I was thinking it would be nice for all of us who are new to the technical side of archery, if some of you older, wiser archers could do a thread on how to do a basic bow tune up.

I can sight in my bow and make some minor adjustments to the rest, but other than that, I am in the dark. Where do you start? What tools do you need? What's the basic process?

Some of you have forgotten more than I will ever know, and some of this stuff isso natural to you that you would never think to explain it. I don't have anyone close who can take time to teach me what to do to get my bow decently tuned, so I ask you guys...Can you give us a How-to on basic tuning (please dumb it down for us...for me at least)?

Thanks

Well there are a few "sticky" threads at the top of this technical forum for the tech heads. It's good stuff. If you crave more, go to archerytalk.com. Check out the "bowtuning" and "general archery information" forums and you can find just about anything your mind could dream up about bows. But beware though, some of it is opinion based, and with experience, you'll find that youprefer certain ways of doing things that suit youbetter. But all in all, this site and AT are good places to expand your melon with archery info .

I have read the stickies on several occasions. In fact it was the one aboutthe tiller that got me thinking about this. I'll check out AT, but my idea was more of a "Hey, this is what you need to do first" type of thread. All the basic stuff in one place.I am sure all the information is out there waiting to be discovered, but it can get a little overwhelming at times and be confusing as to where to start, what tools you need, and the basics of how to do it.

I don't have unlimited resources to run out and buy everything I would need to tune my bow, i.e. bowpress, fletching kit, draw weight scale, etc. etc. So, what would be a good place to start building the tools I need for all this? Over time I would like to have my own personal "bow shop" where I can work on my bows, make arrows, and tinker with all my stuff. It will be a long process, buying what I can, when I can. I just want to know where to start.

Well there's a very good thread on AT in the general archery information forum titled something like "setting up your new bow". I think this is it...........if I grabbed the right link. It's a good starting point, that's for sure.

http://www.archerytalk.com/vb/showthread.php?t=457713

There are some other good threads on there to relating to cam timing and tiller adjusment, such as Arthur P's "tiller" thread in this forum also.

As far as tools go, a nice set of nock pliers, T-square, maybe bubble levels, nice set of hex wrenches, tape measure, and a bow vise and you can do just about anything that doesn't require a press. A decent press can be had too, like the Ratchet-Lock press or Bowmaster if you don't want to take up space on a bench. There was a guy on here that made some nifty ones, I don't recall what they are called though........maybe someone else knows........it's slipping my mind right now! And there is a guy on AT that builds a nice bench mounted press for $160 I think. It's called the Omni press, and eveyone over there seems to like it.

Fletching your own arrows is nice to get into also. A nice jig from Bohning or Bitz will do the trick with whatever style clamp you want to experiment with.

There are even some threads on here about building your own paper tuning jig. Which is very useful in my opinion, as I like to paper tune, then walk-back and see how things go.

LOL...did I miss anything ??

Mikey,

thanks for the heads up on the threads over at AT. I've just been reading through several and they are chock-full of great info. The link at the end of the "Walk Back Tuning" thread is the best explanation of how to do this I have ever read.

Thanks again.

Andrew

No problem Andrew.

Have fun!

the one mistake that quite a few new bow hunters make the mistake of tuning their bows with field points.... I can't stress it enough but you have to tune your bow to your hunting equipment....broadheads.. you must paper tune your arrows with broad heads. You do not want to have a giant in your sights and when you release your arrow goes bonkers... i can't stress that enough....

Some of what I see over there is a little off, and sometimes there is some really good stuff. That link about Walkback by "Nuts&Bolts" though leaves a little to be desired IMHO. It's decent until he says "If the pattern gets more crooked, then adjust in the other direction." Then I'm in disagreement. When doing a "walkback" if you get a pattern that looks like this " / " then you need to move the rest to the right or toward the riser for RH shooters, away for LH shooters, and if you get a pattern like this " \ " then you need to do the opposite. In short, move the rest in the direction the bottom arrow need to go, and they will go, little bit at a time sometimes. This is pretty much how I start out with my bows after I "eye-ball" everything. After that, then I screw on some BH's, spin them and make sure they spin "true," and shoot them, seeing how they impact in comparision with my FP's. If the BH's hits low, then raise the rest a "TINY" bit, or lower nockpoint and try again, and vice versa; if the BH hit's right, then move the rest left, and re-shoot, and if BH hits left, move the rest to the right. Basically with sights, you "CHASE THE ARROW," and with rests, you "Guide the arrow."

Now this is all stuff that you need to do AFTER you get things roughly set-up and ensure you aren't having any contact issues, etc.

Paper tuning with broadheads can be very deceptive and paper tuning in general is just a starting point in the tuning process. Start with paper tuning field points then move on to broadhead tuning as described in the Easton Tuning Guide which is probably the best bow tuning resource there is.

I'll second kodiakarcher...paper tuning with vanes and field points is tough enough (so I don't anymore....just use a bareshaft and fieldpoints)...tacking on a broadhead would just overcomplicate it for me. Anyway papertuning is a good start but at some point one will have to hit the range, see how they group and/or perform in a walkback tune.

Maybe I'm the only one....a right handed shooter.....that finds that I have to move my rest in the opposite way than one might think for a walkback tune. When I get a / going from 20yds and up I have to move my rest left. When I get a \, then I have to move it to the right. So saying it has to go one way period may work for everyone else....I thought so to. That is until I finally talked myself into going the other way - wow what a difference...and now broadheads hit just about on top of field points. Just be careful buying into having to go only one way.....sometimes it ain't so.