# How do you know when your bow needs tuning??



## Sectick (Sep 5, 2011)

Well if your a more experienced shooter and have a bow that fits you will know when something needs tuned. For example, you might feel something different in the way the wall feels and find out your cams have come out of time. Or, maybe your string stretched and your peep is twisting. You'll just know.

Now if your a novice and don't have a helping hand or a good pro shop around I'm guessing you probably need to do some sort of tuning. First, look up nuts&bolt's guide on here and start checking what you can. Check your actual draw length (I took a uncut arrow and marked the inches + 1.75" from nock groove and marked the narrowest part of grip on riser), draw weight, cam lean, cam timing, rest timing, peep height. Once you verify all that is in order walk-back tune and/or broadhead tune. Ideally if your bow is tuned you won't have to make any changes, if broadheads aren't hitting with field points then you know you have some work to do (either with form or tune).

I'm still new to tuning my own gear on a more advanced level as I have just got my first bow press and draw board (finally gave up on local proshop). But for the most part its all pretty cut and dry and N&B's guide has been invaluable to me.

Was there anything giving you reason to believe your out of tune?

**EDIT** - Short veriosn....... it never hurts to try and tune it yourself. If you do this you will give yourself a baseline as to what feels right. Afterwards you will be more aware of slight changes in your bow.


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## lc12 (Jul 30, 2009)

There are a lot of shops out there that call "setting up your bow" as tuning a bow.
Setting up a bow is adding on the accessories (sights, rest, peep, d-loop, having the right cam installed for your draw length, etc.Tuning the bow is getting the cams in sync, adjusting the draw weight, draw length, brace height and axle to axle measurements which is accomplished by properly twisting/untwisting string and cables until the bow meets the bow manufactures specifications.
And then you have the paper tuning, walk-back tuning, etc.
Some of us get way to wrapped up into "tuning" instead of just shooting, but I have to admit that there is some fun in trying to get the most out of your bow and making it the best it can be. 
Kind of like building the custom hot rod. The car, as it is, will get you to where you are going, but you ain't quite happy with the speed, so then you start customizing and working on it day and night until you get that dream machine that you always wanted. Problem with that is that when it is done it is too pretty to drive!!!
Just have fun in the beginning and go shoot!


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## Cheese1 (Sep 6, 2009)

If you want to shoot bows you need to do all the work yourself and ask questions here on AT. Don't rely on a shop to do it for you. You will have better success when you can do your own work. And I like what lc12 has to say, that is so true. I love it. Spend some extra money on a press and some other tools. The last time my stings stretched.......my arrows were hitting low, my ata was long and so was my brace height. It was only a small amount but I could tell. I found this chart today on draw length that I thought was cool. I'm 6'-2" tall and I measured my wing span from midde finger to middle finger without stretching hard. I came up with 74 inches. (6'-2"). Divided by 2.5 and came up with 29.6 inches for my draw length. Here is the long side of the chart. 






I'm 6'-2" and my wing span 74 inches divided by 2.5 = 29.6 This is about where I always end up with a bow. Sometimes at 30 inch draw bow I can't shoot as well. Just thought this was interesting.


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## ron w (Jan 5, 2013)

bow techs supposedly come from the factory " in tune" .....thst said, some will be, but some also won't be as good as they could be. 
if your bow is an '08 and not just purchased as "new-old stock", I would almost assume it could use a tune job.
beyond that, as you shoot your bow and learn more about the sport and the mechanics of bows specifically, you'll learn to recognize when something is out of tune, by the way the bow feels or the way it groups. it's hard to recognize these fine points until you develop enough confidence in your shot sequence that your mind isn't all wrapped around that one issue while shooting.


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