Modified bow... problem!

[pianoboat]

Howdy folks... my family is suddenly getting into archery, especially my 13 year-old. I'm thinking about building some bows, but to quickly get us another useable bow, I took a crummy kid bow with flat fiberglass limbs and a (bent!) plastic riser, and I made a nice solid wood riser. Looks great, feels great, but when you shoot it (right handed), the arrows land pretty severely to the right of the target. I'd like to understand what's going on here before I start building bows from scratch! Thanks for any help! Steve

[OZ in MT]

Is the string, when strung, tracking down the center of the limbs or to the left, Steve? If not, your arrows are probably way overspined and your riser is not cut to center. If it's the latter, just cut the riser shelf to the center of the bow if you have enough wood to work with, or get some really light kid arrows and try them.

[pianoboat]

Oz- Thanks for replying... when I sight the string on the center of the risers, the string is hiding the side of the riser from view. I suppose the string should center about one half of an arrow diameter from the riser, so I'll try cutting that back a bit. It seems counterintuitive to me that the arrows would tend to fly to the right from this right-handed bow. I'll give it a shot. Thanks again- Steve

[OZ in MT]

Yes, it should seem counterintuitive, Steve. If I'm right and the arrows are much too stiff, I think they are going right and therefore showing weak because you're getting some riser slap which pushes the back of the arrow outward as it leaves the bow. Getting cut more to center will generally make the bow more tuneable to a variety of arrows, and of course if the arrows you're shooting now are too stiff it may also make them shootable in your modified rig. Either way your bow will end up much more shootable than when the arrow lines up way out to the side.

[pianoboat]

Oz... Thank you for the explanation! The riser slap scenario certainly makes sense. I appreciate the help. Steve