Hi guys, Having some problems with arrow flight. My arrows are hitting exactly where I’m aiming (shot out to 50 yards) but are taking a little funky of a route getting there. My setup is a Hoyt Pro Defiant 70# shooting Gold Tip Pro Hunters with an extra 50 grains backing the insert. 100gr Spitfire MAXX broadheads, nockturnal nocks, standard blazer 2” vanes with slight right offset helical. I killed a doe with this setup last weekend, hunted successfully with it all last year, and have paper tuned the bow. Just hard to feel 100% confident with arrows tracking funny. I was thinking it could be I need to use slightly larger fletching to help steer the arrow? Thoughts?
What is the paper tune telling you? Do you have a wrap on the arrow? When I first started using a wrap I thought I noticed the arrow doing funny things but it was just the sunlight hitting the arrow in flight. It was just an illusion for me.
What distances did you paper tune at? With a properly tuned rig I don't know if bigger vanes would do a bunch. Did you try bare shaft tuning?
Thought I was experiencing the same issue when I first started bow hunting. I setup a GoPro camera and set it on the highest frame rate I could with decent video quality and shot some arrows. Watched the same footage in slow motion and the arrows were flying fine. Turns out it more likely an illusion with two light colored and one very dark colored vanes. I eventually tried on a lighter color cock vane and the illusion was gone. Hopefully it's just that simple for you.
So just paper tuned it and it’s nock high and left. So going to take it in to the shop to get it adjusted. Just weird it still hitting where I want. Shouldn’t be a spine issue (340), though it’s interesting because I got black eagle rampage arrows last year in 300s based on my setup per Black Eagles charts, and had a problem with being over spined. Now it seems to be underspined?
Did you adjust your FOC? When adding weight you need to go a bit stiffer. Paper tuning is by far the most important factor in hunting prep , rig wise. If possible paper tune it yourself don't pay someone to do it. You will learn about your bow and you want it tuned to your anchor point and cycle, not some rando.
Took it to the shop and we paper tuned it, thankfully I was the shooter so I know it’s tuned to my shooting style. We had some trouble getting it to be perfectly paper tuned without the sight picture disappearing into my riser/cables. So had to make a few other adjustments to get it shooting good. Took some shots at 20 yards at the shop and seemed to be shooting well. Took it home and shot it out to 40 with field tips well, then shot 5 shots with the spitfires and they flew great out to 40 yards. So I’m satisfied. Though still slightly concerning that it won’t paper tune perfectly and allow me the ability to have a clear sight picture. But as long as it’s performing well and allowing me to feel confident and take ethical shots I’m happy. Thanks guys for the suggestions. One thing I will do in the future is make my vanes all the same color so there aren’t any optical illusions happening due to a different color cock vane
How old are your strings and cables? It might be that they've stretched too much and you need a new set.
The bow is only 2 years old, so I’d hope it wouldn’t be a stretched string or cables. It gets shot maybe 250-300 times before the season and then maybe 50 maintenance shots throughout the season. Good thought though!
Could be all in your form. Anchor position (torque), gripping the bow (torque), string pressure on the side of your face, your release hand anchor point... Did you ever try having the tech shoot it to see what the difference was? That might give some valuable info if it showed that it needed to come back the other way and would improve the sight picture. I'd even consider going back and having them shoot it through paper just for the info. If you do think it could be your form I wouldn't mess with it this year since season is upon us, but something you could experiment with after the season.
