Bow tuning/set up

[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?