I got into a debate over FOC the other day and set out to read an article by Dr. Ashby. As I was reading I came across the recommendation of tuning your broadheads then your field tips. I read that again and began to really think. All these years I have been tuning my field tips, then have tried to match the flight of those field tips with my broadheads. In reality I should have been tuning my broadheads first, then trying to mimic that flight with my field tips. I am hunting with my broadheads, not my field tips and I want the most efficient broadhead flight.. I am ordering my broadheads for the season today and will go back through the entire arrow tuning process if the broadheads do not fly exactly like my field points. And I mean exactly or else I am stripping down the arrows and tuning. Thoughts?
I tune with field tips and when I put BH's on they fly right with my FT's. No further tuning necessary.
Brett, So what you are saying is you want to walkback BH tune and get that set. Then.... check your FP's and make adjustments to tune your FP's to your BH's. The problem I see is that making adjustments after already tuning your BH's may be counterproductive. . So far, every time I've tuned my FP's (bare shaft, paper, etc.) my BH's have hit where my FP's are hitting without further adjustments. I use a fixed head as you know so it's not like I'm using a mechanical and masking tunning errors. I just think if you do the FP tuning correct, the check is that your BH's agree (hit the same spot). If they don't, you likely have made some type of mistake with the tuning process or your BH isn't spinning true. I guess if you were unable to get the FPs and BH's to fly correctly, (incorrect arrow spine and don't have enough adjustment in DW and/or tip weight and you don't want to buy new arrows, inexperienced tuner or whatever) then one should rely on BH walk back tuning as the final say because, as you said, we are hunting with BH's. This is with a compound. Not sure if a recurve would be different situation. JMHO.
Brett, I appreciate the kind words but it really shouldn't be that hard for anyone. A few of things: I agree 100% with what Brad says here Another thing is the arrow. An arrow with a good FOC (IMO 12%+), the proper dynamic spine traveling at a reasonable speed. Tuning is also difficult when the person doing it has form problems and/or a very unforgiving setup. Most folks going for speed have very unforgiving setups. Some are good enough that they can shoot them well. Hearing some folks description of how to tune using a particular method often indicates they don't know how to tune using that particular method but they claim the tuning method is the problem. BH tuning is probably the easiest one because all you are doing is getting the impact point the same. Most of the time, from what I read on these forums, BH tuning isn't tuning for an efficient transfer of energy from bow to arrow.
Thanks for the thoughts and info Brad and Bruce. I appreciate the dialogue as it helps me learn. I was a newbie recurve shooter last year and my form wasn't too hot, so when I switched over to the broadheads I had some issue with accuracy. My form seems to be much improved this year and I am hoping the broadheads will hit closely with my field points once get to shooting them. If they do not, I am going to retune. I use a tuning/spine program for recurves and longbows that gets me into the general vicinity of what my arrow set-up should be like when finished. Then I begin to tune and make small adjustments based on bareshaft tuning. My "tuning" is not very advanced. I bareshaft tune at 15 yards and see where my arrows are hitting. I then make adjustments to my tip weight based on stiffness/weakness and repeat. Once I get the arrows hitting true at 15 yards with no feathers, then I feather the arrows up and the arrows seem to fly great out of my recurve. I currently have three different arrow set-ups that all shoot the same out of my bow. I shot all three arrow set-ups out this morning at a 3-D target and they all shot just about the same, minus my heavier set-up dropping a bit faster once I get past 18 yards or so.
I guess I'm a bit lost on this. Why should it matter which way you go? You should end up in the same place anyway. If anything I'd want to work with my broadheads last since that is what I will be shooting at the deer. I'm a bit old school so maybe I see things differently. I'd rather have my bow a bit out of tune but have my broadheads hitting where my pins are set. In the end that's really the only thing that counts.
Magic, have you every moved from shooting your field tips to your broadheads and been off? At that point a lot of people start moving their pins around, nock point, etc. BUT the broadheads are not flying any better, they are just hitting where your pins are set. That is great, but it does not mean the broadheads are tuned to be hitting straight and true, they are not as efficient and deadly as they could be. Maybe I am a little too into this as I am always extremely worried about putting a bad hit on a deer, especially with my recurve. I want the arrows to be hitting straight. Now with my old compound, I was guilty of just wanting to have my arrows hitting where I was aiming and had no thought of FOC or arrow flight to increase penetration. The wheels in my brain are turning so forgive me Magic. Sometimes I am slow.
I haven't been bowhunting for more than a few seasons so I'm not all that experienced, but when I put my broadheads on, they hit in the same spot as my field tips.
Gospel. Using the inverse, if you broadhead tune first and have them flying and spinning true, you shouldn't even have to tune field points.
This can be a really big deal. Do yourself a favor and get this: http://www.cabelas.com/product/Pine...rrow+spinner&WTz_l=Header;Search-All+Products
Thank you Brad, I need to order some inserts and such, so I will pick up that spin tester at the same time.
I updated that link for you Brad http://www.bowhunting.com/shopping/Products/Arrow-Inspector-Wdisplay__5730.aspx
They sell those here too. http://www.bowhunting.com/shopping/Products/Arrow-Inspector-Wdisplay__5730.aspx Ditto with the idea of tuning broadheads first. I always thought tuning a hunting bow with fieldpoints was weird... but I have a slightly convoluted idea of normal, so who knows.
I have mucho problems finding things on here in the shopping area. Sorry. I looked and even used the search function. Grrrrrrrrr Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk
Sure, but adjustments should fix that. That's why you shoot both. I guess my point was that whichever you start with should get you to the same end results if you know how to tune. True again! hypothetically, when both hit the same spot the bow is tuned. The arrow will be most effective at this point. I'm not real big into the tuning thing but I do find it hard to believe that different heads, shapes won't have some effect on flight. I would believe that at the speeds of modern day bows that different heads would show some effect on flight. If this is true then perfect tuning thru this method is impossible.That's why I opt to shoot my broadheads last. If I can get both to shoot close then I assume that the bow must be close to optimal tuning and at that point I make sure my broadhead hits where the pin is and that's good enough for me. in other words, I do my best to tune my bow then site in for the broadhead not the field point. I may be doing it wrong by doing this but I get great flight and kill lots of deer so that's good enough for me. And just to clarify, my field point may be hitting 1/2" away from my broadhead at 20 yds. That's fine with me. I'm not that great of a shot anyway so some of the difference is most likely shooter error.
