Getting a bullet hole is relatively easy. Getting a hole with an 11:00 tail-high 1/4"-3/8" tear is much more difficult. Why? Because the second tear gives the arrow "purpose", and something to react to. If you shoot for a bullet hole at 6 or 9', that same arrow is not going to give you that at all distances, laws of physics won't allow it to. Somewhere along it's flight path each arrow HAS to paradox, and you will get a tear. Paper tuning is only good for a ROUGH starting point, then you must take it to the second step, which is group tuning at all distances. Then when you are done with that, if you have a twin cam you can also "supertune" (what I call the creep-tune method) to give you the same impact points regardless of creep or overdraw. (cannot do this with a solocam, however) If you do all of these steps or at least the first two, then go back to square one and throw it again thru paper, you almost always will find the arrow comes thru paper at 11:00 tail-high left 1/4-3/8" if the tuning process was done correctly. Most top archers now skip the initial paper tear for bullet hole and tune directly to the 11:00 tear.

By giving the arrow "purpose", you are throwing a more consistent shot as it will correct paradox exactly the same every time. When you shoot it coming out of the bow perfectly dead straight, it sort-of "knuckleballs" and has no "purpose", but rather just floats along towards the target. That is why you see less accuracy at distance in those instances, especially if the arrow spine itself is not correct and the arrow flexes further along the "knuckleball" path instead of initially when coming out of the bow. (but was never tested thru paper at those further distances!) I and other top shooters all over the world have been tuning our bows to the 11:00 tail-high tear for many years, and have found it to be the most consistent tune for most all setups.

Every bow configuration has a few arrow shaft setups that it "likes". Over the years I have found a good formula with which I can quite accurately determine a "nice" shaft and point weight for a given setup if given the specs, and surprisingly it almost always runs light on other shaft charts. Some arrows work well with a bunch of combinations, the ACC 3-18 and 3-28 are a couple that fit this category well, as does the 2314 XX75.

Another interesting note is that arrow shaft spine has changed over the years also. I remember back in the late 80's shooting a 1916 X-7 at 73 lbs with a 27" arrow. In fact, I won an IBO World title with that shaft and poundage and shooting over 285fps! Nowadays you cannot get a 1916 to spine much past 60lbs, and the charts say only around 50 or so. Same basic overall energy and speed, so why? Marketing of carbon shafts which give a higher overall profit margin for the manufacturer is my best guess.

Tuning must also be done by the person shooting the bow. While yes, we can get the bows tuned using the Hooter Shooter, unfortunately you won't have the Hooter shooting Deer or Tournaments for you. Each bow and arrow configuration must be tuned to it's individual owner, and no machine can be set to get each individuals' CONSISTENT induced torque. You can get 'em close, but it's just not the same.

Bottom line is that it all depends on how deep you want to get into the tuning process, and how accurate you really want to be. For most guys who hunt, throwing a few out to 40 yds and getting a group the size of a volleyball is good. For myself, (along with many others) I want that group at that distance shrunken to a golfball. To do that, you must take the appropriate steps needed in the tuning process. Hope this helps, Good shooting, Pinwheel 12





Edited by - Pinwheel 12 on 10/25/2002 10:43:49