Arrow Spine Problem

[Fal]

Hello all,

I'm currently experiencing some bow tuning problems. At 20 to 30 yards, my arrows fly straight and nicely to the gold, however, at 50 yards, the arrows start to fly towards the left, the problem gets worse at 60 yards, and, at 80 yards, my arrows fly extreme left and will not hit the target.

My draw length is 26'' and draw weight is 35lbs, and I'm using Cartel Triple 600 cut to 27.5'' arrows (they are overspined for me). The preliminary setup is quite nicely done. I did some bareshafts today and all bareshafts were hitting the left edge of the target at 30 yards. I played with my cushion plunger abit and did't seem to be able to get them in the same spot (as I decrease the tension, bare shafts fly towards the right but so are the fletched arrows).

I'm wondering if this is the arrow spine problem? If it is, is there some way to rescue it? I could buy some new arrows but a competition is coming soon and I don't feel like switching arrows right before the match.

Thanks in Advance

[Fal]

Forgot to mention, I'm a right-handed recurve archer.

[Flehrad]

Are the bareshafts grouping with the fletched shafts?

If they are, then you should just adjust your sights.
If the bareshafts compared to the fletched ones are going left they are too stiff (someone correct me if I'm wrong). And if they are going right of the fletched ones, too weak.

To correct as best you can would be to adjust your bow poundage up/down with a stiff unmoving plunger (set to true centershot) until they group as best as possible, then set the plunger to the recurve centershot and adjust the spring tension until they are grouping as best they can.

If they still don't group well enough for you, then it means correct spined arrows.

[Fal]

No the bareshafts are not grouping with the fletched arrows even at 15 meters. As I decreased the spring tension, both bareshafts and fletched arrows fly towards the right. but the gap between them remains. It seems my bottom tuning is not doing much?

[Progen]

Take a look at centershot too. Could be too far out. Retract the plunger a little bit and see how things go. Tuning's a real %$^% sometimes.

[Quackor]

I'd say if you have a club somewhere nearby go and ask them for a different set of arrows and compare... if you'll have no problems grouping some other arrows then the problem lies with your current ones.

I'm not clear on something, is this your 1st attempt at these long distances? Or have you tried before and had no problems?

[Fal]

Thanks for the quick reply all,

the centrershot was set slightly to the left, after experiencing the problem, I set it dead straight, didn't seem to improve anything.

I've been shooting a few years, mostly outdoor, these arrows were fairly new and were mostly used indoor in the past few moths (I got away with these badly tuned arrows)

I'm almost convinced my arrows are way too stiff to tune (I should be using Cartel 900 according to the chart, but I got these 600 real cheap :oops: )

[Pinky]

So according to the charts you're shooting about 3 spines too stiff? This is why your bareshafts are flying left. You could try heavier points to 'weaken' the arrows and changing the number of strands in your string (I think more strands has the effect of slowing the arrow and therefore it reacts as if it were weaker but there are other on here with far more technical knowledge than me). From the experiences I have had with overspined arrows like yours, I think you will be able to improve it but I seriously doubt you can tune in arrows that overspined without increasing you poundage as well.

[James Park]

Using the pressure button spring tension to try to tune the arrows is not a good idea.
What we are trying to do is to match the arrow's resonant frequency to how long it takes the arrows to get from full draw to leaving the string, and the pressure button spring tension has no influence on that. All it will do is move both the fletched and unfletched arrows to the side as you change it.
What you need to do is to adjust the bow's draw weight. That directly changes the time the arrow is on the string, and (assuming your arrows are near enough to the correct size) will enable you to get the bare shafts and fletched shafts to group together.
For a recurve bow you really do need to get arrows that are pretty close to matched to the bow, as you only have a small range of bow weight adjustment to get the tuning correct. If your arrows are outside that range then the best step is to sell them and buy a new set. Trying to use arrows not matched to the bow will simply give away (lots of) points. If the arrows are not close there is really not much you can do: tinking with point weight and string weight will only make minor differences to how long it takes the arrow to leave the string, and hence are not of great effect. Indeed, adding to the point weight slows the arrow, which helps, but also lowers the arrow's resonant frequency, which does not help, so it is really a "no win" approach. In practice, you usually find that there is one size arrow that will tune, and a size either side of that will not.
If the arrows are under-spined (resonate too slowly) you can possibly get some assistance by shortening them a bit, but for other reasons that may not be a good idea. If they are over-spined (resonate too quickly) you cannot do much at all.
This is covered in more detail in "Mastering Bow Tuning", available from Urban Archery.

[Fal]

Thanks for the reply,

So according to your experience, what spine of Triple/X-pert arrows should I get? I'm shooting 27.5'' arrow despite my short draw length (26.5'').I had bad experience with Easton chart and am abit paranoid about spine charts now.

Also, if I cut down the arrow length down to my draw length, would this increase the arrow stiffness? So considering this factor, what length should I choose?

[Pinky]

Your setup is actually very similar to mine. I have a 26.5" draw length and shoot 36lb limbs and I shoot Cartel 800s with the heaviest points available for this size. FYI my bow is 66" and my string is 16 strands, so if your bow is longer and you have more strands you've got less chance of tuning in your 600s. If you cut your arrows down to 26.5" the arrow will not flex as much and they will react more stiffly which is the opposite to what you want with these arrows. Also shorter arrows are much more difficult to get rid of, especially at 36+lb.

[Fal]

Great Pinky, my bow is indeed 68'' and am using 16strands fast flight. Just ordered some Cartel X-pert 800 cut down to 27.5'' with some 90grains points.

Hopefully things work out this time...

[Jay.G]

hopefully it'll work out for you but as everyone as said above those arrows are way to stiff.