Bare shaft tuning and canting: Interesting results

[Scott E]

I was setting up my back up string today and got my bare shafts grouping perfect with fletched arrows at 20 yards.

I kept shooting my bare shafts the rest of practice and decided to try canting the bow a little bit. When I canted my bow the bare shafts started hitting way left (stiff). I played with it a bunch and they consistently grouped with a vertical bow and consistently stiff with a canted bow.

Thoughts?

I cannot tell you why but maybe that is why I have such problems bare shaft tuning. I cant my bow and no matter what I do, I cannot get the bare shafts to do what I think they should do. I paper tune and get great results. My broadheads hit perfectly with my field points; all with beautiful flight.

Bisch

[Stickbow]

very interesting......I cant my bow and have bare shafted for years.......I think I will try it with my bow straight up???

[Stixbowdrew]

Wonder if you shoot and hunt with a canted bow should you not tune your arrows to that? I never ever hold the bow vertical, too weird for me

[Prairie Drifter]

I always bare shaft vertical to determine spine. Think about it. If the spine is weak, but nock height is good, and you cant the bow, it will show weak AND high nock. You are rotating the axis of the string and arrow.

[Echatham]

I know when i cant the bow it shortens my draw almost an inch, which would make the arrows stiffer, and hit left.

[Blaino]

When you cant your bow is changes how you read your results.... if you cant the bow 15 degrees then you should read your results where everything matches your cant.  
If you normally shoot the bow straight up and down the regular quadrant of a "+" would hold true to get your results. The bow would match the vertical axis. So if you cant the bow your quadrant should rotate more like and "X" kinda of.... I hope that is clear?
If you have a TRULY tuned arrow and GOOD form... I don't care how you hold your bow it WILL shoot a PERFECT bareshaft!

More on bare shafting....
It isn't something you do once for 12 arrows and have everything figures out. I'll shoot the same arrow for 3 or more days before I make any changes.  I do this because shooting a shaft without fletching magnifies any form imperfections like a plucked release, which I do a lot of.  If your release isn't crisp you can't really get any good readings from a bareshafting.  I like to keep paper targets of my results and compare them day to day and then you'll start to see a TRUE pattern. Then make a change.....

[Jeff Strubberg]

I cant when I shoot.  Not canting when tuning wouldn't make any sense... I would have tuned myself a bow I would never use.  

I bare shaft at longer distances just to fine tune and confirm everything.  I paper tune at closer ranges to start with.

[gringol]

Bareshafting can make you lose your mind.  If you get good bh flight with fletched arrows, for god's sake STOP.  Really, the point of tuning is good flight with fletched bhs.  If you must, do a wet fletch test with you bhs.  That should be the worst case hunting situation.  If you still get good flight, continued tuning really isn't doing anything.

[LongStick64]

I would think that by canting you are shortening your draw and you may be twisting the string a bit, that can easily change the flight.

[Kris]

"You are rotating the axis of the string and arrow"

X2

Kris

[Kris]

"If you get good bh flight with fletched arrows, for god's sake STOP. Really, the point of tuning is good flight with fletched bhs"

Agree with this statement as well.  I do bare shaft tune though, it allows me to know what a naked shaft is doing.  I hate to override erratic arrow behavior with fletching, as there is most certainly a loss in efficiency.  So in that regard, I feel good about bare shaft tuning.  Use as a ball park diagnostics tool and proceed as you may.

I love tuning and consider it a hobby.

Kris

[njloco]

if canting, and one idls  doing it correctly, why would one shorten their draw leength ?

So if your bow and arrows are properly bare shaft tuned, and your hunting,  what  does  one  do if they have to cant the bow or hold the bow straight up for the shot ?

[KentuckyTJ]

Agreed Gringol. Bare shaft testing is from the target archers world. For most of us hunters with less than perfect form due to our own doing and the way we have to hold a bow in hunting situations I think it is a matter in futility. I've never been able to bareshaft as my release is a mess. I have gotten many bows to shoot fletched broadheads like darts without doing it.

With that said, this is an interesting discussion as I was canting my bow while I was pulling my hair out trying to bare shaft.      

[Kris]

"I've never been able to bareshaft as my release is a mess"

Know where you are coming from KentuckyTJ, however, if you can shoot a bare shaft reasonably well, it is a great tool to use to improve your release, as it WILL indicate when done properly or otherwise.  

When the stars align and a bare shaft is flying perfect, it is very confidence building to push the limits for distance etc.  For me, it is a good indicator of my shooting form.  

Kris

[Bjorn]

That's what's so great about what we do in trad-there is no one way-there are lots of ways whether sharpening BH, or tuning, or field dressing.
I bareshaft regularly; but now that I hunt with the same bow all the time it is almost redundant; but I still don't want a margin of error. Once fletched I can shoot arrows from 60# to 90# and get what looks like perfect flight from my bow which is cut 3/16 past. Bareshafting however calls for an 80# shaft and when that goes where I look with a slight lean left and up, and hangs tight with a fletched shaft at 25 yds I'm done, and no worries about wet fletches and broadheads when hunting.  

[gringol]

You're right, bjorn.  Lots and lots of way to get from A to B.  Bareshafting is one way, but it isn't the only way.

[KentuckyTJ]

Good point Kris. When can you drive down and teach me?

[shirikahn]

My dad stressed to me wet fletch tuning over bare shaft..as it is a real world situation...

[jhg]

Originally posted by Blaino:
...If you have a TRULY tuned arrow and GOOD form... I don't care how you hold your bow it WILL shoot a PERFECT bareshaft!

I am in agreement with that.

Joshua