Bow tuning/set up

[mburrows]

Purchased a bow press and everything else I'll need so i can start tuning and setting up my own bows. I have a basic level of knowledge about the process but are there any tips or tricks youve learned along the way in setting up bows that can help shorten my learning curve?

[WapitiTalk1]

MB, here’s a good set of “how to” VIDs I’ve used before (they’re over in that stinky WapitiTalk forum). RJ

http://www.wapititalk.com/Hunting/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=8307

[mburrows]

Thank you! Checking it out now

[Jellymon]

Before relaxing the press while your bow is in it, pull up on the main string to put tension on the cams/strings to keep all the strings in thier tracks while letting down the press. This avoids derailment and possible damage. 

[TheStovePipeKid]

Search for "The Nuts&Bolts of Archery" on your prefered search engine. It's a PDF you can download. Great reference for tuning at home.

[OltHunter]

What kind of bow do you have? There are a few tricks based on your brand and cam system.

The few non specific bow tips I have is get your starting point solid.

Max out your limbs and check draw poundage. You will have to adjust your buss cable to dial that in.

Set your center shot, get your arrow parallel to riser and shelf and leave set throughout your tuning process, only adjusting the rest till the very end.

And also, if new strings, shoot 50 to 100 before even thinking about tuning.

Check out gold tips super tune series with Tim Gillingham on YouTube. Best I've seen.

Nock tuning is another thing over look and you will run down he rabbit hole if you are tuning the wrong arrow and they all aren't consistent.

If your grip and shot execution is not good, you will chase rabbits too.

I prefer bareshaft tuning not in paper and adjusting my strings to correct and walk back tuning as a micro tune for my rest.

Any rest adjustment should be 1/32 to 1/18 inch at a time. Moving your rest too much with where you will get into trouble.

[mburrows]

What kind of bow do you have? There are a few tricks based on your brand and cam system.

The few non specific bow tips I have is get your starting point solid.

Max out your limbs and check draw poundage. You will have to adjust your buss cable to dial that in.

Set your center shot, get your arrow parallel to riser and shelf and leave set throughout your tuning process, only adjusting the rest till the very end.

And also, if new strings, shoot 50 to 100 before even thinking about tuning.

Check out gold tips super tune series with Tim Gillingham on YouTube. Best I've seen.

Nock tuning is another thing over look and you will run down he rabbit hole if you are tuning the wrong arrow and they all aren't consistent.

If your grip and shot execution is not good, you will chase rabbits too.

I prefer bareshaft tuning not in paper and adjusting my strings to correct and walk back tuning as a micro tune for my rest.

Any rest adjustment should be 1/32 to 1/18 inch at a time. Moving your rest too much with where you will get into trouble.

Thank you for the advice.  I've got a 2012 Quest Primal (binary cams) that I will be swapping out cables, string and rest on.

[OltHunter]

Unfortunately I'm not familiar with that cam system.

It doesn't look like there is a buss, do you have 2 cables and string?  I'm not sure how'd you increase/decrease draw weight, but it would be a combo of twists somewhere!

So left and right are going to have to be at the rest or else you will have to shim, which is probably unnecessary.

Basically, you want to get everything in the right starting point before tuning. 
I forgot to mention cam timing, get those hitting exact, before tying in your nocks and dloop.  You don't want to tie everything in, get everything perfect centershot, then realize you need to adjust your timing.

Put twists in whatever cam is hitting first till they are synced up.  This will need to be rechecked after 50 to 100 shots.

Run your arrow generally from the bottom of the arrow to the bottom of berger hole to the middle of hole, but check into best specs for your bow. 

Then eyeball the arrows along side the riser and shelve to get your arrow as close to centershot as possible.

Tie in your nocks and dloop, your peep (make sure to tie around the peep itself) and then shoot 50 to 100.  Work on your form, execution, get your peep exactly where you want it.  Chalk up your vanes to make sure there isn't any contact anywhere.  Work on draw length and make any adjustments there too.

Recheck timing, get it perfect.  Recheck centershot, adjust as needed. 

Shoot your arrows through paper, and turn the nock 1/3 or 1/4 based on fletches to see if the tear changes, you want all arrows acting the same.  IF you can't get then the same, you have a grip/torque problem or your draw length maybe too long or face contact.

Now start addressing tears.  left/rights will be at the rest.  Go opposite your tears and same as bareshaft impacts.  So left tear, move your rest right, bareshafts hit left, move your rest left.

Up/down you can work your control cables first and then your rest second. Sometimes it will take a combo of both.  High tears work top cam, low tears work bottom, add half twists at a time to see if it fixes/changes anything.  If it doesn't then leave it, and work your rest.  bareshaft high work bottom, low work top.

High tear, move rest up, bareshaft high move rest down.

Most likely you may now have a top or bottom cam hitting first....that's okay.  Seems now a days with the bows, a little top first and a little nock high seem to be common.

Paper tune at 5 feet to 15 feet.

Barshaft tune 5 yards to 30 yards.  A good exercise especially if you don't have a lot of room, is to shot a fletched arrow, pull it, then shoot your bareshaft to try to hit the exact same hole.  You goal is to do this from as far away as possible.

Walk back tune for final micro adjust at rest left or right, if you got to right, you most likely won't need to do this, but I always like to check.  it's amazing what 1/32" at the rest will have zero affect sub 20 yards, but once you get out to 40+ it will show up.  I usually don't even have to move my sights and the arrows pull in line.

Here's what I posted a little while ago, a few more tidbits in there, but again not for your cam system:
https://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,245274.msg3291222.html#msg3291222

Good luck, don't drive yourself crazy!

[mburrows]

Got everything taken off and put back on the bow. New limb driven hamskea rest is an upgrade im excited about. Thanks for all the help, ive largely been using the input ive received for tips and for places to get good "how to instructions".

I made a draw board and the cam timing seemed nearly  perfect, is that normal or is there usually some adjustment required?

I shot a few arrrows and chalked fetching and had to do a little adjusting but that was an easy adjustment. Going to send a few more tomorrow then recheck timing and dive further into fine tuning.

 Really enjoyed the process so far!

[andersonjk4]

Tagging along for reference later. I just got my first bow and am wanting to learn how to do all my own tuning.

[blackveltbowhunter]

Got everything taken off and put back on the bow. New limb driven hamskea rest is an upgrade im excited about. Thanks for all the help, ive largely been using the input ive received for tips and for places to get good "how to instructions".

I made a draw board and the cam timing seemed nearly  perfect, is that normal or is there usually some adjustment required?

I shot a few arrrows and chalked fetching and had to do a little adjusting but that was an easy adjustment. Going to send a few more tomorrow then recheck timing and dive further into fine tuning.

 Really enjoyed the process so far!

 In general most binary cams hold time very well. If you are swapping quality strings built to spec, then the bow being in time is not unusual. Your on the right track putting some arrows through it letting the strings settle and recheck.  Don't know which hamskea you got, but they are a solid accurate rest, I bet you will love it!. In the last few years I started playing with micro adjust rests more and more, after years of thinking they were overkill, and have come to consider them almost mandatory if your going to be nitpicky.

[andersonjk4]

Any info on the draw board you made? I’m planning on building one eventually.

[OltHunter]

Yep, most are going to have near perfect cam timing if the strings are too speck. No matter how good the strings though, they still are going to settle a bit and possible stretch some.

I run the hamskea trinity too. Really great rest. You can play around with moving where you attach it to the limb to fine tune the drop. Closer or father away from the end.

It is a fun process, glad you are enjoying it!

Another tip I remembered is during your tuning you may add a 1/2 twist and it might be too much, but you can work the end loops in and out for a micro adjustment. Opening up the end or twisting in more can buy you what you need. I've had to do it a couple times, but not always. Hopefully that makes sense.

You planning on paper tuning or bareshaft?

[mburrows]

I did end up tweaking cam timing just a little bit yesterday but not much. Im switching out one custom string for another.

Im going to do both paper tune and bareshaft I think, at least that's what my current plan is. I am considering starting a new arrow build essentially from scratch too.


I used these instructions to build the draw board. I already had all the materials other than the boat winch and floor flange https://www.fieldandstream.com/articles/hunting/2013/08/step-step-how-build-diy-draw-board-your-compound-bow/

[andersonjk4]

Thanks for the link. That looks just like I was thinking about building. I even have an extra boat winch in the shop.

When you are looking to tune your bow and also figure out a new arrow setup which do you do first? Or is it iterative?

[mburrows]

Thanks for the link. That looks just like I was thinking about building. I even have an extra boat winch in the shop.

When you are looking to tune your bow and also figure out a new arrow setup which do you do first? Or is it iterative?

In my opinion and from what I've gathered you want to make sure the bow is tuned before tuning an arrow to the set up.

[blackveltbowhunter]

It's a combination of both. If the bow is out of whack no arrow will tune, however don't waste time fine tuning with arrows you aren't intending to shoot.  Start with a clean paper tear any arrow close to your build will work doesn't need to be exact. Then build out your arrows and tune them and the bow together.

A parallel in the rifle world might be a gun/scope and handloads combo. I can take off shelf factory stuff and it will tell me the gun and scope are shooting straight. From there I work at building my loads to accomplish the end goals of more accurate and more forgiving setup.

 

[OltHunter]

The main thing with arrows is to make sure it's properly spined. Use a software program to make sure. One gives a 7 Day trial you can sign up for to check possible arrows.

The second is to make sure all arrows are aligned to give the exact same tear. You don't want to tune the 1 bad arrow which those the other 11 out of whack.

Pick 4 arrows and shoot them through paper. Rotate the nock, then shoot them all again. You will notice a pattern of consistency and that is the nock location you want to start the fine tune.

[mburrows]

Just finished paper tuning. Decided ill be sticking with my black eagle spartan 300's with 100 grain tips and 75 grain brass inserts.

Took a cable twist and a half to fix my right tear as well as some slight rest micro tuning. Still going to do some bare shaft tuning later this week.

[OltHunter]

Just finished paper tuning. Decided ill be sticking with my black eagle spartan 300's with 100 grain tips and 75 grain brass inserts.

Took a cable twist and a half to fix my right tear as well as some slight rest micro tuning. Still going to do some bare shaft tuning later this week.

What arrow length and poundage are you shooting?  You definitely seem spined correctly if you aren't way off the charts for anything poundage and draw length wise.

I run the 250 Spartans, with stock inserts, 125 grain heads, 4 fletch on the back with wraps.  But my arrows are cut 30.75" and shoot 65 to 70# with a 32" draw length.  Not going to win any FOC awards with my setup, think they are around 10-11%.

Vane configuration/arrow building is another fun one to get into.  All depends how crazy you want to get with it all!  fun to see how different vanes will stabilize an arrow especially with broadheads.  Loading weight up front vs in the rear, 3 vane vs 4, off set, vs helical.  You ideally want some type of offset/helical for the best arrow flight, not stock straight up fletch.

My latest is 4 vane with the Q2i Fusion X-II vs Q2i Fusion-II.  60 yards is night and day with grouping as the slightly taller II groups much tighter and consistent than the X-II. Longer arrows need more stabilization.  i started with 3 vanes for a bit, but found 4 work better for my setup. 

My whole thought process with tuning/arrow building, is 1, i enjoy the process and it's a fun hobby of mine and gets me to shoot more, but 2, lots will say it's not really necessary for hunting situations, but for me, even if the craziness saves me 1 inch at 40 yards, that might mean a quick clean kill, vs non-recovery, so it's worth it for me.

[mburrows]

Im shooting right at 70lbs, arrows are cut to 28".

I use 3.5inch arrow wraps and will be giving the AAE Max Hunters a try.  Currently us the standard blazer vanes.

Have been wanting to try 4 fletch but that means I need to upgrade my fletching jig from the cheap arizona ez fletch I currently use which is great but doesnt offer much in the way of customization.

I played with some additional point weight last year, 125 and 150 grain tips but it had a serious negative impact on my arrow flight compared to the 100 grain tips in conjunction with the 75grain inserts.

Crazy how much the little things make a difference in archery such as cable twists and 25 grains of point weight.

[mburrows]

Alright so im all tuned. Arrows are dialed but turns out I'm actually shooting 505 grain arrows not 495. Not sure where i was off in my calculations. Anyways, im shooting bullet holes through paper and my bare shafts were grouping with fletched arrows at 20 yards. I ended up having to do some additional tuning after about 75 shots. Tied in my peep and things are feeling great. Thank you for all the help.

My arrows have a little variation in weight, the lightest is 503.6, heaviest is 506.4. My thought is this is pretty negligible?

I'm only shooting 246fps which isn't surprising given my 27" draw length and heavy arrow.

[OltHunter]

Nice work!

Within 3 grains is really good. Mark all your arrows, inserts, nocks , and points, weight each individually and then connect to dot to get it closer. But I think 3 is pretty good and you probably can't get much closer.

If your draw length is 27" and your arrows are cut to 28, I bet you could shave an inch or so off to pick some speed up if you want.

All depends how you like it. I cut mine usually about right to the middle of my riser. So I'm about 1.25" cut below my draw length.

[mburrows]

Nice work!

Within 3 grains is really good. Mark all your arrows, inserts, nocks , and points, weight each individually and then connect to dot to get it closer. But I think 3 is pretty good and you probably can't get much closer.

If your draw length is 27" and your arrows are cut to 28, I bet you could shave an inch or so off to pick some speed up if you want.

All depends how you like it. I cut mine usually about right to the middle of my riser. So I'm about 1.25" cut below my draw length.

Thanks man. Thats a good idea, Ill play with the numbers a little bit to see how much shorenting my arrows would improve my speed.  Thanks again for all the help, learned a ton about tuning and setting up a bow

[mburrows]

Bought another bow - Obsession FXL so going to take a stab at setting up another bow.  Anybody have experience with Obsession bows, specifically the FXL?