proper form for broad head flight.

[MIKEXRAY]

I've been bow hunting for five years and in the last five years I would practice like hell with field points and shoot a couple of broad heads to make sure they fly the same. This year as you read in archery about me getting a new string and getting tuned I have analyzed my whole shooting system. What I found is it is hard to consistently shoot broad heads without proper form. I paper shot my bow after tuning and realized my form sucked, I had to really try hard to shoot one small hole. Now I've been shooting broad heads for a week and I have found form is critical to get consistent broad head flight. I never realized how important it is, I had to work really hard to get good broad head shots each time. I'm wondering if my misses in the past are from "flinging" arrows like I used to. So shoot more with broad heads in practice not just field tips.

[Todd_ID]

Good points made there Mike!  I use a peep sight and a Timberline Archery "No Peep" to show me on every single shot what I'm doing wrong.  The peep gives me the long-distance accuracy that I love, and the No Peep shows me torque and anchor point issues that will kill a shot.

Once your form is under control, then you can number your arrows to see if any of them are consistent fliers.  If you find that number 5 is always outside the group, then you can rotate the nock 45 degrees and try again.  Keep rotating it until it groups with the rest; generally you'll be able to get it whipped into shape this way.  Another way to do this is to build a spine tester and put the stiff part of the spine in the same aspect on every arrow.  This is assuming that the arrow/broadhead combination spins with no wobble.

[WonkyWapiti]

This is an awesome point Mike.  This will be my fourth season bowhunting and I recently had new strings put on my Parker Hunter Mag.  Additionally I also went with new flex fletch vanes on my arrows so this week I have been trying to sight in my bow with this new setup.  I was going nuts shooting both field points and broadheads.  It all came down to my darn grip.  I had been working so much this spring and summer that I hadn't been practicing as much as I should.  Well when I started practicing again, I was trying to use an open hand grip with my fingers tightly extended which was sending arrows all over the target.  Today I finally realized what I was doing and went back to lightly holding the bow with only my index finger and thumb slightly touching and and relaxing the other fingers.  Well guess what, I started shooting groups again.  It felt so good to get over the frustration of shooting like crap and finally start to dial it in.  I still have some more work to do but I am setting aside time every day to shoot.

[MIKEXRAY]

Way to figure it out WonkyWapiti, I went through the same thing. Its nice when you get it right. I never realized how much goes into a shot. I have missed animals over the last five years and I'm sure it was form & not practicing with broadheads more. Mike

[WonkyWapiti]

Funny thing happened when I went out shooting today.  After finally bringing things together yesterday, today I started shooting erratically again.  I went to put my bow down and my grip started to slide off.  The darn screw had come loose and the grip was coming off.  Tightened up the screw and wham, back to groups again.  Although the wierd thing was that I was shooting tighter groups at 50 yards than I was at 40 yards.  That had me puzzled and I ended up quitting for the day before resolving that issue.  There's always tomorrow. 

[MIKEXRAY]

Weird you would say that because I am also shooting better at 50 than 40 yards. My 60 is also as good as 40. I kind of determined that my 40 yd pin is yellow while my 50 green & 60 red are brighter & easier to set for some reason. I'm sweet at 20,30,50&even 60 but my 40 is worst. Could be in my head now. Another weird thing is I have the spot hog wrap around sight with the wire down the middle. My 20,30,40 are perfectly centered but I had to move my 50 & 60 yards pins slightly left of center wire. I am drilling the center out of my target. I assume that I am getting slight drift at longer distances due to arrow spin or ? Not complaining shooting great, but sights are funny to look at with 50 & 60 slightly (minuscule) off. Keep working Wonky sound like you are dialing in. I also took Todd Id's advice and numbered my arrow, I shot each new arrow with broadheads at 50 yards and had two that were missing center by a foot. Never did get them to shoot any broadhead acuurately. Would of sucked to shoot either of those at an animal. He saved my ass with that advice. Mike

[WonkyWapiti]

I will be numbering mine as well and will let you know how that works out for me too.  That looked like a really good tip. 

[nw_bowhunter]

You nailed, form is everything! I have spent the last 2 days trying to focus my form when shooting broadheads. The slightest change really affects the way the arrow flies and groups.  Field tips are very forgiving.  I know I have missed animals simply because I did not shoot broadheads enough. This is the first year my broadheads and field tips are actually hitting in the same spot with out having to compensate and move the site to match the braodheads..

[MIKEXRAY]

This is also my first year Nw Bowhunter that my field tips & broadheads are dialed in the same. The last five years I have been "flinging" my broadheads with poor form and unbalanced arrow/broadhead combinations. I never realized the importance. Its a real confidence boost for me to be dialed in. Good luck this season. Mike

[Todd_ID]

Another weird thing is I have the spot hog wrap around sight with the wire down the middle. My 20,30,40 are perfectly centered but I had to move my 50 & 60 yards pins slightly left of center wire. I am drilling the center out of my target. I assume that I am getting slight drift at longer distances due to arrow spin or ? Not complaining shooting great, but sights are funny to look at with 50 & 60 slightly (minuscule) off. Keep working Wonky sound like you are dialing in. I also took Todd Id's advice and numbered my arrow, I shot each new arrow with broadheads at 50 yards and had two that were missing center by a foot. Never did get them to shoot any broadhead acuurately. Would of sucked to shoot either of those at an animal. He saved my ass with that advice. Mike

Thanks for the good review on a tip.  I've been at this game quite a while, and I've made every possible mistake in shooting, tuning and hunting.  I'm happy to hear that I may have saved somebody a bit of frustration this year.

Without being there next to you while shooting, I'll try to do the best I can to put you at the 100% confidence level.

The clarity of the pin is an issue, but I'm more inclined to think that the tuning is such that the 40 yard point happens to be where a harmonic is in a tiny corkscrewing effect of the arrow flight making the impact point unpredictable.  You probably can't see the corkscrewing, but from the other symptoms I can tell that it most likely is.  This won't show up in paper tuning, nor will the 50 and 60 pins being offset.  I'll bet a dollar to a donut that you need to move your rest 1/32" to the right.  However, canting your bow will cause the same problems you've talked about.  Before doing anything, make sure that you are looking at the level and that it is indeed centered when you're shooting.

One way to find this out (if your rest needs adjustment) is to try a walkback tune.  Pick a spot at the top of the target.  Use you 20 yard pin and shoot it from 20, 30, 40 yards using the same pin for each shot and shooting at the same point.  I think you'll find that the arrows don't fall in a perfectly vertical line like this | but more in a slant like this / .  It sounds like you aren't very far off, so you'll only need to move the rest a tiny bit.  Moving the rest right will get your longer pins to be | instead of / also.  Basically, a rest that is out of alignment will shoot farther and farther off of the vertical line the farther you go back.

Another way to do this (find the perfect centershot) is to do a modified french tuning.  This is done by shooting at three yards and again at 10-12 yards.  At the 3 yard distance, shoot at a hanging string and move the sight only until you can hit it exactly.  Then move back to 10-12 yards and move the rest only until you hit exactly on the string.  Then move up to 3 yards again and move the sight only until you hit it.  Move back to the farther distance and move the rest only until you hit it.  After a couple sets of 3 yard and 10-12 yard shooting, you'll hit it at both yardages with no adjustment necessary, and you'll have the rest in the perfect position left-right and the sight frame will also be set on the perfect left-right center.  All that is left is to check the vertical position of the rest and set the pin gaps for the different distances.  This is the method I use to get the centershot correct on my bow or any of my buddies that I work on.

Paper tuning is generally pretty good for finding nock position up/down, so I'd say you're probably pretty good there since you're shooting well through paper.  The best way to tell is to shoot 2 broadheads and 2 field points side by side.  If the broadheads are consistently low, then the rest needs to go up or the nock point down.  If the broadheads hit higher than the field points, then you need to move the rest down or the nock up.  Tiny adjustments up and down show up big downrange, so keep any adjustments minute.

Lastly, numbering the arrows has shown which arrows don't group with the rest.  You can take that information and start turning the nocks 45 degrees to see if you can get them to come back into the group.  Most arrows can be brought back into the group this way.  What you are doing is moving the seam of the arrow to a different position, thus you are changing the positioning of the static and dynamic spine of the arrow.  You can only see this by using a spine tester, so shooting the groups and turning nocks is a good substitute for a complicated piece of equipment.

Good luck, and I'm anxiously awaiting a story and some pictures from archery hunting this year!

[LC Hunter]

I have a spot Hogg sight Left handed 5 pin.My 20 yard pin is off to left from center but hits..