Great subject, and this is an area of tuning that so many overlook. I have to say this piece of tuning is probably the most important to me for competition purposes assuming the bow fits me. Assuming you have good broadhead flight it is one of the most critical in my opinion for hunting as well because hunting situations are so conducive to shots from wierd angles and footing, etc where it would be easy to shoot a less than perfect shot from outside the optimum position in the valley.

Why creep tuning is important:

Most people don't realize it, however it is very difficult and takes a great deal of training to consistenly execute every shot from the same spot in the valley. Many people don't realize this and think if they are shooting a bow with a hard draw stop (new bowtech's, etc) that they are shooting from the same position every time. Fact is 99.9% of shooters are not able to consistenly shoot from the same spot in the valley, even with a hard draw stop. This can be proven on camera with video taken showing the tip of the arrow in reference to the rest and riser close up through the shot routine. Even given ideal footing and time to setup for perfect form, very few archers are able to consistently do this even 30 times in a row for a vegas 300 game. The end result from a bow that is not creep tuned is high/low misses even though your pin was on the spot you intended to hit when the shot executed. Even draw stop bows can be shot from as far back as an extra 1/4" past the bottom of the valley if you pull into the wall. This sounds minute, but a poorly creep tuned bow can result in a 6" change in the POI from creeping 1/4, or pulling too hard into the stops. This in my opinion is another great reason that releases such as the Carter Evolution is such a great option, it ensures that as long as that release is consistent in breaking that the shot is executed from the same spot in the valley EVERY TIME. Add in the fact that small things such as grip changes and front/back balance affected by stabilizers can all change the timing of the bow slightly, and now creep tuning becomes so important.

Now to show you the result of what can happen when these shots are executed from the front, middle, and back of the valley.........place a horizontal strip of tape and step back to 20 yards or wherever you are consistent enough to hit a 1" spot from consistenly. Take your bow and shoot 3 arrows from the very front of the valley, 3 from the middle of the valley, now shoot 3 pulling hard into the wall. See where those arrows group and discount the ones that were bad shots (you should know). Unless your bow is perfectly creep tuned they will usually not group in the same position. Example......my Martin Slayer after doing all the other tuning methods I usually do......at 30 yards was shooting an arrow off the front of the valley about 4" higher than a shot from the middle of the valley. Now with my Slayer creep tuned, at 33 yards (my second pin) I am able to make shots from the front of the valley hit the same horizontal tape line as shots from the back of the valley. I actually ended up in second place in a 3D shoot earlier this year because of a weak shot on the last target that caused my arrow to go about 5" high. I have since creep tuned the bow to the point where if I want to become more finely tuned I need shorter cables so the twist rate is lower, i.e. a half twist in the cable is too aggressive to actually get those shots to the point of where I am capable as a shooter to put the arrow. I was also able to tune my Martin Scepter IV this winter to have shots from anywhere in the valley hit the X ring on a vegas target at 20 yards, after tuning it this way my X counts jumped by 4-5 X's per game........a significant amount. That's a drastic change and means a lot more at longer distances and especially under the less than ideal conditions that 3D, field archery, or hunting can present to you.

Cam styles and how they are affected:

Binary cams to my knowledge should be able to be creep tuned on the newer style cams on the guardian and commander since there is no draw stop, however the cam styles previous to this I believe it affect letoff percentage by changing only one cable length. I have not personally tried to creep tune a binary cam bow though, and would love to hear from someone that has successfully or unsuccesfully tried to do so. I am also curious to know if the slaving design of the cams negates any changes made to a single cable. I would love to see if a proficient shooter can see changes in POI from front, middle, and back of the cams valley on these bows...........anyone that has input let's hear it.

Cam and half, C/P/S and other hybrids can be creep tuned, however your going to be tuning for same impact point from middle of the valley to hard into the wall.

Single cams cannot be "creep tuned" exactly, however you will find a certain cam position to be most forgiving of creeping on the shot and hard into the wall. The trick is finding this position in the cam rotation while still having the perfect draw length for your most repeatable form. As an extra reference on a single cam bow put it on a draw board and make a pair of tapes on the cable/string (one on each) that are next to eachother at full draw. Once in the absolute bottom of the valley per the scale on the draw board.....draw a line on the two tapes so that when at full draw you have the two lines directly next to eachother as a reference. Add it in as a reference in your shot sequence and if it doesn't line up let down and start again. You can train with these and then take them off once you have become proficient at setting up the shot and position in the valley. You of course want these tapes to be in the line of sight between your peep and sight when at full draw. This is an old trick used by field archers and can be used on any bow but I usually only use it for a single cam bow being used for competition as an extra reference. Because of training with this method, I still to this day have shot my personal best field archery (555) and indoor scores (448/450) using a single cam bow.

Finally.....twin cams are easily tuned using the creep method, and they are probably also the most important to creep tune as well. With a dual cam setup, I can literally get that arrow to hit the X on a vegas target from 20 yards at any point in the valley.




One more great article by George Ryals on creep tuning and how exactly to do it, hopefully this makes sense and connects the dots on my rambling above.........[8D]