Too weak or too stiff, both will show as a horizontal tear, the tear will be in opposite directions, tho. One of the things I like about paper tuning, is that you can visually see what the arrow is doing as it leaves the bow. Looking at the tear in the paper, you will be able to see which end was the point and which was the fletching and thereby “see” what the arrow was doing as it passed thru. For a right hand shooter, if the point is right of the fletching, the arrow is weak; if the point is going thru left of the fletching the arrow is too stiff. Opposite for a lefty. Nocking point tears are similar except that you will seldom see a nock low tear. If the nocking point is too low, the arrow will bounce off the shelf and give you a nock hi tear. Just work with your nocking point until you get the smallest vertical tear possible. When you find the arrow spine/nocking point that gives you a hole instead of a tear, you have found perfect spine and nocking point for your bow.
Paper tuning seems to be best done about six feet from the bow. Make sure the target butt is far enough beyond the paper so that the arrow is fully clear of the paper before it hits the target. Lightweight butcher type paper is probably the best for paper tuning but newspaper works pretty good and is cheap and always available.
