Arrow tuning...need suggestions!

[Oliverstacy]

As I'm filling up a  $60 tank of gas for the truck it got me to thinking about making what I have work.  I've been shooting my longbow that is 50 @ 28" drawn to around 29.5" with a 30.5" Beman MFX Classic 500 spine, it prefers 125 grains up front.  I'm trying to shoot the same arrow out of my recurve that is 46 @ 29.5" and I'm having an interesting time.  I added boosters to it to see if I can get the spine just about right but it's coming up a bit over or under depending on the point weight.

Without boosters the 145-gr point shot over spine...with the booster (25 grains) they shot under spine.

I was able to put a decent group together to show the effect.  The picture that I took from above is the best way to see it.  The arrows with the boosters installed are the ones with cresting bands on the wraps.  Granted in the photo's it looks like the other one is over spine also but I hit a nock and the point went right...it was heading down range over spined.

 





I shot several dozen arrows yesterday with 145 grains up front and they all showed over-spine.  It seems with the booster in stalled (170 grains total) they were under spined.  I'm going to see if I can find a Carbon or Aluminum arrow that is around 540 ish spine and see what happens.

Does anyone know what would be better over or under?

I'm going to buy some 175 grain points and some brass washers to see if I can get it just right.  From there I'm going to decide what to do.

I'm going to strip two arrows tonight and refletch them but I'm going to bareshaft them with different points first.  

Josh

[**DONOTDELETE**]

try changing your brace first... then try to push out or pull in the window padding...

[Killdeer]

If my groups looked like that I would be bragging instead of fretting!

Killdeer  

[A.S.]

Here's a little something I just discovered while try to tune 2 recurves to the same arrow. I started with a set of catwhisker silencers, doubled each one over before tying it on. When I first started with the silencers untrimmed the arrows shot stiff. I continued by trimming about 1/8" off each side of both the top and bottom silencer, and eventually got the bow tuned perfect! The bare shaft shot way stiff (1 1/2 feet) at 20 yards when I started. By trimming the catwhiskers, I got the bareshaft flying perfect!

Give it a try, only costs a few $$ as compared to a new dozen arrows!

[flatlander37]

Yeah, What Killy said!  Mark

[snag]

Looks good to me! As a side note, what kind of paint did you use for the crown on these? And did you use Fletchtite to glue fletching on? I have some great paint for carbons but the Fletchtite won't adhere to the shiny surface. I guess I could lightly sand it or 0000 steel wool it...but that would defeat the purpose in the look dept.

[ironhide]

hope you don't mind me asking, but where do you get those "boosters"?

[Oliverstacy]

Killdeer & Flat's...thanks, I guess I picked a spot, doesn't always happen that way.

A.S. ...I added the Bowjax first and then the whiskers...might take one or the other off.  Might try a leather rest w/a spacer and drop back to a 150 grain point.

Mysticguido...brace height, just got the string settled I could start to play with that.

Snag...I sometimes wonder if I'm being to critical, other times I know I should be more.  Paint...don't need no stinking paint, custom arrow wraps from Onestringer.  I haven't dipped an arrow in lacquer since I was 13 and that was over 20 years ago.  Still haven't forgotten how much I hate dipping arrows.  They do look great when someone with skill is driving the paintbrush.  I like the wraps...shot plain old bare shafts aluminum for years and in '06 I started shooting carbons from my compound, I wrapped and blazed them.  I like the wraps since they're easy to put on and remove.  I don't like carbons with glue directly on the shaft...they just don't stick well unless you use the Instant Gel type and then your stuck literally with what you have and it can ruin an arrow when you take them off.  So last year when I took the training wheels off and picked up a longbow I shot carbons because they are tuff and I needed something tuff.  I have a garbage can with at least 3 holes in it a chipped brick on the garage; a chipped paver brick around my tree out back and never broke one carbon arrow...knock on wood.

Ironhide...Gander Mt. has them for $12.99 this was after I filled up with my $60, but it's cheaper than new arrow shafts.  They also sell a straight "booster" that doesn't have any taper, same price.

I'm going to add brass washers to the 145/150's and increase by 5 until they're straight...it's that perfectionist in me when it comes to all types of shooting.  I can play around quite a bit with different combinations that don't cost much but new shafts are expensive.

I think an easy thing would be to go after the brace height or rest padding...followed up by point weight and then ultimately new arrows of a different spine.  I really want to shoot 150 grain heads because I just found some new Thunderhead 2 blade 150 grain heads from the late 80's early 90's.  I have a dozen new ones and 3-4 old ones for practice.

Might try 2113's or 2016's.

Thanks all for the help,

Josh

[Smallwood]

you can fine tune what you already have, by adjusting your braceheight up to make them weaker. make the adjustments about 1/4" at a time.

[Oliverstacy]

I got them to fly great with adding a leather rest with a strip of leather underneath to weaken the spine just enough to make them fly awesome.

Thanks for the help.

Josh

[Richard in OK]

I guess I don't see the problem here, unless you were aiming at a different spot. You're not shooting a rifle, so you're not going to get MOA groups. If an arrow shoots 1" away from the others, I'm not sure it's shooting stiff. I think it's part of the natural variation in shooting from one arrow to the next. Just MHO.
Richard