Why does it seem just when you get your bow sited and tight groups, you discover some otherout of tune deal and it makes you go nuts thinking "man, if I get this fixed my bow will be even better". In the old days with the Bear Whitetail Hunter and one of the first PSE Novas, it seemed to not matter how well the bow was in tune. Or was there the difficulty of keeping those old bows in tune or not? I guess another question I have is when you finally get your bow in tune, how long will it stay there and what does it take for it to get out of tune. Thanks for all...........Mitch

Mitch,

To answer your last question first, I think that would depend on the quality and simplicity of the equipment as well as the type of setup the person is using and how often they use it. I can tell you that if you develop a simple, rugged setup for hunting then you shouldn't have to worry about the tune of your bow much after the initial break-in period.

mitchmedic - I know what you mean. I thought I had mine dialed in and then all of a sudden I couldn't get decent groups anymore. Turns out the cables and string had finally stretched enough to throw everything out of kilter. So I put on custom cables and string, which then introduced all kinds of other issues that had to be resolved (in part due to the shop that put them on). Finally (at least I hope finally) I've got it back to where it should be. Hopefully, the new string/cables will limit future problems to just those created by my insatiable need to tinker with the bow. If I could just learn to leave well enough alone, I'd be much better off. I suppose there are a lot of archers like that, though.

Hm. That's an interesting question. I still have my Whitetail Hunter, and got it when I was like, 12 I think. Anyway, your post started me thinking about how that bow shot. Back in those days, the heavier the arrow the better. I remember shooting 45 pounds, and my arrow was a 29 inch 2018! Can you believe that? Also, the bow itself is like 45 inches long, or something like that. So, my conclusion is that a properly tuned bow didn't matter as much, because the ATA was huge, and the arrow was only flying like 170 fps.
Conversely, now a days we have short ATA bows, lightweight, carbon arrows, and all the other bells and whistles, making everything that much more important.

High performance = high maintenance. One of the things that caused me to quit compounds was because it seemed like I was constantly having to tune and retune the blasted things. I finally had a belly full of it.

That Hoyt ProHunter I bought in 1985, I'd tune it for tournament shooting in the spring, then tune it for hunting in the fall, and that was all I'd have to do. Every compound I've bought since they quit using steel cables, I've had to retune at least once a month. They shoot a much faster arrow, for sure, but I decided I don't want to spend that much of my free time tuning my bow instead of shooting it.

With my longbow, I string it up, check the brace height and go shooting. I might have to spend just a couple of minutes twisting the string to adjust the brace height. It doesn't take as much time to do that as it takes to pull the compound out of the case and put on the stabilizer.

My exact feeling. I have not touched the compound since December and don't miss it at all.

But to answer your question Mitch. I think a lot as to do with how much you shoot it and the type of equipment you are using (string one of the most important). For me, when I was shooting the oompound a lot, I'd say about every month or so.