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New Bow Headaches!!

Well this past Monday I was able to pick up my new bow. I ended up buying the Mathews Creed, 28" draw & 60 lbs. max. When I shot the bow before putting it in layaway it felt like a dream. Shot so smooth and was quiet, just had that feeling at the time this was IT!! The day I picked it up they had the QAD HDX rest installed and the peep in the string, just not tied in yet. Things were looking good!!

After we got the final set up on it I asked the bow shop guy about tuning....since this has been a hot topic of late it was fitting!! Well, I was informed that the tuning basically was up to ME! They could give advice and maybe help some but I was the one to take care of it from there forward. I mentioned that I figured since I just bought the bow from them they could at least make sure it was ready and his reply was that they are tuned at the factory. I was a bit taken back and reflected on the tuning posts that were made here before.

So, I took the bow out on to their range and shot it some and figured he was probably right, I mean I don't really understand what even really goes into tuning the bow for performance other than maybe walk back tuning and broadhead tuning. After a little while of shooting I thought my bow seemed a little loud. Then again there were a couple others shooting at the time so I figured it was just all the commotion. So, I packed it in, said thanks and made my way home to do some more shooting!! Boy was I excited to finally have my bow!!!

My daughter decided to come out with me as well so there we were shooting together when she says to me 'dad your bow is really loud!' I had noticed it too but somehow ignored what I was hearing. Then I started looking at my bow some. Looking from the rear at the eccentric wheel I noticed the wheel was leaning quite a bit. That was when I realized the left limb, split limb bow, was about 1/4" higher than the right causing the wheel to be on an angle!!! Looking at the yoke I realized that the right side had many more twists in the string than the left and that seemed to be the culprit. I laid an arrow along the edge of the eccentric wheel like jagermeister said and by the time the arrow ran out there was almost a 3/8 of an inch gap to the string!!

So, Friday I finally was able to make a trip back to the bow shop to have them take a look at the yoke and mentioned the loud noise, coming mostly from the cam on the shot. Well, they agreed, it didn't look right and they put it in their press to add a few twists to the one side of the yoke. I asked if he needed to take twists out of the other side and was told no, it was where it was supposed to be... :smiley_confused_vra . LMAO before taking it out of the press he had me come over and look at it to see if I liked how it looked!! Uhm...I am the fugging peon....shouldn't HE know what it should be adjusted to?!?! :smiley_confused_vra Eyeballing it and hoping it was right I said it looked good and took it out on the range to shoot. The loud sound was gone, likely a result of the misaligned cam to eccentric wheel. After losing all of the credibility I gave them for being a Pro-shop I then took my bow home.

After all of this, not having the practical knowledge of what to do or especially the tools to work on my bow I can understand how valuable it is to have someone with knowledge like Milo or Jagermeister to get help from. I still do not have confidence it is at it's peak for performance but after shooting it the last two evenings I can now say I really do enjoy shooting the bow. Shot it out to 50 yards and was quite happy with it. Sill have doubts though if I am REALLY getting the most out of the bow.
 

dante322

*Supporting Member*
5,506
157
Crawford county
Unfortunately you hear about this sort of thing more and more. "pro" shops that either dont know much about bows, or just want to sell them and hustle customers in and out.

Hopefully you find someone to get you properly set up. I'd say go see milo, but thats probably a little bit of a trek for you.
 

Milo

Tatonka guide.
8,184
157
So now that the shops true colors have been exposed, now what you gonna do? Throw in the towel and settle or get with it?
 
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Milo

Tatonka guide.
8,184
157
LOL I guess it's time to jump on the learning curve!! That or I'll drop my bow off to ya Milo! LOL!!! Just want to say some of the "tuning" videos on YouTube pretty much suck! BTW Tiny thanks for the recommendation.
Mathews are breeze to tune, that also said there is a limit to to modifications you can change. Since your not tearing down a bow why dont you get a bowmaster press and go at it. Center the arrow on the berger hole, screw 4 2x4's togther to make a paper tune frame and your most of the way there. the rest i can talk you through to get you there. If you only use the bowmaster press on one bow its paid its worth for you.
 

jagermeister

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
18,060
223
Ohio
The bowmaster press is a great tool for the DIY bow-tuner. It has limitations, but it'll get you where you need to be with basic in-the-garage type stuff. I would take Milo's advice and dive right in, Chuck. I did a couple years ago and I'll never look back. "Pro" shops just can't be trusted these days... for the most part... sadly. I find that by tuning bows myself I get a much better end product, a MUCH better understanding of the bow, and much more satisfaction in doing so. Milo's brain is a hell of a resource. If I had a dollar for every minute I've been on the phone with him talking bow tuning I'd be in pretty good shape. :)
 
Thanks again guys! Kept thinking last night about it and as much as I want to learn how to do this tuning crap I need to get the equipment to do it and I know right now that isn't in momma's budget!! That press looks like it would fit the bill but looking at it on their page it says it cannot be used with a bow with past parallel limbs though. Starting to think I need a little help to get it done fast and done right soon and worry about getting the tools and stuff together this next year maybe.
 
Well it's time for a follow-up on my tuning issues. With everything that I went through I got several PM's from members here on trying to help me out. Milo actually offered to take a look at my bow which actually surprised me, even though I shouldn't have been since many have said he would. Since his place was basically on my way down to our farm I decided that I needed to take him up on the offer and see what he could do for me. So, a week ago Friday my buddy Ed and I headed south to do some final stand hanging, prep and to visit my sick aunt as well. Along the way we met up with Milo and followed him to skeeter swamp!!

After the meet-n-greet he jumped right in to the bow and reviewing what tuning really is. I had a general idea of what needed to be done but his approach to explaining sure put it in terms that made me realize (if I had the tools) this is something I surely could do on my own with a little advice and instruction. Our first step was to take a look at the draw cycle and soon he spotted trouble with the way the bow shop had set up my QAD rest. The launcher string that was attached to the downward cable was much too short!! Heck, it was at full up position likely with 6" left in the draw cycle, way too early!! :smiley_blackeye: Unfortunately this didn't surprise me but it did make my blood boil a lil bit as you could clearly see the strain it was putting into the set-up. Sure enough, Milo jumped right on it and soon had a temporary (knowing me likely permanent LOL) fix on it. :smiley_baby:

Then we started shooting through paper.... :smiley_confused_vra :smiley_clap:

Within minutes we had an arrow stripped down to a bare shaft after we had some horrendous tears with full fletch. For a while it was a low left tear and not a small one! A lil tweak of the rest here a twist of the yoke there and after a bunch of shooting we were close!! Along the way Milo gave me great reminders and advice on my grip and all and most of the time an ever so slightly bad tear at the end was all on me. By the time we were done and Milo was shooting bullet-holes (me on that special occasion when I did it all right :smiley_baby: ). I was a bit nervous when we finished because that's when we noticed that the idler wheel had a slight angle towards the roller guard. After looking it over and reviewing how and why we got to that point we realized that the torque the roller guard was putting on the cables was relieved by having it this way.

The real proof in the pudding was going to come when I actually shot the bow out to some distances. My plan was to do some shooting over the weekend, however my Aunt's passing on that Saturday and all that we had crammed into that weekend kept us from doing it. Monday morning Terry's grandmother passed away as well so the whole week last week we were tied up with going to the funerals and all. My confidence was waning in everything with knowing how close deer season is!!

So, the first opportunity for me to shoot was last night!! I knew my sights would be off so I started close rotflmao Soon I had my 10 yard pin right in there and then it was on to doing some walk back tuning. Well, other than my sight there wasn't really anything to even do with the walk back tuning. The arrows lined up perfectly...all the way out to 40 yards! The other thing I noticed, once I worked on my form and anchor, the arrows actually flew like darts!! :pickle: So many times I had to step to the side to see where the arrow hit because I just couldn't see it flying. Sure enough I was shooting some of the tightest groups I had shot all summer out to that 40 yards!!

No doubt in my mind this is the best I had shot in a long time TOO!!

Thanks Milo!!!!
 

bowhunter1023

Owner/Operator
Staff member
48,879
274
Appalachia
His ability to tune bows is second to none. Both bows in my possession have been fully Skeeterized and shoot like dreams. Glad he got you all straitened out Chuck. Good stuff and a prime example of why this site is what it is!
 

Curran

Senior Member
Supporting Member
7,971
172
Central Ohio
Glad to hear everything has worked out for the best! That Milo guy is a pretty good dude TOO!! He's helped quite a few guys here (myself included many times over) and I'm sure there will be plenty more in the future.
 

Milo

Tatonka guide.
8,184
157
glad to meet you chuck and welcome to the new world of knowing what your doing. Get you some stuff and jump right in. you have my phone number if ya need it. Sorry about the skeeters but know you know how this place got its name. i need to take some time and finish up my blog some so it will help fill in some gaps. maybe when the snow flies.
 
So doing a search on AT it seems this left nock tear (RH shooters) is a VERY common problem with the Creed. Seems several have figured it out as Milo did by taking the time to actually tune it. Amazing how many likely will never actually get their bow tuned correctly and it will always be that way for them. Thanks again Milo!! I sure owe ya!!
 
Things have been going pretty good with transitioning over from field tips to broadheads. I have two arrows tipped with Slick Trick Standards that I have been using and recently did a new wrap and refletch on all of my arrows. Things are slowly coming together and I am realizing how my form and grip affects things more with this bow than any other. Every time I jam on the trigger or grip my bow too much I think of the comments and recommendations Milo gave me.

Here is one of my better 2 shot rounds at 40 yards.....



Since I couldn't afford to get new arrows this summer I decided the old Victory's needed some new threads so I did some custom wraps through onestringer.com and they turned out great! A little hint of purple but aaah...who cares....it's got the pic of my biggest buck on them!!

 

rgecko23

*Supporting Member*
7,466
0
Massillon, Ohio
Its amazing how just a little tweak of how your gripping the bow, etc can change the way your bow shoots completely. Crazyness I tell ya. Glad to see your all hooked up and ready to roll.
 
Its amazing how just a little tweak of how your gripping the bow, etc can change the way your bow shoots completely. Crazyness I tell ya. Glad to see your all hooked up and ready to roll.

Yeah, that is one thing I have really noticed with this Creed, that it doesn't take much torque to get it to show up in the arrow. Gets easier the more I shoot though LOL

Carbon is looking good and so is the shootin. Now whack a deer tomorrow.

Oh don't I wish...today is my anniversary with my wife and we have obligations this weekend or else I would!! To add insult to injury I told my buddy months ago if there was ever a weekend he wanted to head down that I couldn't to go for it....yep...he's going for it!! :smiley_blackeye: :smiley_blackeye: