Paper tune???
 

What does it mean to paper tune your bow I'm a first time bow hunter?

It means you get it to hit the bulls eye or whatever the kill spot is on your target.

Paper tuning is shooting through a sheet of paper and adjusting your bow(usually your rest) so you get a perfect hole rather than a tear because the tail end of your arrow is kicking one way or another.

Jose - what Rockport said. However I quit paper tuning a long time ago. I set up my bows with everything square then I tune from there with both field tips and broadheads. Some of the best advice is in this forum on the stickys above. A very good one is "Don't stop at walkback".

Yeah I don't paper tune anymore either.

I still paper tune - bare shaft, however, then confirm everything else as I add more and more to the shaft.

In fairness, it's been many years since I felt any of it was necessary, and frankly, I've nearly convinced myself to shoot bare shafts with broadheads for hunting, since under 40yrds, I just don't need steerage.

lol front wheel drive?

In a way sort of yes Rockport. I think Nomercy is using very high FOC arrows. That, in theory, will allow for arrows without vanes or feathers to fly reasonably straight. You have to have some very stiff shafts as well to accomplish any semblance of repeatable accuracy. At least that is what my limited knowledge leads me to think.

I try to run 12-15% FOC, and with my bows, I have to run 250 or 300 spines. Any time I get in new shafts, I do almost everything bareshaft tuning, and when I'm well practiced as I prefer to be when I'm tuning, I'll ruin arrows at 40yrds even bareshaft. I haven't tried it with the Montec's I've been shooting the last couple years, but when I set up my first 2 dozen Velocity Pro's, I tried some of my 125grn Rages instead of field points - they printed small enough on target to easily and handily kill deer. I lean that as an advantage of binary cam bows and fast fall away rests - they leave the bow straight and true, and with a moderate FOC (what I call moderate), they keep flying that way.

I messed around with steerage a bunch in college and a few years after, working with feathers and helicals, tall vanes, long vanes, whatever was out there. Then I started shooting more bareshaft during tuning - I run "no offset" now, which is really 1degree on my jig, and usually just stick on blazer's since they last forever.

That said - I might go back to feathers and dipped & spun crests on my next set of arrows, just for the style, absolutely no other reason than throwing some retro onto my rig.

The last 3 dozen arrows dad made was for that new Bowtech which all in all the only thing I had to change adjustment on was the peep and kisser button distance apart. My face is just a tiny bit longer than his was. He built those Maxima red SD shafts with 2" blazers 1*off and set them up for 100 grain tricks. I know shooting that dang bow and my old Hoyt raptor is like going from night to day. I'll use the old Hoyt this season since I really didn't practice a lot with that Bowtech but next year them deer better look out.

Ive just not had to really mess with much tuning for quite a few years now. I don't know if maybe ive just gotten better at getting it right or just maybe lucky. I started shooting off set broadheads years ago and you can pretty much bet out to 40 yards if I follow a field point with a broadhead I'm losing at least a fletch.

I used to fight with tuning a lot but I was always doing more adjusting after paper tuning so I just quit bothering with it and squared things up, bare shaft tuned and have been good to go.

It seems to me I'd have to be way off from the start to require starting with paper tuning but there was a time when that is what I did.

Yeah - it should be really easy - if the bow is in tune, then when you square everything, it'll all be in tune. It's when you get a bow set up out of the box by some 18yr old, summer job, minimum wage lackey who went through an hour long bow tech orientation at the big box store and your cams are out of tune from the jump, then paper tuning will reveal the problem before you start down the path. If the cables are balanced when you take delivery of the bow, then everything will fall into place with a tape measure and 90degree square, if not, then it really helps to own a press and know how to use paper tuning to balance their cables.

None of it takes very long, and all of it involves touching and shooting the bow, so it's never bothered me. I don't work at a shop any more (other than filling in here and there), but I still have guys bring their bow to me for work, or to set up new bows when they buy. I paper tune in my basement "office," same place I work most days, so taking a few shots doesn't bother me much.

Honestly, I don't like to move my rest out of centershot - I do as much adjusting as I can with my cables, then only tweak my rest as my last little bit of fine tuning.

Oh I gave up on bow shops years ago. We had a new one open up locally a few years ago so I gave it a shot and tried having them do some things I would normally do myself because I wanted them to make it but a few rounds of them charging me for work I had to show them how to do was enough for me.

We have a couple of shops with owners that are great and have probably forgot more than I'll ever know about bows. They built the business but unfortunately they don't do the work anymore. What little I do know is a damn sight more than these kids working these bow shops around here. It usually doesn't take much conversing with them to figure out I'd be better off taking my bow home and figuring it out myself.

It's pretty hard to get a shop to hand you a bow in a box though. I know more are getting shipped strung now than in the past, so that changes things, but traditionally, the dude at the shop is who sets your cams, which isn't always a good thing (rarely is).

I shoot prime and I believe they are strung and cycled 100 times at the factory and shipped ready to go.

Even if I have problems I find I'm better off to just educate my self on fixing them. Back when I went to bow shops I usually had to do that anyway so I just eliminated the paying for nothing part.