Brotherhood of the Stick and Bow: I am between a rock and hard place. I think my bow is slightly out of tune. It is hitting slight high and to the right from the dot I am shutting at in the basement. Off the dot but withing a small paper plate. My country place is a small rambler from the 60's. So I only have about 7 yards to shoot. My question is can I sight my bow in, inside, and if so how far should I sight it in above the dot. I will be shooting at only 17-18 yards. Or should I only care to make sure that it is hitting vertically above the dot and then go outside. Pastor Scotty
I have done this tuning and it works. I copied it from Archery Talk. Modified French Tuning. Another way to do this, is what I call "Modified French Tuning". You only need 10 yards of space in front of the target to do this. John Dudley talks about the French Tuning method on his website. I have modified his instructions to make it simpler, and my "short version" will help you set the left to right position for your pins (windage), and help you set the left to right position of your arrow rest (centershot). When you are done with my "short version" of French Tuning, then your arrow will be firing straight, at short, medium and long distances. You will need to go to the practice range to figure out how adjust the vertical spacing of your pins, for 20 yds and 30 yds, etc. You need 10 yards of space to do this. Just remember... at 3 yards, adjust the sight pin to the left or to the right. Keep adjusting the sight pin left or right, until you can hit the string with the weight on the bottom, where the string splits the x-ring down the middle. Take your time, and keep fine tuning, until the field point nails the string right on top. At 10 yards, shoot a 3 arrow group. Size of the group is not important. Just keep adjusting the arrow rest to the left or to the right, until the hanging string splits your 3-arrow group in half. Now, go back to 3 yards, and double check that the field point still nails the hanging string right on top of it. You might need to make a tiny tiny adjustment. Then, go back to 10 yards, and double check the position of the arrow rest. You get the idea. Let's tackle this one step at a time. First, let's tackle the centershot for the arrow rest and find the correct windage (left-right adjustment) for the pins. I have a simplified version of something called French Tuning. Don't worry about what this method is called. Very simple to do. Hang a target face so the bullseye is at your shoulder height. Put a nail at the top, and hang a weighted string, so the string splits the bullseye in half. Now, start at 9 feet. Yup, just 9 feet. Fire a field point arrow. If the field point arrow misses the string to the left, then move all the pins to the left. (Adjust the entire sight housing). If the field point arrow misses to the string to the right, then move all the pins to the right. The goal is to nail the string perfectly. You want your field point arrow to be exactly below the center of the bullseye. Now, go back to 10 yards. Fire a 3 arrow group. Find the center of the arrow group. If the center of the arrow group is to the left of the string, move the arrow rest to the right. If the center of the arrow group is to the right of the string, move the arrow rest to the left. Goal is to have the hanging string split your arrow group in half. Now, go back to 9 feet. Fire a field point arrow. If the field point arrow does not exactly nail the hanging string, then adjust all of your pins to the left or right, until the arrow is dead center under the exact center of the bullseye. Now, go back to 10 yards. Adjust the arrow rest in tiny amounts, until the hanging string splits your 3 arrow group in half. When you are done, you can fire a field point arrow from 9 feet and it will be exactly underneath the center of the bullseye. Your 3 arrow group from 10 yards, will also be split in half by the hanging string. Now, your centershot (arrow rest) and your windage (pins) will be perfect.
