shooting bare shafts???
#1
shooting bare shafts???
Today my brother came over and was curious about how Lumenocks worked on hunting arrows. So I decided to show him, But the only arrows I had for my bow, had the vanes removed, because Im refletching them for hunting season, but I thought what the heck, Ill just shoot one without the vanes on it. Now the bow was tuned great with these arrows with the 4 inch vanes on them, but with nothing,, it looked like the arrows were traveling completely sideways, And on the second shot, it hit the target so crooked that it kicked the lumenock out so violently that it broke off the batteryand wires off the inside of the nock, just like you took it in your hands and broke it in half. Its not the nocks fault, they are great , and shoot fantastic, and have never failed to work , or stay in the shaft. But what Im asking, is it normal for arrow without vanes to shoot this erraticaly? I always heard that if the bow was tuned, it would shoot straight without vanes on the shafts, Ive never seen flight like this, whats going on with it?? Thanks
#2
Fork Horn
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 114
RE: shooting bare shafts???
Hi there, the answer is yes and no. Most of the time a bare shaft will fly just as straight as a fletched one. However, with some of these new, very fast bows, and possibly a too weak or too stiff arrow spine, the arrow shaft will do funny things like fly sideways. If you look at hand loading a handgun load, if you don't have the right set up, the bullet will tumble and other funny things. Same basic principle with arrow shafts. You can always double check yourself and go to the Easton Archery web site. There you will find a couple of interactive programs for which you either down load or use on-line. If at all possible, down load the Shaft Selector Plus and the Arrow Tuning Guide. Both are free of charge from the web-site.
#3
RE: shooting bare shafts???
mofire, Thanks, I guess I should have given a little more info. Im shooting a Bowtech Allegiance 29 inch draw at 67lbs, with Easton Exel 400 arrows 28 1/2 inches long with 75 grain tips. I also have a Trophy Ridge fall away rest, and with vanes on this setup, it shot perfect holes in paper at 5-15 yards, never shot it through paper farther than that. I wondered if speed had anything to do with it. I also tried another shot with a normal nock, and at 20 yards what appeared to be a shot in the middle of a 3-d target glanced off straight up badly. I guess Ill refletch them and shoot them, and paper tune them again, to see if something has changed on the bow. Thanks for the advice.
#4
RE: shooting bare shafts???
I can shoot my bare shaft 340's to the target out to 30 and ifI fling them without any bow torque they will land square in the target.
With an allegience shooting 400's @ 29" /67# I bet your seeing a weak spine reaction. The 75 grains might be light enough on the front to stiffen them up though.
Your fletchings are obviously doing their job or you would have noticed this before now.
If your broadheads shoot where yuou want them to I wouldn't sweat it.
Oh, yeah- I saw on a lumenock add the other day that they "only add 22 grains" to the arrow. If this is 22 grains in addition to the weight of the nock they replaced you may want to reshoot/ retuneyour bow to make sure this added rear weight didn't further weaken your spine to the point of no-worky. This is assuming your original tune was before the alumenock addition.
Luckily for you you can reduce your draw weight to stiffen them up if they proove to be too weak.
With an allegience shooting 400's @ 29" /67# I bet your seeing a weak spine reaction. The 75 grains might be light enough on the front to stiffen them up though.
Your fletchings are obviously doing their job or you would have noticed this before now.
If your broadheads shoot where yuou want them to I wouldn't sweat it.
Oh, yeah- I saw on a lumenock add the other day that they "only add 22 grains" to the arrow. If this is 22 grains in addition to the weight of the nock they replaced you may want to reshoot/ retuneyour bow to make sure this added rear weight didn't further weaken your spine to the point of no-worky. This is assuming your original tune was before the alumenock addition.
Luckily for you you can reduce your draw weight to stiffen them up if they proove to be too weak.
#5
RE: shooting bare shafts???
Yes the lumenocks were on the arrows before the vanes were removed, and I checked and I am right at the limit on spine for my setup. And Im thinking about shooting 100 grain heads this year, so Ill probably have to drop a few pounds off the bow, and retune. Thanks