Finicky tuners?

[Etter1]

#6632

I like to think Ive become pretty good at tuning arrows to my bows but my latest purchase really had me scratching my head. It’s a zipper nitro 60″ with longbow limbs and is 56@28. As with most carbon backed bows, it is extremely quick but everything depends on everything else. Even minute changes in brace height will completely throw off the tune of the bow and totally screw arrow flight. I finally have it dialed in to exactly where I want it and it is LAUNCHING a 28″ 5575 with 300 grains up front. It actually has the same cut and is shooting at a similar speed to my black widow so Im shooting the same arrows out of both. Im just blown away by how little of a change affects the overall tuning. Today, I finally decided everything was perfect and went to add two extra string silencers (there are only two very small cat whiskers on it). The ones I wanted to throw on were the super light spiders made by black widow and it completely threw everything off again.

Is this just because of the cut of the bow, the speed, my typically pathetic form? Ive just never met one like this.

Ps- the settings I finally settled on were exactly what the bowyer recommended all along. What does he know though, right?

[DK]

#54541

I think certain bows just have certain things that don’t work for them. My elkheart is very forgving but if I put a plastic tip protector on the lower limb it shoots low. It makes it quieter but I swear it shoots low. Weird.

[Etter1]

#55415

DK wrote: I think certain bows just have certain things that don’t work for them. My elkheart is very forgving but if I put a plastic tip protector on the lower limb it shoots low. It makes it quieter but I swear it shoots low. Weird.

Gotta have a limb protector. How else can you use it as a hiking stick?

[Bruce Smithhammer]

#55440

Sean –

Total stab in the dark here, but I’m mystified by your tuning dilemma as well – have you tried changing how you grip the bow at all? As I recall, your other bows are recurves, right? Sometimes, I find certain longbows shoot a lot more consistently and accurately if you ‘get ahold of them’ more so than the typical recurve style of gripping the bow.

No idea if that has anything to do with it, and it’s always hard trying to solve tuning issues over the interwebs, but I figured it was worth throwing out there.

[David Fudala]

#55556

That’s a great point SH, and if I may piggyback it a bit. I’ve noticed that when I’m shooting my longbows, I cant them more aggressively than my recurves which improves arrows flight out of them.

[Etter1]

#55662

It could be Bruce. It could also be that I battle target panic on nearly every shot so my form is not totally consistent, even though my POI somehow is. I have changed that bow a lot since you shot it and today I got it dialed in and I’m not changing a thing. I went back to 29″ arrows and moved the nock up by 1/8″. Whether I short draw now or hold at full anchor for multiple seconds the arrows fly like lasers.

I’ve gotten the carbon quieted down to near silence and I’m shooting it as well as my recurves. I just hope I can collect some turkey feathers in the next few months because I want to make my own fletchings for this bow.

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