Dryridge

I would venture one of two things you had some stretch in your string/cables or and I think this is more likely, you are underspined and/or your FOC is off. The 125 tips are pushing it and adding the wt of the tracernocks is likely too much. If you want to use the nocks First thing to do is see where on the arrow it balances. If it is less than one inch past center it is too nock heavy. Thing is the spine may be too light for more wt. on the tip but you can try. That cam is a bit harsh and can put arrows off the chart. Try a stiffer shaft.

My crossbow was not grouping or tuning well and a guy that knows more than me about them told me to make the FOC balance at least 2" FOC. I thought he was crazy. He also told me to go with a shorter shaft, even lighter, which again, being it is a 200lb model I thought the guy was off base. Guess what...It now stacks arrows like cordwood. FOC is important in all manner of archery. 7% FOC is a good starting point for a compound.

SwampCollie

I'm with you there dryridge. I know that prior to installing the tracers, my arrows were at 14% FOC. I haven't rechecked it since. And I do remember that before I used them, and heck even before I crested my arrows, I could watch those things in the day light with regular nocks just fly like a falcon toward the target. I would have thought that more weight in the back, while decreasing FOC, would not make the arrow spine any differently... if anything perhaps a bit stiffer.

One thing I did try the day before yesterday was putting some 100gr points on... and that just made it worse. So if by decreasing my FOC, things got worse, maybe it would get better if I increased it. I have some 25gr Boosters that I think I'll install behind my 125gr field points. I might have to back down a couple #s, which is just fine with me. But maybe that will do it.

ijimmy

I know this sounds strange but , try some new or different nocks .

Dryridge

Collie,

Adding weight to either end will drop the spine value. Just like a BH that is too heavy, a nock will worsen the spine issue.
Adding wt to the front is a good place to start. If it is FOC it should improve, if it is spine it may worsen. I would try a heavier spine if this doesn't help. Maybe just make up one or two and see if they hit better or fly better. You are good enough to tell the difference, I have not doubt.

One thought. Do you notice any more noise during the shot? That is a sign of underspine as well. It will be subtle but should be noticable. It has to do with energy absorption abilities. More wt. added to a shaft does not improve spine, it really does decrease it.

Good Luck Ol' Pal.

Dave.

SwampCollie

I noticed a bit more noise last week. Granted, I was shooting in a different place than normal... an inside range with wood walls. I know when it comes to noise, that pretty much makes the noise issue moot.... because everything is loud in a range like that.

Today I tried a regular axis 340.... 3 blazers, no crests, 125gr heads..... same result.... more or less. I put the lighted nock on just to see what the difference was.... same thing.

I tried a booster to see if it was more or less... .and I honestly think it helped. So FOC might have been part of the problem.... notice that last sentence has problem in a past tense.... read on......

SwampCollie

UPDATE:


Last night, when my boss shot the bow while I watched to get a second opinion.... I noticed he did something different, and when I asked him about it today, he said that he didn't mean to do it. But I noticed his hand was a lot lower on the grip than mine.... infact, there was about a one inch gap below the flares that make up the riser shelf.

Just for S&Gs I tried moving my hand down the grip today....

Perfect arrow flight.

I don't know what in the world was causing it, or exactly why in the devil that fixed it... neither did my boss who has been doing this for over 35 years... but both us did agree on this.... you cannot argue with results... and a lot of the time a bow can be a fickle as a woman.... not all fixes work the same on every one, and sometimes what makes them happy is just downright weird.

Dryridge/Dave you ever heard of such a thing, or does anything like that make sense to you? She is shooting like a champ again.... but why do I suddenly have to move my hand down an inch to get good flight?

stalkingbear

It sounds like you had a weird case where the bow was being vertically "torqued". That's highly unusal. Sometimes the string stretching slightly will cause the need for gripping differently. Without looking at/shooting the bow,it's almost impossible to determine wether it's string stretch,underspine,or balance/grip problem. Glad you figured it out as I know it was driving you crazy and that would've really affected your shooting self confidence. I'm sorry I didn't read this post sooner since even tho yall know a lot more about bows than I,sometimes a fresh view is welcomed.

SwampCollie

ALWAYS! Not sometimes... ALWAYS! Mechanics, doctors, farmers... all sorts of folks who are good at what they do usually welcome a second opinion on a tough problem.

As to vertical torquing... thats a new term for me. The only thing that I can figure, and I've been monkeyin' with it some this morning is that when I "tiller tuned" to get the limbs working in harmony, I might have over done it on backing the top limb off... maybe thats why moving my hand (the fulcrum) down made such a difference. I've been making limb adjustments in like 1/8 turn increments just babying the thing back into tune.... so far all is well again.... one of those "happenings" I suppose that just can't be explained.......??????

Mikey S.

Playing with the tiller like that can cause the issues you encountered. I experienced it this past summer myself setting up my hunting bow. It can drive you nuts, as you probably learned. I used Arthur P.'s method that's a sticky here, and I also played with another version of it that helped me fine tune the "hold" on my bow.

I've never shot an Iron Mace, but it does have a wood grip on it, correct? perhaps you can take it off, and shoot just off the riser. Might be worth a shot, you may find it's easier to hit the "sweet spot" shooting in that way.

Dryridge

Collie,

You asked if I had ever seen anything like this....indeed I have. I was once trying a prototype Jennings(what later became the Buckmaster)and it shot really good. I loved that thing BUT....it just didn'tfit my hand.The meat of my thumb pushed the top of my thumb knuckle hard into the bottom of the shelf. It got so bad it bled.I called and asked if I could sand the grip.... NO, I wiggled my hand around all over that thing trying to find a good spot but never really did.Then after a 100 arrows or so, suddenly it just went haywire. Got louder and started shooting all over. That thing had me near target panic. I took the grip off and it Viola'... I studied everything and found a small crack in the grip. Nothing big and surely not enough to make it shoot off I thought. So, I went back to the drawing board. I relooked at everything....now remember, One cams were in their infancy and tuning was trial and error. The tiller was off and the tech man told me that was because of the small idler. OK, So what can it be.
It was a TILLER issue. Once the cable stretched it caused a change in the takeup of the buss. I only noticed it because I had someone else shoot and I noticed the cable seemed to get slack momentarily during the draw cycle. HMMMM Well I then realized the draw stop was now changed. Same length...different spot in the valley. It was getting a hard kick and since the cam had the take up on the left side it was pulling it in my hand during the shot cycle. I twisted it up and then set the limbs at dead even tiller, set the nock at dead level. It shot like a dream. I made a grip for it with a much lower wrist as well as thinner and never had another issue. I asked if I could keep that bow for my work. They did indeed. I killed 14 straight critters with 14 shots before retiring it. (But don't tell the company that was sponsoring me they might not have liked that too well)....LOL!!!

Deed, I would take the grip off and try it. That don't help. Recable and string and start over.

Sorry, I know this is just more Maybe's but it is trial and error>

Dave