Bareshaft tuning is generally associated with finger shooters, or traditional shooters. This is because spine is very important with these setups and do to archers paradox (the string moving from side to side after the release) the arrow will react in a predictable manor.
And many of these setups have limited adjustment for the rest or are shot right off from the shelf. And the arrows are so close to the risor that they need to flex at the right moment in order to clear the risor as they leave the bow, since they flex from side to side. This makes spine very important in tuning your bow when shooting that type of set up.
This does not however mean it is of no use for release shooters. The only problem is the results are not always predictable. There is no carved in stone diagnoses for what your arrow does and how to correct it. You can try the conventional instructions, but you may have to do the opposite in order to get it to work. And if no matter what you do with your rest or nocking point you can't shift the impact points enough chances are your spine is off. Try turning your bow weight up or down, or adding or removing tip weight.
The reason it doesn't work the same as with a finger shooter is because with a release the arrows tends to flex up and down instead of side to side. Or it could do both depending on the release type you use and how far off your centershot is.
I agree with Arthur and BG, and why wouldn't I? Between the two of them that is a whole lot of experience to ignore. If Len in maryland chimed in and agreed with them I would almost consider it gospel
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I do the same as BG, I eyeball my intitial set up and then go right to bareshaft tuning. If you are way off you will be able to see your fletched arrows fishtail on the way to the target. Then I might try paper tuning just to see if something was way off. And if I had 1 inch or under tears I don't even think I would mess with it before bareshaft tuning.
Something else to keep in mind. You cannot tune any better than you can shoot. Shooting thru paper, bareshaft tuning or broadhead tuning is more critical of form and release. So in most cases you will tend to shoot worse, not better. If you can't group 3 fletched arrows with target pionts together at 20 yards don't expect miracles when you try to tune.
Truth be known with adequately flethed arrows and field tips tuning is not extremely important in accuracy. I would say it's about 90 percent form, technique and good well matched arrows. The other ten percent is equipment and tuning.
Always keep this in mind, a great archer can shoot a poorly tuned bow very well. A bad archery will still shoot a perfectly tuned bow poorly. Some of the best scores ever shot were with poorly tuned, older equipment. How can that be? Well the archers were just that good!
Now when we are talking broad head flight a well tuned bow becomes more important.
Paul
Why no Bare shaft for release shooters
Seems most release guys are ate up with paper tuning (I second what BG said about it), so that's probably the source of your misinformation.
