the string tracker - tuning part 2

[trashwood]

I experimented with the string tracker a while back.  After shooting the string tracker from a bow with a stabilizer boss I thought the  bow was shooting low.  

I put the rig on a metal riser and mounted a pin sight.  the string tracker was grouping 2.5" low at 16 yds.  One of the guys told me that carbon express had a bracket that mounted the string tracker above the arrow.  I got a string tracker bracket.  it mounts on the sight bosses and has a rod with a dog leg bent into it.  The mount workds great but......now the group is 3.5" high at 16 yds.  the arrow crosses the standard tracjectory of the arrow at about 22 or 23 yds.

I had tested the above vertical deviation on a bracket I had fashioned before I got the carbon express bracket.  Should have saved myself some time.  on  the back of the bracket package there is a chart that is almost exactly

Although I have heard from very good tradbow hunters that the stringtacker does not effect arrow flight, I don't think it is true     and neither does carbon express.

String tracker on the bracket

   

rusty

[wingnut]

I find it interesting that with the additional drag the upper mount actually pulls it up.  Who'd a thunk it?

I do know that my tactical rig will have one soon too for both pigs and turkeys.

Mike

[Warden609]

Very interesting info.

[Guru]

I believe to reason you're seeing such a big difference is light arrows. If I recall you shoot a light set-up Rusty?

[trashwood]

Not sure.  I shot AD Trad Lites with 125 gr Woodsman and AL adaptors for 370 gr (30") and 28.5" AD trad with 160gr ACE and steel adaptor for 515 gr.  at 16yds I could not shoot good enough grops to tell the difference in vertical deviation between the two weights.  I was shooting 1.5" groups.  the higher weight arrow could have shot a little lower.  I only shot both weight arrows using the bracket.  I had thought that maybe the higher weight arrow would be affected less.  the higher weight arrow could have grouped maybe 1/2" lower at about 2.5" high.

rusty

[vtmtnman]

Originally posted by wingnut:
I find it interesting that with the additional drag the upper mount actually pulls it up.  Who'd a thunk it?
 

I thought that was pretty crazy myself.

[trashwood]

yep I had been told by several very good bow hunter that the string tracker did not effect the arrow flight.  I thought it was just something in my set up or equipment that was my problem.  When I got the Carbon Express String Tracker Mounting Bracket Model 57513 and the vertical deviation pattern they had charted on the back of the package was exactly what I had found, I had to think that maybe the string tracker did effect the arrow  

rusty

[trashwood]

Of course if your shots are close to the distance that the string tracker arrow path crosses the arrow path without the string you would never know there was a difference.  for me that was about 23 yds.  at 20 yds it was just 2" high.

many of my shots are at 16 yds so I noticed the difference right away.  the biggest idea is that if you use a string tracker from the stabilizer boss you start out 2.5" low at 16yds and it get worse from there.  at 20yds you are 4" low and 23 yds you are 5" low.

rusty

[trashwood]

BTW that last bit of data came from the chart on back of the mounting bracket. I did not shoot the distances from under the arrow myself.

rusty

[trashwood]

Here is a pic of the string tracker mount I fashioned to test shooting the tracker shooting above the arrow.  looks like a kludged affair but worked well.  When the results showd the arrow now 3" high, I thought I had screwed that up somehow.  I had a tip from a fellow tradbow hunter (callmaker) that you could buy a bracket from Carbon Express.  So I order one ASAP, as I was getting tired of not getting the results I wanted.  

When the bracket got here and had the chart on the back that was exactly like the results I had been getting....made me feel better    

   

My bracket still looks like a kludge held together with a hose clamp....but it worked fine come to find out.

rusty