# VAP v1 spine indexed



## Ruperto36 (Sep 11, 2013)

Going to shoot my first 900 in 2 months. I purchased a set of VAP v1's. They are spine indexed and are all lined up with the spine facing to the right at the 3 o'clock position. Question is should I leave it at the 3 o'clock position or put it to the 12 o'clock.


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## elkbow69 (May 7, 2010)

depends on the bow and rest style. 
So assuming the arrows are already fletched, if it were me I would take 4-5 arrows and shoot a group, then align the spine vertical and shoot another group, and so on. see which orientation works the best and the it's the tightest group. 
This of course all depends on the style of rest you have and the vanes on the arrows. if you're shooting a lizard tongue or prong rest your limited pretty much at 3 or 9 o'clock based on the vane orientation. if shooting a compound with a drop away rest you can have a few other options it just depends on vane clearance.


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## bigHUN (Feb 5, 2006)

The most important is don't let the shaft flex up-down and L-R in the same time, eliminate the L-R wobble so the centershot better be zero (french tune).
Then you set the nocking point in relation to cam timing (creep tune). If it is centered or very close I would put a stiffer side at 12 so the shaft point starts with nose diving (the middle is benting up and the nock is low at that time freeze, same as the point) and when the nock is approaching the resting point will be a flex away over the blade tip. This way you can set the rest 100% zero to the nocking point.


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## Ruperto36 (Sep 11, 2013)

thanks so much. I'll start turning some arrows


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## bokellaz (Apr 7, 2014)

Ruperto - 

I have spine indexed 100's of arrows and tested them with both the strong and the weak plane in every position, and filmed them on a high speed camera. I should clarify that this was all on a compound. My findings were this:
When indexing the strong side, the arrow will always flex 90 degrees or to the side of the strong side first (not opposite or 180 degrees as many believe). This is fine if you know which 90 degree direction that is, could be left, could be right. Marking the strong side does not tell you this.
When indexing the weak side, the arrow will always flex on this plane and because of this, you can match your arrows and their flight characteristics much better. I always mark the weak spine of the arrow and then fletch according to the way I want the arrow to flex first. With me, that is usually vertical with the point flexing up first, or weak side up. I get the best groups with this. With it 180 degrees, or weak side down, I get my second best groups. I see a lot of people who align the strong spine of the arrow either up with the cock vane or straight down in between the hen vanes. By doing this, you are guaranteeing that your arrow will flex sideways first and I never understood why compound shooters do this. For recurve this is ideal because of archers paradox and the need to bend the arrow around the riser. But for center shot compounds it just adds to greater difficulty in keeping the left/rights under control.
Hope this helps.


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## "TheBlindArcher" (Jan 27, 2015)

bokellaz said:


> Ruperto -
> 
> I have spine indexed 100's of arrows and tested them with both the strong and the weak plane in every position, and filmed them on a high speed camera. I should clarify that this was all on a compound. My findings were this:
> When indexing the strong side, the arrow will always flex 90 degrees or to the side of the strong side first (not opposite or 180 degrees as many believe). This is fine if you know which 90 degree direction that is, could be left, could be right. Marking the strong side does not tell you this.
> ...


^^^ Agree with the principles ^^^ 

I think I would leave it as Victory sent them, or at best rotate the nocks 180 deg, but personal experience has them shooting far better than I can right out of the box as marked, and putting the stiff side up/down will give you more side-to-side movement. .


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## Ruperto36 (Sep 11, 2013)

Thanks bokellaz for that great info. Guess more experimentation on the horizon


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## Rick! (Aug 10, 2008)

Ruperto36 said:


> Going to shoot my first 900 in 2 months. I purchased a set of VAP v1's. They are spine indexed and are all lined up with the spine facing to the right at the 3 o'clock position. Question is should I leave it at the 3 o'clock position or put it to the 12 o'clock.


I bought unfletched V1's and the nocks were aligned 90 degrees to the marked spine. I fletched them with the marked spine at 6:00 and left two shafts bare. One bare shaft shoots well with the spine mark at 6:00 and one flies ok with the mark near 3:00. Spent a bunch of time spinning nocks and found they group fine with the spine mark at 6:00 and 2:00ish. At 10:00ish, the group spread noticeably. So, for me and my hypersensitive PCE, the Vaps have a reasonably wide tuning range when the bow is tuned well.


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## SonnyThomas (Sep 10, 2006)

I would ask why you have/had them set to 3:00? Are you using fingers/tabs or mechanical release?


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