Bareshaft tuning out of a compound with a release is debatable. It' s can be a " vodoo science" . Some believe in it, others say it' s bunk. But for ME and MY personal experiences, I do like to use bareshafting as another aid in getting my hunting rigs to their best. For my target rigs, I still like to group tune to find the best adjustments out to 80yds. But for my hunting setup I want to see that bareshaft impact very closely with fletched shafts at all yardages out to 40yds.

I do some bareshafting with the approximate FOC of fletched shafts. I do this by fletching the shaft, and then trimming the top part of the vanes to leave the base of the vane and the glue on the shaft. And then gluing a small BB on the end of the nock before inserting in the shaft will get very close results as far as matching FOC of the fletched shafts. Or I have done a light dip-coat of paint for my bareshaft before fletching to get the FOC close. With some tinkering you can get a b/s very close to final weight and FOC of a fletched shaft.

My b/s trials are mostly for left/right considerations, and I' m not too worried about up/down as long as it' s reasonable. The drag portion of the fletching will account for some of the up/down differences compared to fletched shafts. I know guys say it' s a waste of time, and I really respect their opinions, but I' ve had too much success doing things this way. With the approximate same FOC bareshaft, I can see tiny spine differences that I wouldn' t have been able to detect very well with fletched shafts. Example: I fletched up my hunting arrows along with the FOC bareshaft. I wasn' t quite sure if the shafts were spined correctly for the bow when I went to the range. I adjusted for the best grouping of fletched shafts and then threw the b/s out to the bale and it was off quite a bit. The only thing I did then was adjust the bow poundage and kept everything else constant. With each turn of the limb bolts I' d shoot a group with the bareshaft included and I could see the b/s walking across the target as the poundage changed. The small arrow spine reactions were apparent when changing the poundage of the bow.

An approximate FOC b/s can help to let me know how much " work" my fletching is doing to correct arrow flight. If my bareshaft impacts very closely with fletched shafts, my fletching is not having to do any flight corrections. And if your fletching is having to do a lot of work, that doesn' t mix well when putting on broadheads. Field points let you get away with murder as far as not planing the arrow off in the wrong direction, but fixed blade broadheads are very telling.

When I can get my FOC b/s and my fletched shafts hitting very close from 10 to 40yds, it seems like a breeze to put on fixed blade broadheads and requires very little adjustment. And it isn' t always easy and requires a lot of range time and tinkering- sometimes I need to change tip weights, or cut some length off my shafts (I purposely start with my shafts 1" long just for this case). I have yet to find a good arrow stretcher. Sometimes you need to tweak centershot position. A note of caution: This should NOT be done with thin-walled aluminums!! Having the bareshaft in the target on an angle can be a slight centershot adjustment, or a spine adjustment, or a little of both. Like I said, it can be very time consuming and " tinker-intensive" to get things together. But it is pretty cool to see a bareshaft grouping right with fletched shafts out to 50yds.... (guys on the range always get a kick out of that).

I think the results are worth the effort FOR ME- I' m not saying everyone should do it, and I have full respect for those that say it' s a waste of time. And I don' t think you have to do this to get decent broadhead groupings either. I just like to tinker and experiment.....