# fingers barebow and arrow length question



## dragonheart (Jul 18, 2008)

*Length*

I would say the optimium arrow length is about 3" in front of the furthest most portion of the arrow rest. WhY? Accuracy and forgiveness. When you cut an arrow right at the arrow rest, you stiffin the arrow greatly, and you create a less accurate bow an arrow combination. It is difficult to explain, but I could show you a simple test that would illustrate how a very short arrow will react to the bow weight hitting it upon relaese. Keep those arrows longer. You will not regret it. I fought this for years, thinking there was some "advantage" to shortening the arrow. There is only a disadvantage to that! I have shot my best groups and had my most forgiving setup, longbow, recurve and compound with a longer arrow that the current trend of short arrows. The game that you are interested in playing (3-D), IMHO I would shoot for a 30 to 35 yrd point on.


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## minnie3 (Jul 28, 2009)

thanks for the very interesting reply dragonheart. my 3d division only has a 27m maximum distace and using my short arrows with a high anchor had a point on at 25m. think i'll hold off on cutting them and play with them long for a while. thanks again.


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## Hank D Thoreau (Dec 9, 2008)

I have found the same thing shooting barebow recurve. The problem that I encounter is controlling distance when the arrow tip is too close to the fulcrum, in this case the rest. Raising and lowering the back end of the arrow does not affectively change the visual position of the front end. The only arrows I have ever cut are not in the dead arrow pile. All the arrows that I shoot are full length, on recurve and compound.


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## bigbob29 (Sep 7, 2009)

Would have to totally agree re the longer arrows. Although I dont 'gap' shoot as such, found the advise to use the longer arrows spot on. I just see the arrow in my peripheral vision, and having the point about 3'' outside the riser allows me to 'see' it much easier and does tighten my groups considerably. Incidently, if this makes sense mentioned before that I didnt know where my 'point of aim' was, due to the way I shoot. Well from working backwards , ie., when i was shooting particularly well at practice I did take notice of where the point was each time I 'saw' the target and where 'it' was telling me to shoot and it seems my point of aim appears to be about 40m. Does that appear right for some one shooting split fingers?.Minnie strongly recommend using the longer shafts.Bob :darkbeer:


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## mitchell (Mar 5, 2005)

I am assuming you do realize that when you lengthen the arrow, you change the dynamic spine. In other words, a 600 deflection cut 27" will be much stiffer than a 600 deflection cut 32". So as you consider shooting the longer shafts, you may need to play with the deflection you chose to shoot to get a good match to your bow weight, draw length, etc. You probably already know all this but I just thought it wouldn't hurt to be certain.

If you want to learn more about all that, there is a traditional boyer named O L Adcock who has a tuning section on his web site that explains it pretty well. If you haven't bare shafted, and are just learning this part, you might want to print and read it.

http://www.bowmaker.net/index2.htm


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## Boyd (Feb 7, 2003)

I could go into a long explanation on this but dragonheart said it best without getting into the very fine details of how a longer arrow is much better.

Longer arrows = higher scores. (keep in mind that there is always a point of deminishing returns) Keep them as long as possible.





dragonheart said:


> I would say the optimium arrow length is about 3" in front of the furthest most portion of the arrow rest. WhY? Accuracy and forgiveness. When you cut an arrow right at the arrow rest, you stiffin the arrow greatly, and you create a less accurate bow an arrow combination. It is difficult to explain, but I could show you a simple test that would illustrate how a very short arrow will react to the bow weight hitting it upon relaese. Keep those arrows longer. You will not regret it. I fought this for years, thinking there was some "advantage" to shortening the arrow. There is only a disadvantage to that! I have shot my best groups and had my most forgiving setup, longbow, recurve and compound with a longer arrow that the current trend of short arrows. The game that you are interested in playing (3-D), IMHO I would shoot for a 30 to 35 yrd point on.


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## fuelracerpat (May 6, 2008)

I don't necessarily agree with the "long arrow is better" mindset....... I have shot full length(un-cut) shafts for the NFAA Competitive Bowhunter class, always aluminum shafts and did this for point on considerations. I have been shooting NFAA Barebow for the last two years. I shoot a shaft that is cut no more than 1/2" in front of the plunger button, mounted in the rear position on a Barnsdale riser, with three fingers under and the index finger touching the nock. The Barebow class allows stringwalking and this puts the end of the shaft about 1/2" in front of the plunger button with the index finger touching the nock to about 2" in front of the button at my 20 foot crawl.
So, with all this being said, the dynamics of the arrow shaft is all over the place.
A single anchor point is much simpler as far as muscle memory and repeatability goes. The gaps that must be learned to shoot that single anchor point are not so simple.
The longer the shaft the closer the point on will be and vice versa to lengthen the point on. I have found that arrow weight is not near criteria to use for point on distance adjustment as is the length of the arrow.
Now how is that for a rather disjointed non-explanation!


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## dragonheart (Jul 18, 2008)

*Longer*

When talking about the arrow shaft length, I am referring to the optimum set up for forgiving tune. What will give you the most forgiving set up. Any arrow will shoot, but what will shoot the best? If you can move the arrow rest back, to add more distance from the arrow point to where the arrow contacts the rest, that is where you get forgiveness. Even with a small overdraw, still cuttiing the arrow just in front of the riser, but lengthining the distance between arrow point and rest will give you more accuracy. I believe you would have the same result stringwalkin, but with the black art, you are searching so much for the average beacuse of walking the string and detuning the bow, that each individiual bow set up can be criticail in one way or another.


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## fuelracerpat (May 6, 2008)

dragonheart said:


> When talking about the arrow shaft length, I am referring to the optimum set up for forgiving tune. What will give you the most forgiving set up. Any arrow will shoot, but what will shoot the best? If you can move the arrow rest back, to add more distance from the arrow point to where the arrow contacts the rest, that is where you get forgiveness. * Even with a small overdraw, still cuttiing the arrow just in front of the riser, but lengthining the distance between arrow point and rest will give you more accuracy. * I believe you would have the same result stringwalkin, but with the black art, you are searching so much for the average beacuse of walking the string and detuning the bow, that each individiual bow set up can be criticail in one way or another.


C'mon now Jeff.....you know we was taught as fledglings that overdraws made a bow more critical:wink: and I find this to still be true to some extent. The only reason I shoot my Barney with the rest and button in the back position is because the rest does not fit well in the forward position(the wire does not reach all the way to be even with the button). I don't know that this is critical.....but it just don't look right!
I'm not sure about the point position and arrow length relationship, I've just never seen a difference in the accuracy.....maybe this says something about my ability And as always....your mileage may vary!


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## big cypress (Jul 31, 2006)

''frpat'' about the rest/plunger on barnsdale , i agree . i got a barnsdale a couple months back and when putting the rest/plunger on the look really bothered me so put the side plate on rest rather than use plunger . don't know if accuracy is better or worse but when one shoots 12 inch groups at twenty yards, on a good day ,accuracy doesn't matter .


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## AKRuss (Jan 10, 2003)

I use to shoot NFAA Field with a few barebow compound types. They use to try to get a point-on on what they considered to be optimal for shooting the course, generally 35 yards or so as I recall. If your maximum shot distance is 27m, I'd try to get that as point on and gap lower for closer targets. You could also try to get point on at the shortest distance (long arrow) and hold over for longer shots but I've found it easier to shoot with the arrow point gapped under the target rather than over.


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## dragonheart (Jul 18, 2008)

*overdraw*

When the point of contact with the arrow rest is not past the break in the wrist, it is not critical, in fact there is a sweet spot that can be tuned for. I promise you I am not whistling out my rear. Many moons ago a guy named Frank Pearson, put out a series of videos. Frank shot with an overdraw, not to shoot a shorter arrow, but because it was more accurate. His arrows were cut past the back of the bow. You know that because that is where his clicker wire was. There was at least 2 inches or so from the arrow rest to where the arrow was cut. Why? Why does a young man with the initials of JB who is top pro shoot with an arrow about 2.5 inches from rest contact to arrow cut and an arrow rest that resides over his wrist. Why? Accuracy. Those pro-guys dang sure would cut the arrow shorter if there was a benefit.


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## minnie3 (Jul 28, 2009)

plenty of food for thought here with all these replies, much appreciated and thanks again. nothing happening at our club this weekend so i''ll have the practice range to myself to try a few more longer arrows. have a good weekend.


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