sighting or form
 

This may be a silly question, but thought I would ask before tinkering I'm pretty much a newby. Got my bow 2 years ago and it's been in shooting pretty good for that time (staying tuned). This year I had about an inch and a half cut off my arrows, they were a bit underspined for their length on my set up. Anyway, I went out to shoot it last night, for the first time this year, and I am shooting solid 3" Groups from 10-40 yards, but they are always about 3" Right from my aim point.:( Now I would think if the sight had shifted my groupings would be pulling farther right as I moved farther from the target, which isn't happening. So, I'm thinking it is probably my form, but I don't know what would cause this. Any ideas would be appreciated.

RE: sighting or form
 

Clarify... Your groups at ALL distances are 3" right?

I'd have to ask what kind of lighting you were in when you sighted the bow vs the kind of lighting you were in when you shot those groups. If you sighted in under noontime sun and shot the goups in late evening, that could very well do it. You eye sees the pins differently in one kind of lighting than it does in another. Some sights are worse than others in that regard.

RE: sighting or form
 

The last 2 years I have shot in all kinds of lighting conditions but it never made any diff. Yes, from all distances it was 3" off to the right.

RE: sighting or form
 

If your groups are consistant, and are flying straight, just move your sights to the right. It sounds to me like you didnt change your sights when you cut down your arrows, which affected your spine.

RE: sighting or form
 

My view:

If a bow is not in tune, it will be most erratic between 6 & 10 yds, so 10 yds groups may only indicate how out of tune it is. To get the same margin of deviation at 10 yds as at 40; means the arrow at 10 yds, has recovered its erratic motion by the time it reached 40 yds.

On high speed bows over 300 fps sight pins can be close together (confusion), and you will often here the excuse on a miss kill. “ I Miss Pinned” When the pins would be close one can use a tween sight, sight picture, that is using the medium point between 2 sight pins for a sight pin. Now if you have a sight pin set for 30 yds and another at 50 yds the tween sight, sight picture is not going to be 40 yds, but about 42 yds because of the deacceleration of the arrow speed.

RE: sighting or form
 

dwaasp, thanks for the input. let me see if I am understanding what you're saing here; The bow may be out of tune and "tossing" my arrow to the right, but by 10 yards or so out the arrow has stablized enough to follow a straight out trajectory from there on out. I guess I am having a hard time mentaly visualizing this, but I guess it's possible. I will fling some shots thru some paper tonight at a couple of yards out and see what that shows me. Thanks guys

oh, and I have an older Hoyt, I am guessing I'm spitting them out at arround 240-250ish fps or so, my pins are set at 15, 25, & 30 with about the same distance between the three, enough to see arround without a prob.

RE: sighting or form
 

Well, if it's not the sight, and if you're not canting the bow, then I agree - it has to be the tune.

Here's what I'd do. Set your sight so you're hitting dead center in your aim point at 15 yards. Then shoot a couple at 40 and see where the arrow hits. If your arrows group off to the side, then adjust your centershot to bring the point of contact to center.

Then go back to 15 and adjust the sight to hit dead center again. Then go back to 40 and repeat the process there.

After a few repetitions, you'll have the arrow shooting center at all distances. That's a variation of what's called 'walkback tuning.'

RE: sighting or form
 

A little more:

When a bow is not in tune, it will have the most erratic motion from about 6 to 10 yds. The arrow may never recover from this erratic motion depending on how bad it is & how much fletching you have on it. But it will improve down range.

At 2 yds you can start the tune, but move back as the tear improves, do this until you get out more than 6 yds with near bullet holes, before you call it tuned.

If you wish to set your first pin for 20 yds you can always use a little Kentucky Elevation for 15 or 10.

RE: sighting or form
 

Being you have not provided your setup specs, any attempt at troubleshooting is a guess.

If you are shooting aluminum shafts, it appears that you may now be slightly over-spined, especially if the spine was originally borderline.

Try adding some draw-weight in very small increments, and test shoot each change to see if your groups starts to move back to center. If it does and you end up with a draw-weight greater than you want to hunt with, try a shade-tree adjustment. Crank your limbs back to the original setting and move your rest to the left in very slight increments. If moving the rest does not correct the POI, and you do not want a higher draw-weight, you will have to add broadhead weight.

As I said, just a guess not knowing your specs.

RE: sighting or form
 

Hoty excell, 29" Draw @ 62 LB, Easton XX75, 2219, @ 30", With 100 grain Points.

RE: sighting or form
 

c903 is right about the spine.

The Archery Program shows that that arrow is very overspined for 62 lbs. With that bow, draw length and arrow, the spine isn't correct until I enter 70# for the draw weight.

In addition to the other suggestions above, you might also try bare shaft tuning. For more on that check out the Easton Tuning Guide.

Good luck
Allen

RE: sighting or form
 

mlang:

I know that one size does not fit all. However, for a guide, One of my compounds is set at 62# and I shoot a 32.5" 2315 with a 125 grn head. I can also use 2413's, but the 2315's fly the best.

RE: sighting or form
 

Hmmm, I tend to disagree here. If you are consistantly shooting 3" right at all distances, I'd start by moving the sight to the right and see what happens.

Typically, I've found myself hitting dead on at 20, but when I back out to say..50, I may be left or right some. Then I move the rest to get it lined up with the 20 yard group and do it all over until they are all in a vertical group. Thats group tuning.

RE: sighting or form
 

I'll try some of these ideas and see what starts to make sence, thanks.

RE: sighting or form
 

I am assuming that the shafts hitting to the right may show up on paper as a RIGHT nock tear. If you shoot with FINGERS, for a rest adjustment you would move your rest to the RIGHT. If using a MECHANICAL RELEASE, you would move your rest to the LEFT.

RE: sighting or form
 

A little more chaos, in the beginning:

Some people will:
After a bow is bought the weight is adjusted to where one wishes to shoot. It is checked to see that the tiller matches the specs. The nock is set ¼”? or whatever? Set center shot or center the rest on string position to start? All of the above may be suggested in the manual or one could get with a quick call to the shop or company. Then measures draw length. Arrows, would most likely come from a blend of bow weight, draw length, and you will find some people who will have charts for wheels, hard cams, finger shooter & etc,.

Now one will take one of these arrows and shoot into a target, there cannot no fletching contact. There are many tricks to find out, but on new fletching one should be able to tell by an inspection in a good light. Use this same arrow for awhile it is no fun refletching all of your arrows. As has been posted here. You can always spray the arrow fletch, rest, & sight window with an indicator if you wish.

If there is contact one may need to check the nock rotation, spine, release, form, nocking set-up & etc.

When there is no contact many people start with the paper testing. Start at 1 or 2 yds from the target and back up as tear improves. If you come to a point that the tear does not improve by changing the nocking point and arrow rest, then you will troubleshoot by investigating all suggestions on all of these post, starting with the easy & cheap ones first.