ok.how do i tune my bow to the arrow

[maxfit]

I would like to know how to tune my bow to my arrow. (I am a little frustrated with point tuning, bare shafting, cutting all kinds of arrows etc..) Using strike plate, brace heigh, knock point etc.. I have some of Rick W vids. Unless i am missing something i cant figure it out. Anyone with a step by step tutorial would be much appreciated. Thanks!

[McDave]

This web page  gives a good rundown on tuning arrows for your bow.  For another approach, look at Ken Beck's section in Masters of the Barebow II.  Ken was the owner of Black Widow Bows until he sold it to some of his employees.  Either approach works fine, depending on whether you learn better from written or visual instructions.

Like a lot of things, tuning arrows for your bow seems complicated until you learn to do it, then it's an easy and useful thing to do.

[maxfit]

McDave
Thanks but i have a good idea of how to tune the arrows...its just that i hear about tuning the bow to the arrow. I would rather do this if it works well. save me alot of time and arrow components!

[Winterhawk1960]

I only got to spend about an hour and a half with Rick in December of 2009, so perhaps I'm not qualified to give the full "run-down" on how he tunes the bow to shoot the given arrow. None-the-less.....one of the biggest things that I learned was that if your arrow is striking either "right or left" of where your looking, it is possible to change your sideplate and/or strikeplate to "compensate" some......"some" being the key word. First off.....I am right handed, so please consider this when you read what I am attempting to tell you below.

Examples:

Your arrow strikes "LEFT" of where you are looking. His fix is to soften either the sideplate and strikeplate by using something that will absorb more of the arrows bending when it goes into the paradox. This, for me only works up to a certain point, depending on how center-cut the riser is on the particular bow. I have found that I can only find a material that is "so soft".......to use in either position when attempting to move an arrows point of impact to the right.

Your arrow strikes "RIGHT" of where you are looking. His fix in this case is to either harden the sideplate and strikeplate, or both. This can only be done to a certain degree also but when you get the hardest/thinnest sideplate/strikeplate that you have, you may still need more to get your arrow further. Your point of impact can be moved further to the left by putting on a layer of double-sided carpet, one layer at a time and then shooting a group. If one layer doesn't do it.......add another layer....and so on. It has worked like a charm for me on ANY bow that my point of impact was to the right of where I was looking.

As far as moving your nocking point "up or down" that would depend on whether your point of impact was low or high. If it is low.....move nock point DOWN. If it is high.....move your nock point UP. You will be amazed to see how much room you have to play with......without causing any porpoising of the arrow in flight. If you get porpoising, you will have to move the nocking point back the other way. If you only move the nocking poing 1/16 of an inch at a time, you will find a spot that works very well and most likely won't get to the place that you have a porpoising arrow in flight.

All of this takes a little time, and to get it totally right.......for me, it takes a couple shooting sessions. If you get a new string, this will change as the string gets the "stretch" out of it, but is well worth the time. I don't know if this explains it any better than watching the DVD's, but I was just like you are. I just couldn't get a grasp on what he was saying without having him show me in person. He truly is a GREAT teacher and as nice of a guy as you will ever meet. There isn't a doubt in my mind that if you gave him a call that he wouldn't do his absolute BEST to get you to understand over the phone. Sometime in the near future, I'm gonna take the plunge and spend the full two days out at his place. It will without a doubt be the best money that I have spent since returning to traditional archery.

Winterhawk1960

[Winterhawk1960]

I forgot to add.......one little "hint". If your arrow is striking to the right of where you are looking. I just leave a soft sideplate and strikeplate and "shim" the sideplate over enough to hit where I'm looking. The hard strikeplates and sideplates sure are hard on your fletching, and I'm lazy. You will thank me later for this one.    

Winterhawk1960

[maxfit]

Hawk
Thanks.. that is what i was thinking. You have explained it plenty for me to understand better. So in theory, i should have some arrows that are weak striking to the right and add to the sideplate which is much easier to do, than softining a felt type plate.? Right? My form issues generally tend for me to shoot left mostly when i miss...

[Winterhawk1960]

maxfit,

It sounds like to me that you've got it. Unfortunately.....my form issues tend for me to shoot left, when I miss too. I am a "straight-up" shooter, I don't cant my bow any at all. I find that if I can cant my bow slightly....say around 1:00 to 1:30 and it pulls my arrows to the right also. I have been very fortunate to have found one arrow that I can shoot out of all my bows, and a lot of it was because I tuned my bow to shoot the arrow.

It sure has made "sorting arrows" easy.      

Winterhawk1960

[McDave]

Maxfit, you said your form issues mainly caused you to miss to the left.  Mine too.  My feeling is that I should solve these form issues before I start trying to steer the arrow, or I will just be reinforcing  a bad habit.

[maxfit]

McDave
You are right.. i have found keeping a slight bend in my bow arm has helped alot...but i also find the more i think about release,hold, back tension etc.. the worse i get.. i used to just shoot.. anyways
Hawk
I used to cant my bow but cant anymore since i switched to 3 under, now i have to shoot bow straight.

[McDave]

I'm not sure why you can't cant when you shoot 3 under.  I shoot 3 under and cant the bow when I want to.  I find that as I get better and shoot more competition, I cant the bow less because I shoot more accurately that way.  But I seem to be able to cant the bow as easy as I could shooting split fingers if the situation calls for it.

I find that if I shoot with good form, my arrows will fly more-or-less to the spot I want to hit.  Meaning within a six-inch circle of the spot I want to hit.   Sometimes, I think that six inch circle needs to be moved a little to the right or left or up or down to be more centered on the spot, but I'm really not accurate enough yet to tell.  If I were consistently shooting three-inch groups that were consistently two inches to the left of the spot, I would use Rick's method to move them over onto the spot.  Or I could cant the bow 1" more and move them over onto the spot, as Byron Ferguson recommends.  But I'm not quite at that point in my archery carreer yet.

[Scoobiedooo]

Originally posted by McDave:
 This web page  gives a good rundown on tuning arrows for your bow.  For another approach, look at Ken Beck's section in Masters of the Barebow II.  Ken was the owner of Black Widow Bows until he sold it to some of his employees.  Either approach works fine, depending on whether you learn better from written or visual instructions.

Like a lot of things, tuning arrows for your bow seems complicated until you learn to do it, then it's an easy and useful thing to do.

I found THIS method that you mentioned - to be a really good method loaded with lots of good info!
Thanks!

[reddogge]

You can also play with brace height. For a weak arrow lower brace height. For a stiff arrow increase brace height. You can do this in conjunction with your side plate adjustments.

[hvyhitter]

Your arrows should be pretty close to what you need in the first place before "fine tuning" the bow to your arrows....... no matter what you do you are not going to get 1916s shooting good out of  70# Predator or 2419s to shoot good out of a 40# Hill...............