loanstarhunter

Is the tiller supposed to be equal top and bottom? I think I heard someone say that the top is supposed to be a smidg. different than the bottom.

I shoot a WB and want to make sure I have the tiller set correctly.

Sniper151

If you shoot a release aid you should have even tiller. If you shoot fingers, the top brace height should be 1/8 to 1/4" less than the bottom. This kicks the arrow up off the rest when released.
Good Hunting...

Arthur P

You should use even tiller as a starting point, but your final tiller setting depends entirely on how you grip the bow. Tiller will be different for someone how puts a lot of grip pressure into the throat of the grip than it will be for someone who puts a lot of heel pressure into the grip. The reason? The limbs will have different loads put on them.

There are some who'll fine tune their bows by fiddling with tiller and shooting long range. I don't put much stock into that. All I want tiller to do for me is keep my bow riding level in my hand, all the way through the draw cycle. If it rides level throughout the draw, I reckon it'll do the same through the shot cycle.

I can tell a big difference in feel - shock, recoil - between a bow I've tuned to my grip and one that I haven't. With one I've tuned, my aim is steadier so my accuracy is improved.

The way I recommend doing this is to get in front of your target, load an arrow, hold the bow out with the pin on the target and slowly draw the bow straight back. (Your grip, stance and everything should be just like you always shoot. Only difference is you probably don't usually put the pin on target and keep it there while drawing.) Pay attention to the pin. If it tries to pull UP, the top limb is too strong. Take weight off the top limb or add weight to the bottom limb. If it tries to pull DOWN, the bottom limb is too strong. Take weight off the bottom limb or add weight to the top.

Keep adjusting until the pin stays level all the way to your anchor.

And keep your finger behind the trigger! You don't want to accidently bump that sucker and bust yourself in the pie hole while trying to tune your bow!

Once you get the tiller set, you might have to readjust your nockset.

BobCo19-65

But wouldn't changing the nock set on the string through the tiller off again because you are pulling back on a different area of the string? Or would it be so little that you don't have to worry about it?

mrfritz44

Good question....and would moving the rest up or down instead be a better technique?

mjqood0

It would seem to me that one would want to keep their upper and lower limbs torqued as close to equal as possible to reduce stresses on the riser and limbs themselves.

Though I am no expert and am only basing this on my real-world physics experience, I think that the ideal solution would be to adjust the nock so your pull is as described by Arthur P. From there, check to see how high/low the nock is compared to where you think it should be. If it is outrageous, only then would I adjust the tiller and then, not more than maybe 1/2 a turn out of even. This will require a raise/lower of the rest to compensate the raising / lowering of the nock point.

I guess I just can't see the uneven torquing of the limbs to be good for the bow and would avoid it at all costs. However, there are some tuning issues associated with this as well, so I guess it's sort of one big compromise no matter which way you look at it. For me, I have a happy medium in my eyes -- no tiller adjustments with the nock about 1/2" high and the rest a little higher than centershot as well. Looks good thus far. But I'm changing my rest out this week so we'll probably have to play this game all over again!

Good luck!

BobCo19-65

I believe that when the tiller is on, both limbs are working equally in relation to your individual grip and nock point.

Rangeball

I had a long reply typed up to this, then my computer locked up and I lost it... [:@]

It basically said what Bobco said above, only using way more words than are apparently necessary...

I did this with my bow, made a noticeable improvement in the way it holds on target as well as noise and recoil on release, all positive results.

In a perfect world with perfectly matched limbs, this step wouldn't be necessary. But unless you got really lucky and your limbs are matched, chances are your bow is in the exact situation you described as being concerned with and avoiding at all costs.

On the adjust nock/rest issue, I don't think it will matter much either way, I can't imagine having to make big moves...

Stryker777

Im no pro but I set my nock based off my rest height and the rest is always over the berger hole. When tuning I compensate the nock and then test again. Adjust the nock again if needed. Eventually it will balance out. Like I said, Im not a pro. Just did what I thought was logical, not based off others experience wich is a much better thing to do.
Stryker777

Arthur P

In theory, yes, if you set the nockset with tiller w-a-y outta whack instead of zeroing it first. Realistically though, when I've zeroed my tiller and adjusted the nockset for good arrow flight FIRST, before going on to tiller tuning, I've never had to move the nockset enough to really mess with the final tiller adjustment.

I'm sure I could twiddle with tiller and nockset, one after the other, ad infinitum, without ever getting them exactly 'perfect,' but why waste the time and effort when the bow is shooting better than I can after a couple of simple adjustments?