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Joined: Oct 2012
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I'm an admitted rookie in the realm of traditional archery. So be gentle with me here.

How do you know if you have the right spine and point combo? What am I supposed to be looking for?
I'm shooting a Bob Lee takedown recurve, 47# @ 28". I've a 27 1/4" draw. Shooting Beman Centershot 500 spines exactly at 29" long.

Here's what I know:
1. When using a 150 gr point+insert, I see hardly any flex in the arrow at all. Coming off the bow it just looks like a dart. I shoot cock feather out, and the lower hen feateher is rubbing on the side plate enough it is wearing out the feather and leaveing "dust" on the bottom of the side plate.
2. When using a 200 gr point+insert, that arrow is flopping around pretty good as it comes off the bow. To me it looks like a LOT and it shows in the I-phone slo-mo video pretty well.
3. When using a 175 gr point+insert, it's kind of in between. Obviously.

How do you KNOW if you have the correct spine in the arrow/point/insert/feathers/nock combo? What do you look for?

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When bareshafting for a right hand person. A weak shaft will fly left and a too stiff spine will fly in a curve to the right.

HOWEVER
A spine way out of range for the bow may bounce off a riser shelf or side giving a false reading. Because of this whenever doing bareshaft tuning check to make sure you aren't getting a false reading by adding and lowering point weight.A true reading will show weaker as more weight is added or stiffer as more is removed. If 50 to 75 grains of weight shows no change or if it looks like more weight makes the arrow stiffer then you know you have a false reading caused from something else.

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Thanks all. Looks I for work to do, and since I already cut a doz arrows maybe some arrows to buy.

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Note: If you have room to spare on your arrow length you can shorten your arrows a bit more 1/4" at a time to effectively increase your ability to shoot a heavier point. Otherwise it seems you are well on your way to seeing a need for a heavier spine arrow for the heavier tip weight.

Welcome to archery!


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50 gr weight and half inch shaft length increments.
Doubt most folks shooting fingers and trad good enough to see smaller adjustments being repeatable in effect.

Really like the Gold tip weight system

But remember, you stack enough and you gobble shaft flex length, hit a wall in adjustment.

Solution then is heavier insert.

Reg alum inserts. 100gr brass inserts. And a pile of 50gr weights......should cover tuning needs IMHO

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Fastflite vs Dacron makes a diff.
As does brace height and degree of centershot.
Form and anchor too

I normally get good results without much effort and not have to set things up silly. Just standard tune/ setup and everything is cool.

Do tend to run my recurves on the higher side of brace.
Either near recommended max or maybe even over it.
Just depends on the bow

I let the feel and sound tell me what it likes

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Originally Posted by Gun_Geezer
Thanks all. Looks I for work to do, and since I already cut a doz arrows maybe some arrows to buy.


Yup, my first half doz carbons taught me that back in 2002 LOL

Welcome to the club smile

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My ancient old target did not keep the bare shafts pointing the same repeatably. So, I decided to try a paper tune. Got it set up using rifle target paper, which is kind of stiff. 6ft from tip to tartget.

The Origianl Centershot 500 carbons were far to weak. Even at their shortest (28") and only 150 grains pile weight they showed weak spine with a 1 1/2" gash in the paper.

So I referenced 3Rivers' spine calculater and picked up some Easton Blood Line 400s. Paper tuned with two different front end pile weights (150 gr and 175 gr) on two bare shafts. Worked my way from 31" long in 1/2", then 1/4", and then finally 1/8" cuts down to: 29 3/4" for the 150 gr and 29 1/8" for the 175 gr. Started out with a 3" gash on one of them to just almost bullet holes.

The Bloodline's are very light shafts gr/inch at 7.7 gr/in. So, I get 18% FOC for the 150 gr and 20% FOC for the 175 gr set up. Need to fletch them and see how they fly!



FYI: My wife thinks I've lost it with switching arrows and all thig paper tuning. She may be right. It's hard to tell sometimes.



Last edited by Gun_Geezer; 07/07/20.
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Does the arrow hit where you aim? I prefer arrows to be just a tad weak so that the arrow will fall in a prefect vertical line from where I am aiming. I have done it enough to know about what spine I need so I adjust the horizontal with point weight and rest tweaks. I tend to leave my arrows full length as I like to use the point as an aiming device - gap shooting. A weak arrow will land right of your aim point, a stiff arrow will land to the left for a right handed archer. I personally don't bother with paper tuning a trad bow and have found that when tuned to shoot where I'm aiming the bare shaft will shoot a tad weaker than fletched shafts.


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"Does the arrow hit where you aim?"

I'm shooting mostly at 20-yards now with fingers, no sights, and really just started shooting the recurve about 8-weeks ago. Sooooo.... it's hard to say! I'm using the riser as a reference point for a type of gap shooting (as I've read it anyway) and have moments of brilliance where I nail the bulleys with 3 out of 4 arrows. Then I loose all sanity and pluck a few, move my left arm at the release, and I'm just glad I have a large target! When I do my part they seem to get pretty close, and the arrows seem to be more "forgiving" of my occasional lack of form.

Wifey videoed the arrows in "slo-mo" for me from the side and above (on a ladder). Side shows no porposing no matter which arrow. Top view shows amazing things. Archers paradox is crazy obvious. The new arrows with 175 pile weight have the least amount of fish tailing and are flying straight after just a few yards (maybe 10 to 12 ft) , and really look to be flying well in comparison to prior samples. I don't, have to settle on something and these new ones (Bloodline 400 with 175gr pile) seem to be the best so far.

I need a few more arrow so I can shoot bare shafts for comparison to fletched ones as shown on Glynn's link above. Get on that later today, hopefully.

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With the new Bloodline 400's cut to 29 1/8" and tiped with a 175 gr pile, the bare shaft and fletched are shooting within 2" at 15 yards. About as good as I can do anyway. 3 fletched arrows gave me a few 3" groups, better than than with prior set up. Something is sure better. The FOC is about 19.5% so that likely helps. In any case I'm happy enough and calling it good.

Thanks for the sage wisdom.


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