paper tuning

[masterj]

First, I would like to say, I am really impressed with the positive and friendly feed back given on this site. The amount of experience shown here is truly amazing. I have only been shooting about a month. I have read about "paper tuning", not sure I completely understand it, but what I get out of it is to match arrows to your bow. It seems to me, that to get reliable feed back from shooting a bare shaft one would have to have consistent proper form and release. Am I totally off base?

I do all my tuning by paper tuning. You shoot fletched arrows thru a piece of paper and how the tear in the paper is USUALLY tells you what you need to do correct the tune. WITH A GOOD RELEASE, it is a great tuning method. The tear in the paper will instantly tell you how to adjust your nocking point and whether the spine of your arrow is weak or stiff.

I have run into several cases where the shooter was doing something that rendered paper tuning useless. No matter what adjustments were made, the results never changed.

Bisch

[Mr. fingers]

Good form and a good release are paramount for any tuning method.
Sometime I will just shoot through paper to work on form and release when I get consistent hole weather nock left right or up or down when my hole are all the same then ill know my shooting is up to snuff then I will make my adjustments.
Sometimes when I'm tuned I will cull arrows I will shoot them all through paper and making note of the one that don't give me perfect bullets. Usually the ones that give me perfect bullets end up wearing my broadheads.

[Friend]

You are correct.

One is merely able to tune to the degree as one is consistent.

[Flying Dutchman]

I won't recommend tuning after shooting for only a month. It will probably tell you more about your form then about your set-up. For tuning your form has to be perfect. With all due respect, but I don't expect you to have a perfect form after shooting just one month. No harm meant of course, but this is my experience.

[olddogrib]

As has been said, any tuning method will require consistent form to give reliable feedback. I paper tuned religiously when I shot wheelie bows, but never tried after I went to trad. Slow-mo vids of archers paradox have me questioning how it could be of much value, but folks who use it claim it's a matter of checking at the right distances to negate the effect. I've also wondered if the paradox vids were arrows that were purposely underspined so as to exaggerate the effect???  Personally, I like bare shaft or bare/fletched grouping methods, but without consistent form they're just exercises in futility.  If you have doubts about your set-up folks here can get you "in the ballpark".  Shoot awhile and enjoy. A poorly tuned set-up will still shoot consistently with proper form, so when you're stacking them on top of each other it may be a good time to optimize your set-up.

[tracker12]

Originally posted by Flying Dutchman:
I won't recommend tuning after shooting for only a month. It will probably tell you more about your form then about your set-up. For tuning your form has to be perfect. With all due respect, but I don't expect you to have a perfect form after shooting just one month. No harm meant of course, but this is my experience.

I'm with the Dutchman on this one.  I have seen a lot of archers get very frustrated trying to paper tune a bow and unable to accomplish it due to a bad release.  I count myself in that group.  Heck I even gave up paper tuning with the wheel bow.  

My recommendation would to seek out a knowledgable person to make sure you are set up where you need to be in regards to nock point and spine.

[JC]

If you haven't, I highly recommend pouring over all the information    OL Adcock   put on his site regarding tuning. Once I started bare shaft tuning my arrows I got into a whole new world of consistency in my broad head accuracy and flight.

[masterj]

Gentlemen, a very sincere thank you for your replies. Dutchman, I take no offense, I realize I am not good enough to know how bad I really am. JC, Thank you, great site.

[old_goat2]

always learning something on here, I primarily bareshaft tune and then have somebody watch my arrow flight from a vantage point behind and slightly above me to check. Recently I've read on a couple of threads on here and elsewhere that it's important to hold your bow vertical instead of canted when bareshaft tuning. I haven't ever done it this way, but in my mind it makes perfect sense and if I can remember long enough, it will be the way I try it next time I'm tuning a new arrow or bow. And then the final step of tuning for me is to try a broadhead, if it flys good, all is good with my setup.

[Bldtrailer]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETxbL2yA3_o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISSbIeziZJo

Ryan covers this very well in these

[anw0625]

Bldtrailer said it.  Ryan does a great job.  Watch his videos.