# Tuning For String-Walking: Help needed



## Boomer2094 (Aug 12, 2016)

Greetings all,

I been shooting compounds for the last 4 years.. And now I want to give Barebow a try. Picked up a decent Riser, put a set of limb on it, Rest, plunger and all...Now that my background is out, here's my questions.

Being a compound shooter, I'd like to aim using the tip of the arrow. which means instead of gap shooting I would use String Walking to allow me to aim at what I want to hit. Problem with that is that every time I tried to string walk my bow make weird noise - sounds like the shaft is hitting something. This noise is NOT present when I shoot 3-under Gap shooting. so I believe my bow is not tuned for String walking. So How does one tune their barebow for string walking? 

Here's some stats about the current bow setup:

DL:28"
DW OTF: approx. 34 pounds
BH: 8 1/2"
Tiller: +1/4"

Any knowledge would be much appreciated.

Boomer


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## beleg2 (Dec 31, 2005)

Try Stonebraker T4BB:
https://texasarchery.org/attachments/article/39/Tuning_For_Barebow.pdf

If you read spanish you can find a lot of info here: 
https://www.amazon.com/StringWalkin...?ie=UTF8&qid=1542389991&sr=8-1&keywords=godio

Martin


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## erose (Aug 12, 2014)

Rick Stonebreaker has a document out called Tuning for Barebow. Look that up and you should be set.


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## archer_nm (Mar 29, 2004)

When shooting BB expect noise's you would not hear normally but if you think there is contact then spray foot powder on riser and shelf area and shoot to see if there is an issue. As far as tuning goes Tune your bow at your mid level crawl. (The point half way from your longest crawl and your shortest crawl) Rick is a Master and his article is one of the Tops, also look into String walker's Trilogy (compound BB Tuning).


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## EvilGarfield (May 30, 2018)

Have you tried starting with a neutral or slightly negative tiller? Since you load the bottom limb more, negative tiller often works better for SW 

Sent from my HUAWEI VNS-L31 using Tapatalk


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## Mr. Roboto (Jul 13, 2012)

I find tuning to be really easy for a recurve barebow shooter. Set the plunger to the mid tension, and adjust the center shot position (not tension) so that you are shooting true (left-right) at 20 and 50 yards. You may need to adjust the plunger tension a tad to get them both to align. Then at that point, you are done tuning and you will be good to go at all distances. Beyond the point on distance you will have to learn to gap shoot.

All these other techniques that you read about are advanced techniques that you need to be a very proficient shooter to actually be able to do it correctly otherwise it just leads to frustration. I can shoot low 300's on a FITA field round and I am not good enough to do this advanced tuning. Those who are good at these advanced techniques are also excellent shots, much much better than I am.


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## Steve_M. (Feb 26, 2018)

I agree with Mr. Roboto, I tune in the same way. Set the plunger to mid tension with a medium spring and move the center shot. 

String walking your bow will make weird noises, limbsaver dampeners will help you quiet the bow. If the arrow is hitting something it could be nock point related or the arrow is bouncing off the rest. You probably need to raise your nock point, for string walking 3/8 of an inch seems to be minimum and it goes up from there, don't be scared if you end up at 3/4 or even a full inch. Not sure what rest you are using but the popular SW rests are Spig ZT, Springy, AAE Free Flyte Elite, Gabriel Bi-drop, and Zniper. You basically want a solid rest with a thick wire. 


With String Walking a lot of the tuning rules and norms get thrown out the window. You want your arrows to hit the center or as close to it as possible as you go the down the string. In order to do that you may end up with a bow that looks out of tune to most archers but it will be able to hit the center every time, on every crawl, as long as you execute your shot. 

This is a picture of Demmer's Spig and Gillo, look how far the center shot is.


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## ceratops (May 17, 2017)

Very interesting and useful thread! Especially those pictures above - a concrete illustration that it's OK to go outside 'normal' tuning parameters if that's what works!


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## j.conner (Nov 12, 2009)

More details would be helpful, as follows:
*Riser
*Limbs
*Arrow shaft make/model
*Arrow length
*Arrow point weight
*Fletching type
*Rest make/model
*Plunger make/model
*Finger tab
*Bow string material
*Amount of centershot offset
*Nock height
*Weight/stabilizer configuration

Arrow spine is far more critical with a finger-shot bow than a compound. An even tiller is also more appropriate for a three-under hook, positive tiller is more for spilt finger.

With stringwalking, yes, the bow will tend to be noisy. Full length target bows are used to minimize the relative degree of being out of tune at various crawls. It is best to tune using an intermediate crawl - for example, if you typically shoot 10m-60m, tune at your 30m crawl so your average shot will be more in tune.

Once you have a tune that looks and sounds decent, use bare shaft for fine tuning. Paper tuning is not reliable for finger-shot bows. Don't go crazy with it, just out to your intermediate distance. Note that your ability to group with fletched arrows will limit what you can detect with bare shafts - you just want to see your bare shafts grouping with fletched.

Finally, form is very important, so a few lessons or coaching sessions are a really good idea. A shop or club with a USA Archery JOAD or Adult Archery program would be a good source, as WA barebow is much more closely related to target archery. Avoid advice from "trad" shooters, especially the goofy unsolicited variety you get at the range.

I hope that helps! Give us some more details and we can probably tell if your tune is in the ballpark. It sounds like your current tune might be at a critical edge that falls apart with crawls.


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## Boomer2094 (Aug 12, 2016)

Thanks for all the advice so far! I intend to shoot this bow out to about 50 yds (the longest distance Barebow/Trad shoot out to) so I would tune this at 25 yds.

I shoot Olympic recurve as well so that's what my initial tune for this bow is... I will change the tune to reflect what you guys tells me.

I'm still playing with the parts that goes on this bow...but here's what I have so far.

Riser: Gillo G2 25"
Limbs W&W Winact XT, 34 lbs, Short.
Arrow: Victory VForce Sport, 600 spine, 27.5" C2C
Field point: 100 gn.
Fletch: 3x Ozark Target Maxx 3D, 3" 
Nock: Easton 3D super nock
Rest: AAE Free Flyte Elite
Plunger: AAE Gold Micro
String: Flex Archery StringFlex PRO, build with BCY 8125G.

Thanks! Boomer


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## j.conner (Nov 12, 2009)

That looks reasonable. I have a G1 and a G2 and shoot VAPs too. Do you use a weight kit on yours?

One thought is to look at the centershot. If you are accustomed to tuning X10 arrows (barreled shaft) then you might need to go a bit further off center with the VAPs (parallel shaft).

You also might try raising the brace height a bit. I run mine at 8 7/8". That will often quiet the bow down a bit.

Another thought is to tighten all the bolts on the riser. You might be getting a vibration that is rattling something loose. Especially check the weight kit bolts (if you have one) and the limb pocket adjustment screws. I would snug every bolt you can find. I also ended up replacing the screws with higher quality ones, notably the weight kit, grip, and outer limb adjustment set screws. I have had a running battle with loose parts on the G1 and a few issues with the G2. :-/


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