Well, I guess I shoulda said paper tuning CAN be an unreliable tool. I know some guys swear by it and get good results but it can also leave you tearing your hair out.

I' ve been at this long enough to eyeball my centershot pretty close. Set my tiller so that the bow stays level when I draw, not pulling up or down. Set my nock point a bit over square. Then I start shooting groups. I get good at 20 yards then move to 30 and compare point of impact. If my centershot is off, the arrows will be off to one side at 30. I' ll move whichever way I need to split the difference, then sight back in at 20. Then I' ll move to 40 and repeat. I' ll do that all the way out to 60 yards. At 60 yards, I' ve got plenty of time to see the arrow in flight. If I' ve got any porpoising, I can either move the nockset a bit OR adjust my tiller a bit to straighten up the arrow flight.

When I' m satisfied with my centershot and arrow flight, then I shoot broadheads to see how they fly. I' m not one of those that believes broadheads MUST impact right with my field points. As long as they group closely, all the way out to 60 yards, then I' m satisfied. But, if I see a tendency for my groups to drift off to one side further and further at the longer distances, I will adjust centershot a tad more.

I' ve tuned a compound that way for more than 20 years, with fingers and release. Sometimes it yields a bullethole in paper, but most often it doesn' t.

But the whole process begins with the arrows. If your arrows are underspined, nothing will work. Overspined isn' t as critical, but you will never get the accuracy you want. If your arrows aren' t straight, each one will come off the rest slightly differently and that will make tuning a nightmare. Having great arrows is really far more important than having a great bow, super-gee-whiz arrow rests, gold plated sights or million dollar releases. Too many people have lost sight of that rule and hang all kinds of expensive doodads on their megabucks bow, but cheap out on arrows.