# tell me how to tune a bow corectly



## jodipuma (Feb 24, 2011)

for hunting? like what steps do you guys do and how do you do those steps? sorry if a stupid question


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## trapper.robi (Jul 9, 2011)

I am interested as well. But for me I think just having it close is good as far as paper tuning goes, but if I can get my field points to fly the same/ similiar impact spot as broadheads thats a plus, just cuz it saves targets and blades.


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## jodipuma (Feb 24, 2011)

i bought a bow ,had a rest mounted ,did center shot , and sighted in with field points. my broadheads hit 5 inches low at 20yds


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## Archway Hunter (Mar 21, 2011)

From the time I receive a new bow:

1) I measure and record ATA, BH, DL and DW.
2) I put the bow in my press and draw board to adjust the harness so that DL and DW are correct when limbs are maxed out and cam mods are at correct position. I also measure and fix cam lean if any. I then record the new ATA and BH.
3) Install rest and peep by eye-balling center shot and so that arrow runs at 90 degrees through the berger holes.
4) Paper tune to define proper spine, nock height, and center shot.
5) Bareshaft group tune to refine center shot, nock height, yoke tune (if necessary), and refine nock travel. Add or subtract twists from yokes and/or buss cable on press. Repeat.
6) Creep tune if necessary (Only if bareshaft group tuning doesn't tell me what I want to know).
7) Walk-back tune with field points and broadheads. (Bow is now hunting ready)
8) Record IBO. And then repeat tuning process if I think the bow is not shooting the way it should be.....yes, I'm that anal.

A lot of these steps can be found in the Nut's and Bolts Guide to Tuning.....I believe it is a sticky.


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## jodipuma (Feb 24, 2011)

is all of that needed archway or are you just as you said that anal?


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## Simpleiowaguy (Jan 10, 2011)

Find nuts and bolts guide to tuning on here. He is a genius. In my personal opinion paper tuning is a joke. You should bareshaft tune IMO


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## Archway Hunter (Mar 21, 2011)

Simpleiowaguy said:


> Find nuts and bolts guide to tuning on here. He is a genius. In my personal opinion paper tuning is a joke. You should bareshaft tune IMO


Agreed. In my experience, I can get just about everything I need from just bareshaft tuning. Paper tuning gives me a good idea of where to start, but sometimes I just skip it altogether. With bareshaft tuning you can just take a bareshaft with the same point weight and length as your regular arrows just minus the fletching and shoot it at point blank range at a preferably fresh foam target. If the bareshaft impacts the foam straight vertical and horizontally, then your center shot and nock height is good to go. If you are nock high, lower your nock point. Vice versa with nock low. If you are nock left, move the arrow rest left. Vice versa with nock right. If you are moving your rest more than an 1/8th left or right and you are shooting a bow with hybrid cams, adjust the yokes as you most likely have cam lean at full draw. Now back up to 10 feet. Shoot a fletched arrow at the 10 ring. Now shoot the bareshaft at the same point of aim. If your bareshaft hits with your fletched arrow, you are good to go. If not, adjust your rest. Now back up to 10 yards and repeat. Back up to 20 yards and repeat. If you can get your bareshaft to always hit with your fletched arrow, your bow is pretty much tuned to the max (except for speed). Now go to walk-back tuning with fletched arrows with field points and broadheads. The changes you have to make to your rest for broadheads will be miniscule and sometimes you won't have to change a thing. Now if you can't get your bareshafts to group with your fletched arrows outside of 10 feet, and your nocks are high or low then you have nock travel that needs to be adjusted with tiller tuning for very slight nock travel or adjustments to the harness for extreme cases. This all assumes that your arrows are properly spined to begin with. For that, I refer to software such as OT2 or TAP to save me time and money. When in doubt, I always get shoot a heavier spine and add more point weight as needed. I'd rather have more FOC anyway.

IMO, points 1,2,3,5,and 7 are absolute musts.


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## jodipuma (Feb 24, 2011)

god i need someone to help me haha


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## threetoe (May 13, 2011)

Please don't listen to many on this board.

Download the Easton 2nd Edition tuning guide from www.Easton.com/downloads/software
Then download Nuts&Bolts guide found here.

The first time it's confusing but I can now re-tune a bow in less than 20 shots. Once you understand what you're doing, it's easy.

The BEST way is also the easiest and if done right will have your bow shooting target tips and ALL Broadheads to the same point.

Bare shaft...no veins.

Remember that you Tune the Bow to the Arrow.! 
Every time you change arrows you need to re-tune to it. (even if they are cut the same length, have the same spine and veins too)

If you get stumped, PM me.


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## Archway Hunter (Mar 21, 2011)

Hmm....I don't know about that. I thought the bareshaft tuning advice I gave was rather straight forward.


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## threetoe (May 13, 2011)

Just a general warning Archway, not an indictment of you.


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## Bill 2311 (Jun 24, 2005)

I start with paper. I set the nock position then yoke tune through paper at distances out to about 12 feet. I then go outside with broadheads. Again I adjust rest height until BH and FP hit together (Vertically). I then make additional minor yoke adjustments to get the BH and FP to hit together. I then adjust the sight. As I get this done at 20 yards, I will increase the distance out to 50 or 60 yards. I won't shoot at a deer at that distance but it is great for practice.


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## trapper.robi (Jul 9, 2011)

I cant seem to wrap me mind around how you can tune a bow to shoot an arrow with ALL different types of heads. Field pts, trad fixed blade, short ferrule fixed blade, and expandables all have diff flight characteristics, so how can this be? I've only found to get about two similar fixed blade to group together and field pts and some expandables to group together. At twenty yards I can get all pretty close, but at 40 yards???


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## Archway Hunter (Mar 21, 2011)

trapper.robi said:


> I cant seem to wrap me mind around how you can tune a bow to shoot an arrow with ALL different types of heads. Field pts, trad fixed blade, short ferrule fixed blade, and expandables all have diff flight characteristics, so how can this be? I've only found to get about two similar fixed blade to group together and field pts and some expandables to group together. At twenty yards I can get all pretty close, but at 40 yards???


Your arrows need to be properly spined, if not just a tad on the stiff side, and you have to have level nock travel (lateral and vertical), and last but not least.....good form. You are right however, the different tips do have different flight characteristics, but you can get them to fly together to 70 yards with very minute changes to your rest. The key is arrows spine, good tune, and good form. Getting broadheads to hit together at long distance needs all three to make it happen.


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## Ches (Aug 3, 2009)

Jodipuma
I am going to start out by letting you know I am no Pro or Expert, just a hunter that likes to shoot. As stated above, the Nuts & Bolts artical is a great one to start with. I learned a lot from him years ago prior to him becoming a God. At least for me, his writing is very easy to understand. When I get a new bow, I hold it in my hands, look it over, and smile a lot. Once I get past that, my first check is the cams and idlers. You want very little if any lean in them. You most likely don't have a drawing board, and I didn't for years, so I would just do a static check by holding an arrow up against each cam one at a time and seeing if it ran down the string streight (does it get closer or further from string as it moves toward nocking point. On my current bow, I found that the string on the cam came off at a bad angle, spacers had been installed wrong from factory, took it back for a fix. For the Idler, you Sig. says you have a Switchback Xt, great bow, almost got that one but found my Vengeance (prior years model) for a great price back in 06, I have read that that bow likes the arrow to become centered on the nocking possition at idle (tip of point to be centered on string. I always try to get mine close to parrelel with string, but thats just me. To adjust, you need a press (a bow master works grat on that bow, or take it to the shop), once pressed, twist the ead of one yoke one way and the other side the other way a little then recheck. Once set, then check cam timing. I think your bow has a hole that needs to line up with (?) then the string or cable. I then set nock 1/16 high, visual check rest center, then move right to walk back tuning with field points (see Nuts & Bolts). I do this out to 60 yards now, used to stop at 40, all depends on your abilities. This sets rest center. Then I put in a fixed blade broadhead and do a walk back with them in comparison to FP's (I use two targets set next to each other. Again, see Nuts & Bols for adjustments. If you shoot mechanicals, do this anyways, it sets both vertical and horizontal. I use Thunderheads, you want a head that can actually steer the arrow so you know when you have it right. I do this again from 20 all the way to 60, just remember, hair movements in rest will change impact by 4" or more. Once I got that set, I practice a lot and go hunting. FYI, my norm is to shoot one FBBH every time I practice with FP's as a confidence builder. Everyone does something different, I know I left some steps out, I don't paper tune or bare shaft tune, both have their place, I just don't use them. Good luck.

Ches.


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## Ches (Aug 3, 2009)

I knew I would forget. Don't forget to spin test your Fixed Blade heads. You don't need a fancy spin tester, just use your index finger, place the point of the head on it, and give the arrow a quick spin with your other hand. Don't know how to describe it but you will know when one is not spin right. I use an ASD on my shafts prior to build, and then after glued up (that's the anal side of me). You don't need one if you are not going to be building arrows, but I think it's a good thing to do. I see again from your Sig. you have a 27" DL @70 Lbs, don't know your arrows but I would guess you to be shooting 265-270 FPS. Some say 280FPS is some magical # that you can't shoot FBBH's over, I shoot just North of 300 FPS (425 grain arrow) and don't have a problem, and if I do, don't tell me and spoil my confidence.

How did you do last year in the Necedah area, I hunt Black River Falls County land. Opening week was great, 4 does and an 8 pointer. Rut week I had a lot of bucks (which I could no longer shoot) but no Does within range. I hunted the CWD area for a second buck without luck also.

Ches.


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## threetoe (May 13, 2011)

jodipuma said:


> i bought a bow ,had a rest mounted ,did center shot , and sighted in with field points. my broadheads hit 5 inches low at 20yds


Your Bow is NOT tuned to the arrow.

And YES.. If your bow is tuned well and the spine of the arrow is correct it should spit out anything you put into it at the same weight. (if it spins correctly) 
The reason 280 fps is a great number is that a fixed blade broadhead on the front of an arrow acts like veins in front. From testing the experts noticed that at over about 280 the high speeds sometimes cause BH's to fly erratically. I said "sometimes" because the variables are endless. This is why I choose to install my veins with heavy helical. (counteracts the BH effect) 

I think most here just "HOPE" the bow shoots well and "HOPE" to get lucky. I respect the game animals more than that.

When my bow/arrows are tuned well (bare shaft bullet holes through paper at 6', 12', 18' and 30') that everything I throw at it hits point of aim (same as FP's) out to 60 yards. This means I can shoot BH's to match my game like a rifle. The bow is a laser. I shoot 276 FPS at 340 grains.

I believe that every bow has an arrow it likes best. (IMO) This is based on personal experience attempting to tune my bow to several different arrows. My bow LOVES GT XT Hunter 3555's. For my bow it's a match made in heaven.

I could show you how easy it is to Bare Shaft Paper tune. I could also make believers out of the "I don't paper tune" guys. I've done it many times before.

If you insist on being mediocre about your tune, may I suggest Rage Mechanicals?

Bill


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## bfisher (Nov 30, 2002)

Archway, isn't being anal. There's more to tunin a bow than just tuning the bow. It has to be set up for the guy shooting it before tuning can be done properly. Getting the draw length very close is one thing. Chechking cam sync (dual cam) and/or cam timing is another. Draw lenh is important because it's directly related to the archer's form and without proper form there can be no consistency, which is necessary for tuning.

So tuning in and of itself is just one step. First the bow has to fit the shooter. Then basic setup is next with sight, rest, kisser button, and peep sight installed and lined up. Then a short break-in period for the strings. Then start the tuning process.

He's spelled it out fairly well so no sense in me rambling just to duplicate his post.


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## Honker-Konker (May 10, 2012)

Best thing to do is find articles on the web that go into bow tuning in great detail. Then once you get a decent grasp on how to tune a bow in general then you have to start tuning your bow to your individual shooting. I've got a system of tuning my bows to the way I shoot that probably isn't the best way to tune a bow but it works great for me.


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## bfoot (Dec 30, 2009)

jodipuma said:


> for hunting? like what steps do you guys do and how do you do those steps? sorry if a stupid question


Download Nuts&Bolts tuning guide at the beginning of this forum. It is about 150 pages, free and the best tuning guide I have ever seen. It is written in every day language and a beginner can understand it. Plus it is the best one I have ever seen. I keep a bound copy on my workbench. No one can answer your question in a post and you will get conflicting and incorrect information.


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