Kirk,
I hear ya there. Dunno if going over board in the beginning phases is worth it to many but it is to me.
You say it's hard to get consistent results? Well I'd have to say no it's not, and thats with wood shafts to boot. Take for instance a longbow I have, that has a crooked limb to boot and a shelf that falls off to oblivion as it comes out from the site window instead of being flat acrossed and radiused.
For quite awhile I thought my 65-70's flew out of it. Till Ihad the problems with this past bow I bought used, (found out after the fact by the bowyer it was tuned for 3 under not split and the way it was tuned would be tough to shoot split). SO that bow is going back to get retillered. The crooked bow however has been a so so consistent shooter for me. It's kinda been a backup till now. 3 weeks to go and it's the only bow I have that I can consistently shoot. SO figured what the heck, just to make sure it wasnt ME the nut behind the bow getting bad results bareshafting and paper tuning. I figured what the heck, let's confirm what I thought I knew.
So here ya go, a simple run down of the past 3 weeks with the crooked bow.
Off to the block target (through the living room, down the hall way and against the font door, you'da thought I would have learned da first time....uh...NOPE).
65-70's weak, consistent left kick, 70-75's slightly weak and or slightly stiff (shooting 3 shafts of each spine group per round), 75-80's, consistently stiff, right kick. So, took the 70-75's to the spine tester. found out that two of my 70-75's were both 74lb spined and one was 70. The 74's were spot on to slightly stiff, the 70 showed weak. Just so happens I have a bunch of 70-75's fletched up for test arrows. Buds would come over trying to tune their rigs. It's the only way to go. So found a 70lb and two 74lb spined fletched shafts.
off to the real range.
first 5 or 6 groups were as good as you could ask for, 3 of 4 (was shooting 1 bare shaft 74lb spine alternating it with another 72lb spined shaft off and on just for kicks, 4 shots per round). Then started noticing things were consistently left. On target but left.
off to the paper.
Come to find out, the 74's fletched were now tearing stiff 1/2 to 3/4". Go figure. The 70lb spined shaft was a PERFECT hole with 3 tears for the feathers, as good as you could ask out of any bow. the 72 was extremely close also to spot on perfect. You know what I'll be building for hunting arras.
It's really not hard, just takes time. That used bow I bought though was giving me fits, constant nock high kick, tear didnt matter what I did. How high the nock was, how high I built the shelf up, where I put my hand or how hard it was placed. When in doubt, call the guy who built it lol, lesson learned. Good thing too, was about ready to start pounding my head on the concrete floor....wouldnt have helped but sure would have been much gooder, definatly would know why it hurt and how to fix it lmao
if you're gonna hunt I would highly suggest doing as much as you can to get as good of arrow flight as you can. If thats bareshafting, group testing, paper testing, or just shooting arrows, so be it. But do it the best you can.
"You can, and will get out of archery, exactly what you put into it." ....If you sincerely want to be more accurate shooting your bow...you practrice more.....If you are unhappy with the way your arrows are flying.... seek knowlege and remidy the situation. If you want better performance out of your bow....same thing...Go for it!
This paragraph is SPOT ON, and this method is just one of many ways to getting it! Only thing I could add. Ya wanna shoot better, tune your bow, then tune yourself, depending on the problem, not nessicarly in that order!!!