Archery wizard near Snohomish County?

[CoyoteCowboy]

Hey Ya’ll,

Ok, might be a long shot here but I am looking for a archery wizard or sage to help me with my Hoyt compound and arrows.
In all areas of my life I am extremely OCD, detailed and precise and leave my local bow shop disappointed at the lack of precision and attention to detail.

Not trying to fault them, as I completely understand that nobody cares as much about your setup as you do... so I would like to take matters into my own hands and learn the art of bow tuning.

Enter the sage! Let me know if you are open/willing to tinker and teach me!

[OltHunter]

Do you have a bow press and or vice? And what bow do you have?

There are enough resources online to guide you to learn on your own. I'm happy to help online here.

Had a buddy over this weekend to get his how tuned. From his shop that he dropped off to get new strings and sight installed, his bow was 1/2" long Ata and 6 pounds under draw weight and not timed.

It's hard to fault to shops because the process takes so long they just can't make any money if they are doing it really well.

Though I would fault the ATA and draw weight, that's pretty easy to check and fix.

I've tinkered around with most manufacturers and have a decent process to quickly get tuned up as long as your bow is dual cam or hybrid with at least a yoke system.

So I'm happy to help online. I'm not too far away from you, but with the state of world right now I'm not going to extend an offer to come to my house to tune and shoot unless you are a close friend/family of mine.

[CoyoteCowboy]

Thanks Otlhunter!

I don’t have a press or vice, but extensive collection of tools.
I appreciate the offer and will reach out via DM.

Thanks again for the offer to support (from a distance for now)!

[D-Rock425]

What exactly do you need done?

[CoyoteCowboy]

First step, tune. Then peel back the layers and learn everything I can about setting up a bow and tuning.

My bow shoots great, I have killed two elk and three deer with it... so it’s not like it’s some clunker or I’m a crappy shooter.

More then anything I want to learn and not be dependent on a bow shop I guess.

[D-Rock425]

Buy a press and go you tube is a powerful resource.  Last chance ez green press probably do anything you need.

[OltHunter]

Buy a press and go you tube is a powerful resource.  Last chance ez green press probably do anything you need.

Yes this.  I have one.  To really get serious with a tune, you need one.  Without that you are tuning with your rest only, which is not the best option with a newer hybrid/dual cam bow.  Older bows you can get away with it.

To start down the rabbit hole of super tuning you need a few key pieces of equipment:

Bow Press - EZ Green
Bow Vice - not really for super tuning, but for setting up sights and initial nock placement and centershot.
Draw Board
Draw Weight Scale

BCY 3D for tying in nocks and peep
BCY D, 24, or 23 cord for D-Loops

Arrow Square for setting nock position

Good set of calipers for measuring center shot, tape measure works fine too.

[mburrows]

First step, tune. Then peel back the layers and learn everything I can about setting up a bow and tuning.

My bow shoots great, I have killed two elk and three deer with it... so it’s not like it’s some clunker or I’m a crappy shooter.

More then anything I want to learn and not be dependent on a bow shop I guess.

I came to the very same realization this year as well. Always relied on the shop to set up my bow, from strings and cables to rest, timing, etc. Had some great experiences with some shops and couple years where they clearly didnt spend any real time tuning.

Finally dove into tuning this year and its been a ton of fun and quite rewarding.  D-rocks recommendation on a press is good, thats the one I got. Definitely get a vice too.  Olthunter helped me out a ton too with some great advice.

For me personally, it took me a lot of tinkering on my first bow especially to really learning how the adjustments I was making would impact the performance.  On my new bow, its gone really well and have been able to progress down the learning curve quite faster.  My bow is shooting lights out and I feel really confident in knowing how to make adjustments if needed.

Arrow tuning is really a game changer too, tuning an arrow to the bow can save a lot of frustration and help make for some tight groups.

[CoyoteCowboy]

Take my paychecks! Take them all!

Thanks, and glad to hear from someone who recently jumped in!

[OltHunter]

Essentially to begin the tune process, you need to make sure your bow is to spec and timed and you have to have a bow press and some type of draw board and scale.

The biggest driver with hybrid/dual cam setups is draw weight to spec and cam timing.  ATA/Brace height not as big, but they generally will be within 1/4"

Step 1:

Max out limb bolts, get your bow on a draw board, and hook up a scale to a faux dloop if you don't have one tied in already.  That needs to be exact to your max poundage, not over, not under.  You will twist your buss cables to increase poundage for most bows, and whatever mathews/primes calls theirs on both ends, control cables maybe?  you need a press and a draw board for that.  Generally you twist on the bottom, but watch your twist rate and add some to the top if too many twists are showing up with a buss with split yokes.

Step 2:

Set your cam lean.  Most times, you run a bareshaft along the cam and the middle of your arrow should be right where your nock will be.  Adjust your left right with the yokes by adding and removing equal twists on both side, or adjust your top hats (mathews).  Bowtech wants you to use a laser and their reference marks to get it set.

Step 3:

Make sure your timing is exact.  Again, put it on the draw board, and both pegs should be hitting exactly at the same time.  If they don't, put twists in the control cable cam that is hitting first.

So you can see, how imperative if you are wanting to do it yourself, you need these. 

Factor in gas, time away, travel, emotional cost to wait at a pro shop, labor fees and these really pay for themselves quickly if you shoot a lot.  The only caveat i can see is not having 15 feet to shoot your bow in a garage or outside.  Then that doesn't really make much sense to have the equipment.

We can get into the further steps like setting center shot, paper tuning consistent tears, etc later.  You need to be able to shoot consistent tears with all your arrows before you even being to tune further.  Grip, face pressure, torque, spine alignment, under spine, all come into play there.  That's another factor that people don't think about or do during the process as well. 

[Milkman]

Get on YouTube and watch John Dudley's Nock On series' of bow building from step by step.
My local hoyt dealer was an a**hole so I went out and bought everything I didn't have and needed to tune and tie myself. I enjoy it. I know its done right too. Good luck!

[OltHunter]

Dudleys are excellent and Hoyt specific for the most part.

Gillinghams gold tip super tune series is another must watch. Think there are 10 or so of them.

There was also I think a Hush bow build with good old school shop owner and I picked up a few good pointers on Hoyt watching it.

[CoyoteCowboy]

Thanks all! Lots to take in; and with hunting season closing in quickly I am going to limp along at the local bow shop for another few months and then tool up and get into this for 2021.

[coachcw]

Call Denton at rock creek archery . He just moved to south center . he is worth the drive .

[stillJBR]

If you're still looking....

I've got the guy for you.  Hands down, this guy is more OCD than you, plus he's an engineer and his archery equip knowledge and skills along with his untouchable one on one customer service can't be beat.  I found him little over a year ago, near Mill Creek in Snohomish County.  He runs his own archery pro shop out of his garage.  I'll never go to another bow shop again now that I have found Lance.  Sells bows and all equipment from his garage shop and does repair, tuning, arrow building...everything.

https://www.obsessionarchery.net/