CapstoneME

Rangeball,

I'm going to throw another opinion out at you...

First off, I didn't read all the responses, but I did read several mis-statements of information that might have confused you. Your theory, and the impressions you have gotten from Ragsdale, are pretty much correct.

If we could load telephone poles into our bows and shoot them, they would NOT flex during the shot. Most arrows, not being telephone poles, (even the stiffest) will flex during the shot, but only by an amount proportionate to their spine. So, if you get an arrow that doesn't flex much (like you're trying to do), that arrow is capable of translating a higher amount of force into forward velocity and wastes less energy on flexing (movement of the shaft in any direction other than straight ahead.) Like you said, since it doesn't flex much, it won't deviate much from the initial path.

The DIRECTION that an arrow flexes can depend on several things, but they are all created by ONE THING: THE ARROW'S POINT LOCATION IN RELATIONSHIP TO THE DIRECTION THAT THE NOCK IS BEING PUSHED.

Left and right flexes (tears, etc.) are considered spine related only when the tail (nock) of the arrow is pushed to the side. This can come from a finger release, rope releases, etc. If you have a "straight ahead" release (caliper/loop), and your center shot holds the point directly in the (left/right) path that the nock will travel, then the tears and arrow flex will be up/down. {Left/right tears can also be torque related, but that does not apply to this discussion.} The Easton guide applies mostly to finger release situations (even though it says otherwise.) This is directly from Bob Ragsdale, whose son (-in-law?, maybe) helped right the damn thing. It's not a bible. At the end of it, it says, "The exact opposite adjustments to those mentioned may be necessary", or something like that.

In a straight-ahead release, the arrow would not flex AT ALL 1) if it were stiff enough to absorb the load of the bow, which we've already decided with your super-stiff carbons we can basically do and 2) if there were no up down movement of the nock during the shot. The up/down movement is basically the path that the nock point on your string takes as the string is "reeled back in." Ragsdale says there is ALWAYS, ON ALL BOWS, some degreee of difference in the exact amount being taken up by the top in relation to the bottom of the bow at each point during the shot.

A "too stiff" arrow WILL NOT have to recover (and lose momentum, as was stated by someone), if the centershot and nock point settings were correct. Allowed to leave straight, the stiff shaft will result in more velocity, etc., because less energy is wasted in flex. (The only reason that there might not ACTUALLY be more velocity is the drawback that Ragsdale mentioned: stiffer arrows generally mean thicker walls = heavier arrows.)

I completely disagree with not tuning the bow to match the arrow. Spine is just as important in carbons as it is aluminums. It's just that the manufacturers have presented FEWER shafts to cover a WIDER range. It DOES NOT MEAN they are all properly spined at any length. (There used to not be as many aluminums as there are now. Does that mean the all these other sizes weren't needed?) It is naive to think that because you picked your arrow out of the right size chart and have the right point weight on it , that it is perfect for your "perfectly tuned bow". It may be close enough to be acceptable, but I could almost guarantee it's not perfect. It's much easier to turn a fraction out of your limb bolts than to go have 1/4" cut off all your arrows, but hey, that's just me. The problem is once you get them back and discover that it should have just been a 3/16" adjustment, it's hard as hell to add 1/16" back to the shafts. But, then again, maybe I'm not as good a guesser as some folks.

For me, these are the "nuts and bolts":

a) I want to shoot fixed broadheads well.
b) Fixed broadheads fly best on properly spined or over-spined arrows. WHY? Because the only time the broadheads "pull" the flight of the arrow off course is when they turn sideways to the direction of movement. This amount of "sideways time" is maximized on a flimsy shaft (flexing a high amount and for a longer time) and minimized on a stiff shaft (flexing very little and not for very long.)
c) The best way for me to determine proper spine is bare shaft testing. An adequately spined arrow (w/ field point) can be shot accurately at reasonable distances, once the centershot and nock point are close to proper settings. There is NO interpretation of tears. You can accurately measure how adjustments change the relationship of bare shafts to fletched ones on the target. Once your two groups are close, you can back up and gain an even finer adjustment. (Just the opposite with paper tuning, because the farther you back up, the more you get LIED TO.)

Simply put, once I get my bow tuned to the arrows, so that the arrows are properly spined (stiffer is better, but once I reach the point of same impact, any stiffer is futile), I know I'm not far from being able to shoot any fixed broadhead.