Tuning your arrows - something I never heard before

[Dredly]

Never heard of this but apparently the knock alignment does make a big difference...

http://www.spot-hogg.com/newsletter17.shtml

What To Do with Arrows that Don't Group Well

(Give them to your competition)

Carbon arrows have been available for quite a while, but we really haven’t been interested in them until just recently. The reason being, was that carbon arrows just didn’t seem to have much consistency from arrow to arrow. At twenty yards, a dozen arrows would group in a hole varying from quarter to softball size. This was discovered with our shooting machine and several different brands of arrows.

We like the non-bending characteristics of the carbon arrows, but when given the choice we prefer to have arrows that group in a hole the size of a dime at twenty yards, and a quarter at sixty yards. What seemed to work the best was a marriage of carbon and aluminum. The arrows with the carbon wrapped around an inner core of aluminum, have the straightness and consistency of aluminum with the carbon providing a resistance to permanent bending. With persistence and patience, they can be straightened should they get a little bent.

These type of carbon wrapped arrows do not come in fat shaft sizes. So when using fat shafts, we opted for the aluminum arrows (straight aluminum arrows group very well). However, it seems that no matter how careful you are, the aluminum arrows get bent (bent aluminum arrows do not group well at all). We figured that if we could get some fat shaft carbon arrows to group well, we could eliminate a problem.

So, we assembled some indoor fat shaft carbon arrows and shot them with our shooting machine. We got a grouping about the size of a golf ball. After turning nocks to index on another vane and subtle variations of just how the nocks aligned to the vanes, we got a grouping about the size of a penny.

Upon checking the arrows before each tournament, they did not always group the same as before. However, slight changes in how the nock aligned to the vanes would bring the penny size grouping back (easier than straightening arrows). Strangely, sometimes just rotating the nock a quarter of a turn and then back to where it was caused an arrow to come back into the penny size grouping. But overall the carbons stayed much more consistent from week to week.

The fat shafted carbon arrows worked so well that we decided to try some other carbon arrows. We got some carbon arrows that are advertised to be straight within +-.001 (arrow straightness really does matter). We assembled six and shot them for grouping on the machine. The grouping started at about six inches in diameter. Then by twisting the nocks, we got them grouping at about three inches in diameter.

In the past, we would have stopped right there and went back to the aluminum/carbon/composite arrows. Instead, we decided to see what the bare shafts would do.

One bare shaft flew great, the others were not so good. At twenty yards, the bare shaft group was about eight inches in diameter. Then we started rotating the nocks in the shafts.

First, we would rotate the nock 180 degrees (1/2 turn) and shoot the arrow again with the same side of the arrow up. If we got different results then we knew the nock might be bad. On some of the arrows we replaced the nock, and still could not get the arrow to hit in the same hole even when we rotated the nock 180 degrees. Secondly, we rotated the nocks 90 degrees (1/4 turn) so that what had been the top of the shaft was now the side of the shaft and shot them again. They all hit in very different places.

In fact, as we continued rotating the nocks in 90 degree increments and shooting the bare shafts, the impact points would vary with each nock orientation. It would repeat in the same hole if you did not rotate the nock. As the different nock orientations were tried, the impact point on the target moved left and right with some variations up and down. Some of the shafts had larger differences in impact than other shafts. With the worst variation being about eight inches and the least being about three inches. Sometimes, as little as one sixteenth of a complete rotation would move the impact point an inch at twenty yards.

We decided to twist nocks and try to get all our bare shafts hitting the same hole at 20 yards. (We picked a hole that seemed to cause the bare shafts to fly their straightest.) We were able to get all the arrows but one to hit in a one-inch group at twenty yards. We were twisting our nocks sometimes in one sixteenth of a complete rotation to get them to come in. Then we fletched the bare shafts so that the nock was properly oriented straight out of the fletching jig.

These fletched arrows grouped in a hole the size of a penny at twenty yards except for the one that as a bare shaft would not group in the one-inch hole (it was about ¼ of an inch above the group). We tried these arrows on a different bow of about the same poundage, but different nock travel and got the same grouping. (This needs further investigation.)

We stripped the vanes from the first six arrows, shot the bare shafts, rotated the nocks until they all grouped in about a one-inch hole, and fletched them. Overall, we got one shaft that insisted on being two-inches from the group, nine that would group in a hole the size of a penny and the last two are out of the penny size group by about ¼ of an inch. Making eleven arrows that hit about the size of a quarter.

We used a 60 lbs. / 65% let-off bow, with string loop and 27 inch draw length. The nock travel for that bow was not the best. The up and down nock travel was pretty good, but left and right travel (string oscillations) was more than we like. The carbon arrows had 100 grain points and weighed 310 grains. With 3” helical vanes, they left the bow over a fall-away arrow rest at 277 feet per second.

So far we have tried this bare shaft tuning on three different bows with different brands of carbon arrows. Nevertheless, the results are the same. The shooters of the carbon arrows like the way the arrows are grouping and the extra speed. We are going to try this some more with different bows and different brands of carbon arrows.

Our conclusion is that carbon arrows seem to have a variance in their spine (stiffness) and/or straightness. By shooting the arrows as bare shafts it is possible to find a shaft-to-nock orientation for each shaft so they will group well. If the arrows are fletched without taking into account the variations in straightness and spine of carbon arrows, a lot of luck is needed to be able to hit where you are aiming.

Good Shooting!

[elitefirearms]

Last year was my first year archery hunting. I was over a buddys youse and he was "tuning his arrows". Myself and another buddy were laughing at him because we thought he was way to serious about it. My second day in the woods I had a huge doe walk up on me and stop about 20 yds away. When I let the arrow fly i missed about 10 inches low. I thought it was me and didnt think much more of it. 3 days before the end of the season I was bored and decided to shoot my broadheads. I was shooting 10 inches low!!! I asked my buddy what was so different and he said to tune them. After I tuned them I was right on. I learned my lesson.

[Coop650]

I bare shaft all new arrows. I have never tried just turning a nock, but I just started shooting carbon's out of my stickbow's last year. The arrows is the most important part of your equipment and it is the most over looked part as well .

Also always practice with your broadheads, or like elitefirearms you will find out the hard way, lol.

[P-11 shooter]

I never used carbon shafts, but buy bare alluminum shafts and fletch them (if I remembered where I put my fletching jig) I never really spun the nocks to see if it made a difference, but know that you can tweak your arrows by playing with diameter, length, fletching, and head weight.

Once you have everything set any change will affect how your arrow flies. Archery is just "different" and there's alot of little things you have to consider. I still have alot to learn about sticks and strings.

Here's an artical I read to help me figure it all out.
http://www.gameandfishmag.com/huntin...ng/RA_0805_06/

[Dredly]

Last year was my first year archery hunting. I was over a buddys youse and he was "tuning his arrows". Myself and another buddy were laughing at him because we thought he was way to serious about it. My second day in the woods I had a huge doe walk up on me and stop about 20 yds away. When I let the arrow fly i missed about 10 inches low. I thought it was me and didnt think much more of it. 3 days before the end of the season I was bored and decided to shoot my broadheads. I was shooting 10 inches low!!! I asked my buddy what was so different and he said to tune them. After I tuned them I was right on. I learned my lesson.

I had a similar issue but mine were going 5 - 10 inches high (unfortunately resulting in me wounding a buck and not dropping him... the worst feeling ever).

Turned out at some point I had bumped by rest, probably on the way up the tree and it moved about 1/4 inch... well 1/4 inch movement of a rest will have a huge impact on your POI.

I've done a lot of bow tuning and archery over the last 5 years or so and I've read a lot of stuff, I used to live on Archerytalk.com and 3dshoots.com but I never read about this before anywhere. I'll be trying it this weekend as 1 of my 3 arrows is hiting the X, one is hitting the left and one is hitting the right... we'll see if it helps.

[PROVANTAGE]

I can say from shooting alot i have noticed that a slight turn can throw an arrow of at twenty yards by by an inch no problem. i make sure that the fletching that is verticle with my nock is perfectly centered so that the fletching is centered in the gap of the nock. i hope that makes sense. also my buddy and i have done alot with tuning broadheads. what you do is spin the arrow on a flat surface and look for any type of wobble. keep doing this until you find a match of broadhead to shaft that spin perfect. I use the montec g5 broadheads they are made from a solid piece of steel, this reduces drag and no chance of a loose blade moving during flight. It can cost a few bucks to buy a few packs but it pays off to get that match.