In my Broad Tip Tuning feature, I wrote about the steps involved in tuning your bow and arrows. In this column, I want to go into more detail about the important paper setting process. This is the quick technique for making adjustments to laser straight arrow flight.
shooting distance
You need a new shot through the paper without external interference. Place the tuning paper at least 3 feet from the target so there is no chance of the arrow hitting the target before going all the way through the paper. Stand or sit about six feet from the paper when you shoot your bow. Make sure the paper is about shoulder height so you can use normal shooting. This is important.
execution of shots
Since role tuning is the experiment, both your bow setup and how you shoot, you need to focus on making perfect shots or you’ll be chasing your tail, tuning your bow when your shot type is really the issue. If you grab the grip when you fire the trigger or pull the trigger, you’re likely to see tears, even if your bow was set up perfectly. Keep your grip very relaxed throughout the shot and keep a steady follow through until the arrow hits the target.
understanding your tears
After looking at the paper, after the shot, you will see a rounded hole where the field tip went through and some kind of rips caused by the vanes and the last part of the arrow. The value of paper tuning comes down to your ability to read these tears and make the correct adjustments to your bow and shot shape to cut them. Your target is around the “bullet” hole with 3 narrow cuts radiating outwards caused by the paddles. Such a hole results from an arrow flying in a straight line, with the neck following directly behind the point. Any difference in this perfect flight will rob you of accuracy and penetration when hunting.
Tears at tail height
There are 4 reasons why your bow may be shooting an arrow high in the tail. First, the neckline may be too high on the string. Second, the rest may be too low. Third, the vanes of the arrow may be hitting the rest, causing the arrow to deflect upward. And fourth, the bow cam timing may be off, which causes the nock to move up as the string moves forward.
When a modern compound bow is set up correctly, the arrow will make a 90 degree angle to the string and cross the rest right in the center of the rest’s mounting hole. You can make small adjustments to the nock point to lower the tail (1⁄8 inch at a time), but don’t make any big adjustments. If you have to make big adjustments to see a change in the paper tears, the problem is somewhere else: cam timing or futile contact with the rest.
If the paddles hit each other, you should see things or marks on one of the paddles. If not, you probably have no contact. But, to be on the safe side, try rotating the arrow nock to change the orientation of the vanes compared to the rest. That can make a difference. If you can’t remove contact this way, consider a similar test or increase the tension on your trigger wire (on a drop down rest) to see if that helps get the launcher out of the way sooner.
If the tail tear persists after adjusting the shear point and removing contact, the problem is likely related to the bow cam timing. Unfortunately, I don’t have space here to go into this topic in depth, but I will cover it in a companion video on the website. Adjusting the cam timing can be complex and unless you know what you are doing you should take the bow to a good archery shop for help.
low tail tears
Low tail arrow flight is rare and is usually the result of a bow with incorrect cam timing. It’s also possible that your framing point is too low or your landing is too high, but you can rule that out very quickly by simply moving your framing point up 1⁄8 inch to 1/4 inch. Again, if the forecast is cam timing, your best solution is to seek professional help.
Left and right tail tears
Paper side tears can be difficult to remove because they have four possible causes, only two of which are easy to fix. I’m going to start with the easy ones. First, move your rest inside.
The bow if the arrow strikes to the right or off the bow if it strikes to the left. Sometimes you get a weird interaction with the lateral movement of the string and your results don’t make sense. For that reason you should also try to move the rest slightly in the opposite direction just to rule out some weird harmonics on the string.
If that doesn’t fix it, consider an arrow that has a different spine, or just a different brand. I have bows that produce good arrow flight with one brand of arrow and not others, even though they supposedly have the same stiffness. A little experimentation in the archery shop can take away a lot of frustration.
Now for the hard solutions. Sideways string displacement can cause rips to the left or right that are impossible to correct unless mechanical changes are made to the bow to ensure the cams start upright and stay upright when the string is pulled. This is a difficult solution for most bowhunting, it’s time to visit the pro shop for help. But before you do, make sure your shooting style isn’t the cause of these side tears.
If you flinch during the shot, grab the grip when you release it, use a grip position that creates twist in the body, or apply lateral pressure to the string when releasing it, you will end up with erratic arrow flight, usually sideways ripping of the paper.
Unfortunately, you have to work on your shooting with great attention to detail before you can finally tell that the problem is with the bow. This can take weeks, even months, as you work to improve your form. I’ve chased tuning issues for weeks only to finally realize it was something I was doing. Sure, I learned a lot about archery in the process, but I also pulled out a lot of hair!
Tuning a bow is not a dark science, but it does require some effort and quite possibly the help of an expert. But the payoff is worth the investment. Seeing your arrows fly like lasers is the true magic of archery.
The paper setting accessory
You don’t need a fancy accessory to properly tune your bow. Although many pro shops have elaborate frames dedicated to paper tuning, you can get by with a simple cardboard box. Cut a hole smaller than a piece of copier paper in the bottom of a cardboard box. You can stick the paper over the hole and shoot through the box. Put it on something to find the right height in front of the target and you’ll be in business.
The other option is even simpler; just buy a Paper Tune-It kit from Premium Review. The kit comes with a pre-made cardboard frame to hold your paper and 10 sheets of tuning paper with pre-printed instructions on how to fix imperfect tears.