.

I figure I'll try the paper tuning and use a back stop that shouldn't cause an arrow to break, probably a couple of hay bales.  It should be a good opportunity to try some that are definitely over or under spined and see if they give the anticipated result for paper tuning.

[Roy from Pa]

Welcome to Tradgang. Enjoy the journey...

[LookMomNoSights]

I finally got back into bow hunting this year after several years off and found this site searching for instructions on a European mount.  After a mostly successful shoulder surgery, I was able to work back up to shooting a longbow I had made back when there were two Germanies and people thought Milli Vanilli sang their own songs.
After blowing the dust off of a tackle box with a JoJan fletching jig and an assortment of points, nocks , glue, etc. I was good to go after a call or two to 3 Rivers for some shafts and fletching.  No deer with a bow this year, but I had forgotten how much fun it was to hunt with a bow.

In the off season, I want to really fine tune everything and would like some thoughts and expertise on my plan:
Just got a test pack of douglas fir shafts from Surewood and plan on paper tuning with those to determine best spine and length.  I want to shoot at least 160gr head, so I'm trying to hold that constant if possible. 
Is paper tuning the best way to go?  The cedar arrows I have now seem to leave a nice clean hole.
Any thoughts on fletching tape instead of glue?  I'd never seen that before.
Is there anything else new in the past 30+ years I should look into?
The whole traditional trend seems to be much more popular now!

Thanks

Welcome back!  Glad to hear you overcame the hurdles and are on your way once again.   Never too late.
My 2 cents on some of the points you've mentioned:   Fletch tape,  hate it.  Won't ever go there again.   From my experiences,  nothing holds and LASTS like glue,  specifically for me,  Fletchtite Platinum.  Sometimes I transfer it into another bottle with the fine metal needle type tip.  With glue,  you can add a small extra bead to the front and rear of the fletch quill for extra strength.  Fletch tape failed on me with changing weather it seemed.   
Paper tuning:  Are you talking about with your field points or with broadheads?  I do not paper tune as I feel I do not need that version of confirmation ........  I do HEAVILY bare shaft tune when determining what shafts I will use/what spine fits the bill.  Because bare shafting is done with my field points, I will at least know shaft wise what I need or what works.  Once I am happy with bare shafting,  I will fletch.   I use (3) 5 inch shields and occasionally, same with parabolic.  I did use (4) 4's for several years.  And one day a light bulb went off for me,  and told me that my 4 4's were so much louder than 3 5's. I haven't looked back.
Once I have the correct arrow and then broadhead mounted,  I shoot ....... a lot!  Really great arrow flight has a way of jumping out at ya.  Once I see that with my broadheads,  over and over and over again,  I know that if shot them through paper,  I'd see just what I expected. So I don't bother.   Now here is a thing to ponder - Many are of the school that if you shoot a 160gr field point,  you will shoot a 160 gr broadhead.  And in some case this may be what works for you, but don't bet the farm on that!  I shoot a 200gr field point.   I shoot a 235 gr broadhead (head with brass insert) to get the same flight as the field point!  a 200 gr broadhead in the design I shoot,  does not fly good enough or like the 200 gr field point.  The 235 does!  This was all figured out by analyzing my arrow flight ad nauseam.   The broadhead is longer than the field point,  and has wings.  It changes the spine.   Just something to think about.  Good luck to ya and again, thanks for getting back at it 

[LookMomNoSights]

Reading through this whole thing again, I feel it necessary to add ......  some of my above post pertains to carbon shafting more so.  Though I do also shoot wood,  I'd say darn near 50/50 between the 2.   I have never tried fletch tape on wood.  It was bad enough on carbon,  so I just didn't go there with the woodies.   Regardless of shaft material,  I still don't paper tune.  Still DO bare shaft like crazy.  Carbon is way more likely to be sensitive to the difference I spoke of with field point weight vs broadhead weight.
If you do not already have this,  with your shaft test pack it's huge to also have an array of field point weights to test with.  I always like to go too far either way light and heavy,  with point weight to confirm what actually is the sweet spot for point weight.

[Arctic Hunter]

I don’t have much experience with wood. But I’m a fan of bare shafting other shafts to get immediate reliable results and feedback (as long as your release is good and you’re not way off in spine). Slow motion video with a cell phone is also pretty helpful.

I’ve used fletching tape. I’m not a fan. I will use it to test if the feather position on the shaft is where I want it to touch my face at full draw. Then pull the feather off and glue them on.