I am shooting a Bear Montana longbow. When I shoot a bare shaft for tuning I am amazed at how well they will group and shoot over all. I am shooting off the shelf, and can't help but wonder if it is because there is not fletching to contact the shelf. So Now I am wondering if I was to build up the shelf and the side plate with my usual sticky furniture pads and trim them to minimize all contact with the shelf if it might shoot my broadheads better once tuned? I have seen that on Sam Fadelas bow. I no most people don't do that and it is probably not neccesary but I got to wonder if it would help. I have been succesfull tuning with my broadheads the way I have it now but I just want to improve to be the most accurate and forgiving it can be. Anybody got any thoughts or fore see any problems with this? Have you noticed the same accuracy with bare shafts?
I like to tune my arrows with broadheads on. Then when I shoot blunts or fields tips they're still pretty close. Plus I don't get a surprise when I put the broadheads back on. Gary
Changing the side plate thickness will change the arrows dynamic spine and require retuning. Raising the shelf magnifies any hand torque as the arrow is further from your hand and require raising nock point. If your broadheads, field points and bare shafts are grouping well why change?
I mostly shoot off a rest, but a couple of times have shot off the shelf.
I did find that before fletching my arrow, if I sanded the base of the feather to remove the white pith, pretty much leaving just the feather quill, there were less contact issues, when shooting off the shelf
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I understand that I will have to retune if I do this, that is not a big deal to me. What I am looking for in this post is things like you said raising the shelf magnifies any hand torque. I was kind of hoping some one would have done this and said yeah I did that and it made a real difference. My field tips shoot great but I just want it to be the best it can be. Kind of like when somebody says they went to a rest and says holy cow that really helped. I thought about a rest but with a rest you still have the bottom feather makeing extreme contact with the rest wich is why they make them capable of flexing out of the way. I like the tip on sanding the front of the feather great idea. I have already got 1 tip and one thing to look for when I raise the shelf so this is really in my mind pretty productive. Keep it coming guys. I just want it to be the best it can be, I know it is a little work but if my accuracy all of a sudden improves I know that it had to help.