Couple of problems

Hi guys I'm new to this site. I bow hunted with a compound for almost ten years and then switched to traditional and have shot traditional for the last ten years. This fall I switched back to compound. I thought it would be a breeze after long bows but it is a lot more finicky than I remember! Anyways my arrows seem to fish tail and generally fly terrible at long ranges. It doesn't do this every time however. What could cause this? I was thinking wrong arrow spine, or rest out of true, but why doesn't it happen every shot? Thanks in advance

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Maybe your follow through. Make sure your pulling straight back with a surprise release.


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I'm using a Scott hinge release and believe I am getting a surprise release every time

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have you numbered your arrows? depending on what type of arrows your using they might not be the same and thats why your seeing different results. number your arrows and see what number is flying wrong and see if its the same arrow. cheaper arrows could vary in spine or weight or straightness.

 

That's a good idea. They are cheap carbons and some of the vanes are a bit messed up from bring pulled through a target. They just seem so uniform and straight compared to my old cedar arrows I shot from my long bow that I didn't consider them to be an issue

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Are you hitting where you are aiming? If the arrows are flying that poorly, I would expect them to be greatly influencing your groupings. I've had arrows that to my eye when shooting looked to be flying poorly that turned out to be an optical illusion caused by the arrow spin and the bright cock vane.

 

At 20 I'm stacking them up but my groups deterioration beyond that. I also wonder if it could be my form

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Assuming your bow is properly tuned, I would think it is a form issue past 20 yards.

 

What bow are you shooting? Some bows are definitely harder to shoot consistently than others. I would agree with numbering your arrows and focusing on form. One great way to focus purely on form is to shoot your target from about 2 yards, but with your eyes closed. Draw back, center your pin on the target, close your eyes, and focus on perfect form every time without thinking about where the arrows are going.

 

Sounds like it could be a number of things already mentioned. Arrows, rest out of tune, release and/or your follow through. With arrows fishtailing, I'd start with the rest not being adjusted correctly. After 20 years experience, hard to say your release is a problem unless it's something about the switch from traditional to compound.

 

Im shooting a bear Marshall ready to hunt package

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Grip and arrow spine could cause this. Since some of your vanes are messed up anyways, I recommend stripping one down. Shoot the bare shaft at 20, then a decent fletched arrow. if they don't hit remotely close, then the bow is out of tune. Concentrate on a good consistent grip on the bow and see what happens then. If the arrow spine is too light, then the arrows are not stabilizing during flight. Also check to make sure arrows are not contacting your rest (with foot powder).

 

Also if you are used to snap shooting a traditional bow off the shelf that could be the issues. If it has a whisker biscuit you need to make sure to hold you pin on the target until the arrow hits or at least until it clears the bow. the snap shooting effect would cause you to impact the arrows flight because its incased in that WB rest. Hold a steady form. Soild T and hold pin on target for follow through. Easier said than done. Have you done any tuning like paper or walk back tuning?

 

I just had the exact same issue with a new bow, and it turned out, the rest was way off (as guessed by Hillbilly Jedi above). Took it to local shop and they paper tuned it--now much, much better


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I would recommend starting by paper tuning if you haven't already. I've had bows that were just starting to come out of tune that acted finicky when I shot them. If your setup is just on the edge of usable, it doesn't leave much room for error.


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