Author: Greg TubbsCo-Host of the Where to Hunt Podcast and Avid Outdoorsman  How do we get started?
If you truly want to go through this process the right way. It will require some major effort on your part. Starting with your bow being completely in spec. With a compound bow, there’s a few things that need attention. Your bow has got to be in tune! First and foremost. The cam timing must be set perfectly. If one of the cams is rotating around before the other. Your arrow won’t leave the bow properly. This may be happening already and you don’t even know it! Some how, you may be compensating for it with another adjustment in your sight or your rest. Cam lean can also create issues with flight. A good archery shop will be able to go through your rig and get it all back to spec. They may even recommend replacing the string and cables. If they do. This will add another step to the process. New strings on a compound bow require a break-in period. Most require around 200 shots or so to stretch them out. Currently I am dealing with this part of the process. My Mathews, Halon 32 is four seasons old with thousands of shots through it and one derailment of the string. It’s due for replacement before something happens. A trip to the archery shop is needed! After you get through the break-in process. Have your bow set to the draw weight you want to shoot and keep it there! Get your rest centered. If you shoot a drop away rest. Make sure it’s in time along with the cams. This is all necessary for absolutely perfect arrow flight. I know… This seems like an awful lot of effort to go shoot some deer. If you want to have perfect arrow flight. This is a major part of the process. Spring is the time to do this! After your bow is back into spec. It’s time to start tuning the ammunition.
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Author: Greg TubbsCo-Host of the Where to Hunt Podcast and Avid Outdoorsman Archery, The Beginning  Although archery probably dates back to the Stone Age – around 20,000BC – the earliest people known to have regularly used bows and arrows were the Ancient Egyptians, who adopted archery around 3,000BC for hunting and warfare. We’re not writing to talk about primitive hunting, although that stuff is fascinating. We’re going to start from about the last twenty years or so it has been common practice for hunters to shoot lighter weight arrows in order to increase their speed and flatten trajectory. “If it’s fast enough I can beat a deer’s reaction to the string!” That is the thought anyway… Most of my generation Started hunting in the early 90s when carbon arrows came out on the market. They were lighter, faster and stronger than aluminum arrows. There are some inherent traits to lightweight arrows however. Penetration is the biggest issue unless you increase your Front Of Center weight (F.O.C.). The recommended F.O.C. For Whitetail hunting is in the range of 7 - 15%. It’s becoming more common to exceed this into as much as 19%. Is it necessary? This is up to you! I personally would rather have a heavy arrow that flies perfectly straight than one that gets there quick but can’t break through both sides of the animal. Heavy point weight isn’t always the answer to imperfect arrow flight. Arrow spine is also important. If the arrows side walls are too weak. The arrow will flex under the thrust of the string. When it leaves the riser it’s flexing and wobbling. The fletchings can only do so much to correct for this. When the arrow hits the target it flexes more on impact and unloads its energy. This affects its ability to get good penetration. It lost efficiency. A properly spined and weighted arrow will fly perfectly all the way to the point of impact and pass through the animal. Plenty of hunters will argue that a pass through is not needed. I would say I have had better success on recovery of pass through shot deer than the latter. Their are a few other details to discuss when tuning an arrow for perfect flight. We will discuss this in the next article!  |
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