Hey guys... Just found this forum and I am excited to swap stories, share advice and be an active member of bowhunting.com. I do have a question for the group though to get started. I have shot bows and bowhunted now for thirty years. One common thing that I have seen over this time with my personal shooting is that at 20yds I can get what I call a gripper group (where I can grip all three arrows in a closed fist grip in the bulls eye. But as I move to thirty, forty, and fifty yards my groups seem to drift farther to the right on the target. I have had several bows over the 30 years so I don't believe its the setup rather the shooter. Has anyone else experienced this drifting of arrows at longer ranges? If so what can a guy do to correct this? Thanks in advance for your time and help. RocknMuzzy
How have you tuned them? If you have tuned the same over the years it is possible tuning error I would think. Have you tried walk back tuning and paper tuning?
It tells me that your bow isn't perfectly tuned. 20 yds typically isn't far enough to tell if there are any flaws in the set up. SCFox
Just the slightest grip torque begins to show beyond 20 yards...as does everything else a shooter does. I love gripper groups but as long as I know at "X" yardage I got softball size spot I can shove the arrow I'm good with that....some may agree or disagree but I got better things to do than make sure I'm touching arrows at 30 or 40 or 50 yards.
I speculate you are either canting your bow or your site is out of level assuming you have one. This is exaggerated at greater distances. You can spot check yourself at full draw by looking at your alignment of your string, riser, and top limb. It will also reveal torque etc....
I think you might be on to this. I wouldn't be surprised if I was cantering the bow a bit. I am trying to use the built in bubble in my sights, but if the sights aren't level then that wont help. I will need to play with your suggestions as well. Thanks!!
Three things come to mind if it paper tunes and walk back tunes fine. 1) you are gripping the bow and torquing it. 2) You're punching the release. 3) Your sight needs to be moved to the right. I like to sight in my bow by adjusting the horizontal at the farthest distance I shoot. Move your sight to the right (in small increments) until you are bang on at 50 yards. Then shoot at 20 yards, with your 20 yard pin. If its still on, then your golden.
Thanks Riverbc!! My work hours currently have me going to work in the dark and coming home in the dark, so I am anxious for the weekend to put into practice a few of the above mentioned tips. Thanks to all for your help.
I strongly second this bloke. stand at 20yds, shoot an arrow, then move back about 7yds and shoot with your 20yd pin aiming at the same point, then go back another 7yds and shoot with your 20 yd pin aiming at the same point again. I'm expecting that by now you will see that you will have your 3 arrows impacting in a line like this \ If so, it means you need to move your rest to the left and repeat this process until your 3 arrows make a straight up and down line like this | Hope this helps. (this is walk-back tuning).
