I looked at Byron Ferguson's video on Tuning for Extreme Acuracy. After watching him paper tune I decided I better paper tune to see what my arrows are doing. This morning I built a tuning stand and shot a couple of arrows. This is what they looked like. To me it looks ok, but I would really appreciate it if someone knowledgeable would advise me if I need to do anything or if this arrow flight is ok. Thanks.
Help with paper tuning
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What was your distance? If 8 yds then your feathers could have corrected a problem. If 2 yds, then I would say it looks real good. You can strip the fletching off one and shoot it but I have found that on short bows, I can get a perfect bullet hole unfletched but not get good clearence with fletching. So.. point is, that is not needed. Another good system is shooting your bare shaft groups and comparing to fletched shaft groups and adjusting according to differences. But if your shooting about 2 to 3 yards and getting no tear as in the pics, your good, better than good. Better than most shooters. You may wish to try a yard different just to make sure that your good tear pattern is not the result of the arrow in just the right position as it moves side to side, giving a false perfect tear
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What distance from the target were you shooting? Paper tuning can be tricky with a recurve due to paradox. A few steps forward or backward can show different results. Also I see you are shooting feathers/vanes and they can hide a poor tune. I paper tune with bare shafts.
I did what Byron said to do in his video. It was approx. 10 yards. According to Byron, if the arrow is properly tuned to the bow, the arrow should have straightened out by 10 yards. He shows the paradox and its elimination at 10 yards in slow motion on the video. It seems to me, as a newbie, that I should check it again at farther distances to see that it is still flying straight. At closer distances I don't see how I wouldn't see a right or left tear as the arrow is straightening out. Anyway, Thanks for the advice. I still have a lot to learn.
No, I don't, 10, yes, recovering, unless bad out of tune
I don't agree here with shooting 10 yards fletched. Paper tuning is for fine tuning. It would have to be bad out of tune for the fletching not to have already corrected a percent of the potential issue. Point is, you would not get a true picture of what is going on, the whole point of paper tuning. I say much closer
His method [10 feet] would probably be OK but not at all a means to fine tune, being that your fletching has already corrected a percent of what a paper tune reveals
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This is a tough one in that you can't really argue argue with Ferguson's results. But really many folks here (but by no means all) get our best results with bareshaft tuning as outlined here:
http://veraxservice.net/arch/tuning.htm
You see, paper tuning is only a snapshot of what the arrow is doing at one specific distant at one tiny instant of time. You can shoot a left tear at a certain distance, back up a few feet, shoot a bullet hole, then back up a few more feet and get right tear. Which indication do you believe?
But back to Ferguson, he is amazing, but keep this in mind, for his trick shooting he shoots one make and model of arrow at one specific length, with one specific point weight, out of one specific bow, while most of his high accuracy trick shots are set up to take place at one very specific, precise distance, exactly 12 yards. What he needs IS that snapshot in space and time. Nothing else matters.
For most of us here though, hunting, shooting 3D, and Field, although we may not shoot to Ferguson's crazy level of precision, we do need a significantly larger range of proper state of tune. Bare shaft tuning can provide that, for ANY distance you care to take it to. I myself take it out to 40 yards, and I know that if I have bare shafts grouping with fletched at that distance then I KNOW that I am achieving a decent state of tune without having to count on huge fletching to cover up a poor state of tune.
And honestly I only stop at 40 because its all I have available here at home. Attempting real tuning out in the field is a PITA. That and drag on the fletched arrows starts pulling them down out of grouping with the bare shafts.
http://veraxservice.net/arch/tuning.htm
You see, paper tuning is only a snapshot of what the arrow is doing at one specific distant at one tiny instant of time. You can shoot a left tear at a certain distance, back up a few feet, shoot a bullet hole, then back up a few more feet and get right tear. Which indication do you believe?
But back to Ferguson, he is amazing, but keep this in mind, for his trick shooting he shoots one make and model of arrow at one specific length, with one specific point weight, out of one specific bow, while most of his high accuracy trick shots are set up to take place at one very specific, precise distance, exactly 12 yards. What he needs IS that snapshot in space and time. Nothing else matters.
For most of us here though, hunting, shooting 3D, and Field, although we may not shoot to Ferguson's crazy level of precision, we do need a significantly larger range of proper state of tune. Bare shaft tuning can provide that, for ANY distance you care to take it to. I myself take it out to 40 yards, and I know that if I have bare shafts grouping with fletched at that distance then I KNOW that I am achieving a decent state of tune without having to count on huge fletching to cover up a poor state of tune.
And honestly I only stop at 40 because its all I have available here at home. Attempting real tuning out in the field is a PITA. That and drag on the fletched arrows starts pulling them down out of grouping with the bare shafts.
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