I had seen others post about how well OL's tuning method worked but I never paid that much attention to it. The arrows in all my bows seemed to fly alright and I neve had a problem getting boradheads to fly, so I never really had a reason to try it.(I guess I got lucky) Well a few weeks ago I got a new bow, a Horns brush bow. It shot ok but I was never really satisified with how the arrows flew or the noise level. So I printed off OL's instructions and went to work. (I figured I would post this in the hope that it would help someone else)....

I started out trying to fix the noise and vibration problems. The bow was just to loud at the reccomended 7 1/2" brace height. I made some string scilencers out of wool yarn and installed them on the bow. I took a few arrows and started shooting. I shot and adjusted brace brace height  until the noise and vibration went away. It ended up at 7 7/8.

I wanted to shoot carbons out of this bow. So I took 4 Gold Tips 3555's and stripped off the already fletched feathers. The total weight of the arrow was 505 grains. The tip I wanted to shoot is 160 grains. I really liked the gold tips because you can screw in weights to the back of the insert. My arrows were already cut to 28 3/4", so the ability to add was really my only option to making them fly straight. I added 70 grains of weight to the front with the 160 grain tip. I figured this would be close and I wanted at least 9 grains per pound. My bow is 56lb and I draw it to 28 inches. So following OL's instructions I had 4 bare shafts and 4 fl etched arrows that both weighing approximately 505 grains.

you ain't done yet,,, keep going  

Well I mixed shooting the bare shafts and the fletched arrows. The first set - bare shafts were way left of the fletched shafts. They were all in line so I didnt have to move the nock on the string.  I needed to add weight. I started with 20 grains at a time. It was amazing how well this worked. The bare shafts were grouping but they were tailing like crazy. This is the part that always confused me. It dosent matter what the rear end of the arrow does at this point in the game. But I will get to that later. I sure wish I had taken a picture as I went through the process.

When I added the weight I could slowly see the bare shafts comeing back to the right. Oh one other thing I started out shooting close at about 12 yards. I only added 20 grains at a time. But looking back at it I sould have added more but I really didnt know what I was doing. Anyway I ended up adding 150 grains of weight to to the back of the insert with a 160 grain tip. The total weight of the arrow is now about 585 grains.

Man I could not believe that this was working. At 12 yards I had a fist size of eight arrows. Remember the part about the bare shafts tailing real bad? Well once they came together the were not tailing nearly as bad. So I then backed up to 20 yards. Well the first group was a little big but by this time in the process I was getting pretty tired. So I took about an hour rest.

It would help guys if ya gave the poundage of your bow at your draw also. I have done this many times so I do not really need the help but it is nice to see ya trying to help others. Shawn

Shawn, the poundage of the bow is 56lbs and my draw is exacly 28". The bow I was tuning was a 60" Horns brush bow. More after I put the kids to bed.

This has never been clear to me.

On the gold tips, exactly how do you add weight at the back of the insert?

Do you take the inserts out?  Or is there some type of long tool to put them in from the nock end?

You take a long rod and weld a allen to the end You will also need to bend the other end for a handle.

Jeff, GT sells a long allen wrench for installing the weights. Its pretty slick how it works. I think the wrench is about $8 bucks.

Is the back side of the weight threaded to receive more weights and fixed for the allen wrench for tightening?

I use the same setup Slayer1. Love how easy it is to fine tune your arrows. I have never had to use that much weight though. With a 55#@28" recurve I just did some 5575s cut to 29.5" w/ 50gr weights and 160gr. tips.

I found when I had a 51#@29" longbow (which I suspect needs about the same spine you have with 56#@28").  I needed 250 grains up front on a 30" BOP GT5575.  The bareshafts group with the fletched ones and the broadheads fly good too.

Jason

51#@29"=48#@28"  which makes sense that you would need more weight upfront with 5575 and a little longer shaft and shooting a longbow, while I am shooting a recurve that is center cut.

Well to finish up. I went back out and shot 4 fletched arrows and 4 bare shafts. All ended up in a 3 inch group at 20 yards. Next was the broad head test..... I took 4 fletched BH's and shot each at a different dot on my target at 15 yards. All 4 hit inside the 3" dots. I backed up to 20 and had the same result. I can not believe how good it worked. I would have never guessed that those arrows were that stiff. Now I need to put it on the crono. I still bet its slinging the heavy arrow between 165 and 170. I will let you guys know how it turns out!

It's fun when it all comes together. It does work. I remember the first time I did it.  I couldn't wait to get some of the bareshafts fletched and shoot them. If you can get them to the bareshafts to shoot a little weak, then when you fletch them it stiffens them right in there.