Archery Bare Shaft Tuning
By Jeremy Rodgers
Many will tell you that bare shaft tuning a bow isn't needed, but it's the only way I've been able to shoot accurately enough to consistantly hit a paper plate-sized target out to 100 yards. My bow is accurate with what I consider moa performance out to 97 yards. The only limitation is my ability and the conditions allowing me to hold the pin steady on the target. I'm no world-class shooter, and I firmly believe that shooting to 100 yards is achievable for almost everyone using commonly available bowhunting equipment.
Tuning to increase accuracy is critical to launch your arrow constantly straight. Bareshaft tuning is much better than paper tuning, since paper tuning requires special equipment and it's not very precise. To make bareshaft tuning worthwhile, you must first be able to hit a paper plate at 50 yards. Then after you tune yourself and your bow, you will see your group size tighten to less than half that size. Tuning starts with setting your windage adjustment on your rest. I move my rest side to side to hit the same vertical line at 20 yards and at 60 yards (distance tuning). Ido my distance tuning then I don't make any major side adjustments to the rest after that. Next I strip the fletching off 2 arrows and shoot these and two fletched arrows indoors at 20 yards. You cannot do this outside, because any puff of wind will blow your bareshafts off course. The impact of fletched and non-fletched may be very far apart. The important part is that you stay patient and you can shoot consistantly enough to group both bare shafts within a couple inches of each other. Where the bareshafts are in relation to the fletched arrows is not important. Grouping the bareshafts on top of each other is critical and proves that you are consistant. The most common problems at this point are torque on the grip, fletching contact, torque on your release, contact of your bow arm with your riser, or any other force on your bow, arrow, or string. To show just how sensitive torque is, just try shooting a few arrows with a high wrist on your bow hand and a few arrows with a low wrist. You may have to spend some time here making yourself more consistant before moving on with fine tuning your bow.
Initial Sight In I initially set my 20 yard pin as high as possible in the sight ring. Then I get the pin height close with the other pins at 20 through 80 yards or your farthest pin. Then I distance tune by moving my arrow rest left or right to make the arrows impact the same from side to side at 60 as they do at 20 yards.
Vertical Adjustment / Move Effective Nock Point If the bare shafts impact more than 4" up or down from the fletched arrows, then move your rest up or down to get within 4". Move your actual nock if you run into vane clearance or run out of rest adjustment. Once the distance is down to roughly 4", then fine tune later using your limb bolts.
Horizontal Adjustment This is accomplished by effectively moving your string sideways. You can move your rest or your string. It's imprortant to remember that you move your rest opposite of the direction that makes sense. If your bareshafts impact right of your fletched arrows then you move your rest to the left or the string to right. It doesn't make sense but it works. You can make very slight adjustments to your rest so you don't affect your point of impact to the side at 60 yards. Or you can use washers to move your cam or wheel sideways. Or you can tip the upper cam by twisting the cables or flipping the bushings that the cables loop onto. It seems odd to me, but you must move the string the opposite way that seems correct when looking at the arrow.
Fine Tuning I fine tune the vertical impact by turning the limb bolts in or out to effectively raise or lower the nock point. I keep the limb bolts within a 1/2 turn of each other. If you need more than that, then you must go back and move your rest and start tuning from that point. I alternate the upper and lower to keep the draw weight the same. Then I twist the cables or move the cam and wheel to get bare shafts impacting within an inch of the fletched shafts. Each adjustment seems to affect the other so often you have to repeatadly go back and forth from vertical to horizontal adjustments. Starting with vertical adjustments and repeating that after each horizontal adjustment seems to work the best.
Repeat Tuning It seems that my Hoyt will hold its bareshaft tune for about a month of shooting as long as the bow doesn't see any temperature extremes. If it sees temps above 100 or below 20 degrees then I usually need to correct the string stretch that occurs. Typically one cable stretches more than the other and I need to correct the nock height and that is all that is needed and I am right back where I should be.
Other Info Get the Easton Tuning Manual. (It can be downloaded online) Or contact the guys at Spot-Hogg as they are very, very helpful. They even explained to me how a brand of bow I used to shoot had a problem with the aluminum limb pockets loosening. So, as I shot the limbs would pivot to the right towards the cable and effectively move the rest to the left. I shimmed the limbs as a temporary fix, but now I just shoot a better bow that stays consistant.
Many will tell you that bare shaft tuning a bow isn't needed, but it's the only way I've been able to shoot accurately enough to consistantly hit a paper plate-sized target out to 100 yards. My bow is accurate with what I consider moa performance out to 97 yards. The only limitation is my ability and the conditions allowing me to hold the pin steady on the target. I'm no world-class shooter, and I firmly believe that shooting to 100 yards is achievable for almost everyone using commonly available bowhunting equipment.
Tuning to increase accuracy is critical to launch your arrow constantly straight. Bareshaft tuning is much better than paper tuning, since paper tuning requires special equipment and it's not very precise. To make bareshaft tuning worthwhile, you must first be able to hit a paper plate at 50 yards. Then after you tune yourself and your bow, you will see your group size tighten to less than half that size. Tuning starts with setting your windage adjustment on your rest. I move my rest side to side to hit the same vertical line at 20 yards and at 60 yards (distance tuning). Ido my distance tuning then I don't make any major side adjustments to the rest after that. Next I strip the fletching off 2 arrows and shoot these and two fletched arrows indoors at 20 yards. You cannot do this outside, because any puff of wind will blow your bareshafts off course. The impact of fletched and non-fletched may be very far apart. The important part is that you stay patient and you can shoot consistantly enough to group both bare shafts within a couple inches of each other. Where the bareshafts are in relation to the fletched arrows is not important. Grouping the bareshafts on top of each other is critical and proves that you are consistant. The most common problems at this point are torque on the grip, fletching contact, torque on your release, contact of your bow arm with your riser, or any other force on your bow, arrow, or string. To show just how sensitive torque is, just try shooting a few arrows with a high wrist on your bow hand and a few arrows with a low wrist. You may have to spend some time here making yourself more consistant before moving on with fine tuning your bow.
Initial Sight In I initially set my 20 yard pin as high as possible in the sight ring. Then I get the pin height close with the other pins at 20 through 80 yards or your farthest pin. Then I distance tune by moving my arrow rest left or right to make the arrows impact the same from side to side at 60 as they do at 20 yards.
Vertical Adjustment / Move Effective Nock Point If the bare shafts impact more than 4" up or down from the fletched arrows, then move your rest up or down to get within 4". Move your actual nock if you run into vane clearance or run out of rest adjustment. Once the distance is down to roughly 4", then fine tune later using your limb bolts.
Horizontal Adjustment This is accomplished by effectively moving your string sideways. You can move your rest or your string. It's imprortant to remember that you move your rest opposite of the direction that makes sense. If your bareshafts impact right of your fletched arrows then you move your rest to the left or the string to right. It doesn't make sense but it works. You can make very slight adjustments to your rest so you don't affect your point of impact to the side at 60 yards. Or you can use washers to move your cam or wheel sideways. Or you can tip the upper cam by twisting the cables or flipping the bushings that the cables loop onto. It seems odd to me, but you must move the string the opposite way that seems correct when looking at the arrow.
Fine Tuning I fine tune the vertical impact by turning the limb bolts in or out to effectively raise or lower the nock point. I keep the limb bolts within a 1/2 turn of each other. If you need more than that, then you must go back and move your rest and start tuning from that point. I alternate the upper and lower to keep the draw weight the same. Then I twist the cables or move the cam and wheel to get bare shafts impacting within an inch of the fletched shafts. Each adjustment seems to affect the other so often you have to repeatadly go back and forth from vertical to horizontal adjustments. Starting with vertical adjustments and repeating that after each horizontal adjustment seems to work the best.
Repeat Tuning It seems that my Hoyt will hold its bareshaft tune for about a month of shooting as long as the bow doesn't see any temperature extremes. If it sees temps above 100 or below 20 degrees then I usually need to correct the string stretch that occurs. Typically one cable stretches more than the other and I need to correct the nock height and that is all that is needed and I am right back where I should be.
Other Info Get the Easton Tuning Manual. (It can be downloaded online) Or contact the guys at Spot-Hogg as they are very, very helpful. They even explained to me how a brand of bow I used to shoot had a problem with the aluminum limb pockets loosening. So, as I shot the limbs would pivot to the right towards the cable and effectively move the rest to the left. I shimmed the limbs as a temporary fix, but now I just shoot a better bow that stays consistant.
Example of Bare Shaft Tuning
Bare shaft high and right of fletched. First I checked the cam timing and found that to be off. So twisted a cable to correct then went to moving the rest. In this case move rest right and down. And yes move rest to the right. It's backwards but it works.
Kept moving rest until arrows were within a couple inches. Next adjust sight until impacting the target. Now ready to double check distance tuning. Should be really close and ready to broadhead tune.
Good arrows and a tuned bow make a great combo. After bareshaft tuning at 30 yards indoors and then broadhead tuning out to 80 yards, this is at 97 yards with a 10 mph crosswind from left to right. By the way, the arrows were Injexions with 3 extra inserts and 100 grain field tips, and broadheads were Muzzy Trocar 100 grain. Arrows were cut to 28 inches of carbon and total arrow weight was 498 grains.
