Who's shooting? Tuning? Tinkering?

[Bowhunter57]

I had a decent heavy arrow setup, last year, but it was with an Obsession Fusion 7 @ 52# a 525 gr. TAW.

This year I'm shooting an Elite Ritual 30. I started out with it set at 60# with my 29" DL. Shooting Gold Tip Hunter XT 300s at 27", 100 gr. brass insert and 125 gr. tip weight. There was a slight "fish tail" with the arrow flight. So, I recently I upped the tip weight to 175 gr. and things smoothed right out. I had to increased the amount of upper body exercise to draw this 60# setup, as I started having issues with my bow arm shoulder. The exercises was helping, but I reluctantly decided to turn down the bow draw weight to avoid any potential damage and/or shoulder surgery.

As it turns out, my shoulder has been improving with the new 54# draw weight.
However, my arrow setup had to be changed. I'm now shooting a 515 TAW with a 125 gr. tip weight, combined with a 100 gr. brass insert. I was hoping to get into a 550 or 600 TAW, but I'd have to start over with another set of arrows.
For now, I'll stay with this setup, but may look into something else to get a higher arrow weight setup.

 

[bowhunter1023]

Now that I have a clean/organized shop, I can help my friends/family out. Rebuilding my buddy's Hoyt and building him some adult arrows. He won't recognize the way it shoots when I'm done!

In the meantime, I still haven't finished tuning my bow or sighting it in, but it's easy to procrastinate when arrows 1, 2, and 3 at 41 steps turn out like this. The Indian has been working hard, he'll tweak his bow later.

 

[brock ratcliff]

New heads arrived today. 200 grain Tuffhead.

 

[brock ratcliff]

Jbrown mentioned the other day he had difficulty stabilizing broadheads with 2” feathers. I was hopeful that wouldn’t be the case with the arrows I built to shoot these heads. Filed point on left, broadhead on the right, shot from my compound at 40 yards. I have only shot a handful of arrows from my compound over the last couple years. I think this will work.

 

[brock ratcliff]

I really wanted to try these heads with my single string bows. I shot them a couple times from my Black Widow. This is one of the shots from about 20 yards. Each arrow flew perfectly. This one admittedly, landed the best.

 

[brock ratcliff]

These heads arrive sharp enough to take off hair but the edge feels a little rough. After shooting the head a dozen times or so, I put it to the strop. It took on a slick edge in no time. I’m fairly impressed even with the ridiculous price tag for these things. It’s my hope they will last a very long time.

 

[jagermeister]

These heads arrive sharp enough to take off hair but the edge feels a little rough. After shooting the head a dozen times or so, I put it to the strop. It took on a slick edge in no time. I’m fairly impressed even with the ridiculous price tag for these things. It’s my hope they will last a very long time.

Keep me posted on how you like them, Brock. I’m bumping up to a 340 spine this year and will be shooting 200 gr heads. Haven’t decided which ones yet. Thanks!

 

[jagermeister]

Mastodon killers. That’s probably what I’ll be shooting from the trad bow this fall. Lol. I had a dozen 340-spined Gold Tips sitting in a box… Getting low on my 400 supply, so instead of ordering new shafts I decided to try to make these 340s useful. It only took adding 373 grains to the front end to straighten them out.

Total arrow weight - 752 grains. 23.3% FOC. Fat, slow, and hit like a freight train. Deer inside 18 yards should worry. Anything past that, and they have nothing to fear. Lol

 

[Big_Holla]

Better get after it!!

 

[Stressless]

Okay so something new for me, dropped 20-30% of draw weight 53#, resighted with 125gr quad exodus heads. 2" group at 20 yrd. At previous full draw weight 68# the quads fly great.

Now at 20 yds they are 6"-7" right and depending on cock fletch either 3" high or 2" low.... swapped arrows same. I can only shoot 12 before my old back is done so trying to noodle it rather than shoot 200 times.... field point still in 2" group on bull...

Thinking:

1.fletch is hitting the fall away arrow rest at lower speed/shock for it to drop

2. Not enough fletch to steer

ScratchingMH.

 

[Big_Holla]

I'm wondering if the arrows are over-spined and causing that?

 

[bowhunter1023]

I don't think it's a fletching issue, but some pool chalk or baby powder will tell you. If you dropped weight and didn't retune, I'd say you changed your nock point, which throws the whole equation out of balance. You could very well be over spined, but I'd start with the nock point if you haven't already.

 

[Stressless]

@Big_Holla - well, I "think" that would have effected my field points as well but that's an assumption I'm trying to check out. They're shooting bulls to 30 yards... which is why I tried the broadhead... I'm gonna punch up the arrow spine weight for the 29.75" / 125gr / 55# (53#) but you slide it up. - update The Carbon express mayhem weight fwd has been discontinued so gotta roll to the local bow shop to try some different spine weights.

@bowhunter1023 Hmmm... yup, changed my weight, I nock point the same (i think ) same since I got the bow in 2010 but I'll check that and the chalk the fletching as well. what's perplexing is I don't see fishtailing, the 125g field points are solid 20-30yrds.... the bow is a single cam (Browning Verado) so tuning isn't near the bug-a-boo of twin cams... but again I'll check.

One other thing is it's been >2 years now since I had it restrung (2020) ... so ought to get that done and just start fresh... dangit.

Plan to shoot a couple of the 125g mechanical spitfires to see if they replicate either the field point or the quad broadhead (Spitfires for practice only not nearly enough kenetic energy with the reduced draw weight to use them) once I get home from work I'll shoot and update.

...and I've been following @Spencie 's crossbow buy and that discussion.... Everytime I approach the crossbow thing my Dad's saying rings in my ears... " Don't disparage getting old, it's a privilege denied to many."

 

[Big_Holla]

I don't think it's a fletching issue, but some pool chalk or baby powder will tell you. If you dropped weight and didn't retune, I'd say you changed your nock point, which throws the whole equation out of balance. You could very well be over spined, but I'd start with the nock point if you haven't already.

This ^^^^ makes the most sense!

 

[bowhunter1023]

No nock point ever set has been stable for 12 years. Most certainly needs to be checked any time a modification is made to any input variable.

 

[Stressless]

Jesse , thx - I appreciate the overwatch and totally agree - I reset everything everytime I restring - 3 times now with this bow, if I can get her in tune without restringing then I'll get it restrung this coming off season Jan-Feb, if not I'll get her restrung and start from scratch again.

My brain was thinking anchor point, not nock point, nock travel which is more pronounced with a single cam. Trade off not having to sync the cams. Rain is keeping me in this evening but I'm hopeful to paper test, fletching check and tune her tomorrow. Right now I plan to keep the 350 shafts and see if can tune them into a decent grouping. If that doesn't work out and with objective data from the fletching test and paper test I'll be back to the well of knowledge.

 

[bowhunter1023]

Sounds like you've got it all figured out. Musta been a rhetorical post

 

[Stressless]

LoL. I haven't gotten anything figured out yet that's for sure. You and BH brought up fletch test, over spine and nock point. I'm planning to test them all out. I don't have a shitton of experience working on bows, shooting ya. I dont own a press or fletching jig to give some indication. So reaching out here asked for help/guidance which you and BH gave and I really do appreciate it.

I plan to check those, do what I kinda know how. I mean I have to go look up which way to move the rest based on the tear in the paper .

 

[jagermeister]

Strip the fletchings off an arrow and bareshaft tune it. Any issue with spine and nock point will reveal itself. Don’t assume it’s not spine or nock point just because field points seem to fly well and you don’t see any fishtailing. Sometimes you can’t see it in flight. Bottom line is if your broadheads aren’t impacting where your field points impact, your arrows or your tune or both are more than likely to blame.

 

[brock ratcliff]

Strip the fletchings off an arrow and bareshaft tune it. Any issue with spine and nock point will reveal itself. Don’t assume it’s not spine or nock point just because field points seem to fly well and you don’t see any fishtailing. Sometimes you can’t see it in flight. Bottom line is if your broadheads aren’t impacting where your field points impact, your arrows or your tune or both are more than likely to blame.

100%!
You can tell more from one bareshaft shot than you can from a half hour shooting. In fact, if you sacrifice one arrow’s fletching (cut them off), shoot it into a target such as a block, several folks here can get you pointed in the right direction from a single picture.