RE: sight trouble
Of course you need great form to group tune accurately, mrfritz. That's a given. Key word there is 'accurately.' If you're a championship level shooter and really want to get it down to dead nuts, the further you can shoot decent groups the better, like 90 yards. Not everyone possesses that kind of skill. However, you certainly can group tune to a point that is totally within your shooting skills. My limit for shooting fairly tight groups is 60 yards. For a newbie, it might only between 10 and 20 yards. The tune won't be nearly as precise as someone that group tunes out to 70 - 80 yards. But it will be within his skill level.
Say his arrows group in the dot at 10 yards, but the center of the 20 yard group is 6" to the side. He makes the adjustment to bring the 20 yard group over to center. Then adjust the sight to put the 10 yard group in the center again and repeat the process until the sights put both groups in the middle at both distances. It's a lot easier than trying to read paper tears and, since the method is based on accuracy, it's going to reinforce his confidence. When his groups open up to the point he can't make heads or tails out of things, then he knows it's time to give up for the day. As he progresses, he can extend his distance to improve the accuracy of his tune.
On the other hand, you have to have at least decent shooting form to shoot those bullet holes in a sheet of paper. For instance, a series of tears that go in every which direction, at random, without making any adjustments at all. How and what do you adjust to take care of that? That kind of thing can be caused just by uneven hand pressure on the grip, from one shot to the next. The shooter is baffled, doesn't know what to do and the exercise causes doubt and frustration, both with his gear and himself.
Not to mention that there is a level of skill involved in learning how to read those tears and knowing which direction to move what in order to correct them.
Paper tuning is a tool. All it does is give you a flash image of what attitude the arrow had at the particular moment in time it went through that paper. Nothing more. With marginal shooting form, it will not tell you why the arrow was flying like that, what to do to correct it or where that arrow will hit the target. Where the arrow will hit on the target is far more important for new shooters than knowing whether the arrow left the bow slightly nock low, left.
I'm not at all discounting the importance of good launch attitude for the arrow, because good arrow flight is critical. I'm just saying, as long as the arrow isn't visibly wobbling and porpoising, it's less important than placement FOR NOW.
When it comes time to fit broadheads on those arrows, or when the skill level hits the point where the shooter has hit a plateau and bow tune will make the difference for a major step forward, THEN we can start worrying about fine tuning that arrow flight. And even there, I consider group tuning to be the final word in fine tuning.
The only time I ever paper tune is when I'm trying to ferret out a particularly nasty tuning problem. Last time was about 4 years ago.
One tip, no matter what form of tuning you prefer. NEVER make any adjustments until you've got at least 3 arrows that do the same, exact thing. One arrow could be a mistake. Two arrows could be a fluke. Three arrows in a row, that's a trend.