Every good journey begins at the beginning… nothing sage about that statement! 🙂

You mentioned you’ve been shooting a much lower weight bow and out of practice.

Therein lies the beginning of your journey. You are correct, to my findings, that any “tuning” you do while you’re in a low practice time with your hunting weight is just blowing smoke up your pant legs…

START shooting regularly… work the bale…shooting at 5′ or so…form, form, form… build your back tension. focus on each ‘element of the shot” till it’s natural and you do not fatigue.

Then…and only then (IMNSHO) it’s time to start the real work…

Meantime, print out the TUNING GUIDE On Tuff Head’s site… get what equipment you need… inserts, varied field point weights, ability to cut small increments off arrows.

I love reading how people on some sites just start effusing what arrow you need based on a draw and poundage. I find that to be so amazing!

Every bow, every different limb design and draw force curve results in varied arrow spine needs, the amount of center cut on the riser is also a huge factor seems most folks ignore… I found it HUGE!

Then YOUR release is a big part…

All boils down to the fact the summer is waning and you need to start shooting…forget tuning…shoot a LOT to get muscle memory but do it the right way…forget accuracy and tuning for now… work up to your hunting weight bow… and consistency! EVERY shot… Run the shot, as they say…

Then start the tuning.

I shoot 47# out of a high performance limb design. I had bows to 50# that shot 400 spine fine…but this one has enough giddiup I had to go to 340 spine. I draw 28.5″, and like 29.5″ arrows for BH clearance.

I picked a insert (100 gr. brass) and a head (200 gr Single Bev) I wanted to use and then slowly tuned each arrow cutting from the rear SLOWLY in SMALL increments… even kept a table of shots and # each arrow… to be sure it wasn’t ME skewing a shot series… and when it was the arrow repeatedly, it got trimmed.

I like the higher front weight to enhance penetration of my lower draw weight…were I still able to do 65# draw…I’d not worry so much. But it is what it is and I want to err on the side of caution to get the most “on target” performance I can.

The critter’s deserve no less! Good luck and have fun!

You’re not far from chicago Bow Hunters in Bolingbrook, IL. they have a rather large traditional membership and a 3D shoot this weekend. If you have the time, you may want to stop by and see if someone could give you some hands on assistance.

http://www.chicagobowhunters.com