Biggie,

I'm definitely not to smart for you. If anything...I'm just more experienced when comparing target accuracy and bowhunting accuracy...since you have stated you have no idea what I'm talking about in regards to some target archery competitions...that's all.

It isn't meant as a put down to you or anyone else or any indication of arrogance on my part.

I've just personally experienced what it takes to achieve consistant accuracy under specific target competitions and the difference in score when comparing perfectly tuned arrows and not so perfectly tuned arrows.

I also love bowhunting and have been witness to the effects of poorly tuned equipment, moderately tuned equipment and perfectly tuned equipment.

Nothing more...nothing less. I'm not trying to come off as a know it all. Just sharing my personal experiences.

Ray  

Since I've stopped over 2 decades worth of dedicated freestyle fingers recurve target archery (NAA, FITA, NFAA), I no longer have a need to do any bareshaft testing.  IMO, the differences between the two disciplines - target archery and trad bowhunting - are clear and plentiful.  Just the static target archer's shooting form alone is no comparison to the dynamic shooting form required when hunting - and form alone will affect arrow flight.  Then consider the tackle and the shooting distances and the locations and the climate and on and on.  Personally, I want a heavy hunting arrow to be as stable and direct as possible as it clears the riser, and bareshafting can be almost counter-productive ... for me.  YMMV.

Unfortunately, as Rob states, the differences in shooting the target, be it 3d or what have you, and shooting the intended game is literally dynamically different.  Try as you might there is no perfect release in hunting.  Luckily you dont have to be perfect, just good enough to hit the intended target perfectly.  Ill wager the vast majority of bows are more accurate than we can shoot them whether it is with a bareshaft or a fletched one.  Assuming your set up is tuned properly of course.  That is part of it you know.  Yune your set up the right way then you can build yourself in a margin of error such as release flaws, target panic, etc.

Ray, never saw any sign of arrogance in your posts. Appreciate the information.

Widoweater, you're definately right about the bows being more accurate than we can ever shoot them. Dan Quillen and I did hours of testing with a "shooting machine" he'd built when he was designing bows. Any bow we clamped into the test machine would shoot 5 arrows touching @ 20 yards.
That's why trad bowhunting is so much fun. When you add the human equation(sp) it's no longer an exact science!

That's also one of the reasons why I personally tune my equipment to the degree I do.

I believe a perfectly tuned arrow is going to be more forgiving of minor form descrepencies than an arrow way out of tune.

I practice with a bareshaft under different situations such as a reverse cant, shooting from the knee, shooting with the bow straight up and down, etc. etc. to practice maintaining my form in regards to shoulder and arm alignment under those conditions.

Yes...some people may believe that guys like me are being anal about it...and that's OK. I personally don't have any problem with any archer who doesn't take tuning to the level I do. It's just a preference thing.

I just personally feel more confident in my equipment when I set it up to shoot it at the best of my ability under the conditions I will be shooting it in. Confidence in your self and your equipment plays a huge roll in our accuracy. Do whatever makes you feel confident.

Like I said...as long as your equipment is at least somewhat tuned...most bowhunters will do just fine.

Ray  

The best case for bareshafting I've seen is usually with new archers straight from a compound.I've seen guys that thought they had great arrow flight with way over spined arrows.

Apparently they couldn't see the same problems I could untill we took off the feathers.I've seen guys say they had great flight but the same bareshaft would turn sideways at 20 yards.It took a bareshaft to prove to some of them they had the wrong spine shaft.

I totaly agree with R H Clark. A lot of people just don't know how bad the tune is on their setup. It sounds like this is the problem that broll89 just had when he tried to bareshaft. broll89, if you are breaking bare shafts at 15yds then your setup is way out of tune. Steve

With out reading any of these posts the answer is "heck no".  Ten thousand generations of humans fed themselves with arrow shot game and I guaran-darn-tee none of them was so anal so bareshaft tune!

We all want the best flight we can get from our arrows.The say it is more than one way to skin a cat and the same applies to tuneing.They all work and how well they work depends on who is doing it and what works best or easiest for them.No you do not have to barshaft tune or paper tune.I do both at times with carbon arrows I hunt with.I seldom do with wood arrows.With woods I stick on a broadhead,back up 40 or 50yds and see what it needs to shoot down the middle and adjust centershot or change spines untill I get there.There is no best way or only way in archery for about anything.The goal is to get to results that work for you and you can live with.    jmo

Bare shaft tuning is very helpful for another reason that has not been stated here. If your shooting suddenly goes to crap a person can spend many hours/days trying to figure out whether its the bow tune or shooting problems that are causing it. Well if you have previously tuned your bow to bare shaft perfectly then all you need do is grab that bare shaft and take a shot to see what's going on. Its very helpful in diagnosing issues since it exaggerates them and makes them more easy to spot.