Tuning tapered arrows???

[snag]

I am still struggling with some 80# spined footed shafts. I hope someone can help me out. They are 5/16" taper in front, 11/32" mid shaft, 8" tail taper back down to 5/16". They are footed with blackwood about 2" out front. The total length is 29.5" bop to nock groove. I have tried 125gr to 160gr tips when bareshafting them...always really weak (hitting 6"-8" right at 20yds) out of a cut to center 53#@28" Blacktail recurve. With 4-4" fletchings they still fishtail once and then hit on target or a little weak.  I can't figure out how they could be that far off...?
I never have trouble tuning tail tapered arrows...but these footed shafts are a challenge.  

[Ground Hunter]

Footing adds weight to the arrows point just like any glue on.  I'm guessing you'll have to cut some to get the spine up.  You should play with Stu Miller's calculator and run some options.  H

[Bjorn]

Snag, depending on the amount of front taper we may be talking about 100 gns extra up front. Compare the weight of the footed shaft to a similar unfooted one and that will be a pretty good approximation. I use footed shafts a fair bit and some woods like Bloodwood are pretty heavy compared to Doug Fir or Cedar.
Try shooting just the shaft with no point weight and see if you get a stiff reading.

[onewhohasfun]

You could build out your side plate a little.

[Drummer@Home]

Good idea, try that.    Use a little painters tape to build the side plate out slowly and see if you can get um to shoot good. Once you figure out how far to go then you can make the same build up nice and purty. Good luck

[snag]

I thought of building out the side plate...just don't want to have to do this for one set of arrows though.

Bjorn, I like the idea of shooting one without any additional tip weight. I'll try cutting them down some more. I'm getting down there though! Hope there is enough shaft to still make these usable......

Groundhunter, I always use Stu's awesome calculator when starting to get an idea of where I'm going with a shaft/tip combo. But it has been difficult with these because I don't know what the footing weighs!

[Bjorn]

The footed arrows I made up recently shoot perfect bareshafting with my 50# Fedora using a 160 gn point. I am predicting my new Schafer will work the same.
To shoot the same shaft from my 50# ACS it only works with zero point weight (shoot the shaft only)--why? it is the amount of center cut.
ACS is cut 3/16 past and the Schafer and Fedora LB are 1/16 past.

[Orion]

Hmmmmm.  Can't put my finger on it, but something doesn't sound right.  You should have plenty of spine with that arrow for your set up.  Are you certain the shafts spine at 80#?  That's very heavy for a 11/32 shaft.  

My experience is that a standard length foot doesn't add very much weight to the front of the arrow -- probably 20-30 grains on a 11/32 shaft.  The weight added is the difference between the weight of the cedar and the weight of the hardwood, not the entire weight of the hardwood.  That's because the hardwood replaces the cedar which was there to begin with, which also had some weight to it.

Any chance the fletching is coming into contact with the bow at the release?  A little brace height and/or nock point change might help.

[snag]

I know Orion..it's driving me nuts, and that is a short road for me!

I just tried what Bjorn suggested. I took the tip weight off and shot it at 29.5"bop and it flew ever so slightly stiff! Good arrow flight too...ok, but I'm not going to hunt with just the shaft and no broadhead. So, I cut a shaft down to 28.5" bop (my draw length is 28.5"!) and put only 125gr tip on it. It flew 6"-8" weak!!! Man, these things are so touchy...more so than carbons! I don't think I'll be able to use these. Probably have to sell them.
From my experience with footed shafts, which is limited I must admit, I would need to go up in spine weight maybe by 10# in order to have them tune up with a hunting weight head.

[Bjorn]

Snag, what is the weight of these footed shafts?
Have you spined them yourself on a tester?

[snag]

Bjorn, I'll have to weigh them tonight. I have a really nice spine tester (Spin-O-Later?) that I use.

[snag]

...the ongoing saga of the footed shaft...

This morning I pulled a 54#@28" Blacktail off the wall and tried it with the bareshafts (28.5" bop) and the fletched shafts(29.5" bop w/ 145gr tips)...great arrow flight. I then built out the shelf plate on the first bow that was 53#@28" and the arrows still fishtailed...looks like these arrows for some unknown reason like the 54#@28" Blacktail