Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting Bow Tuning-How many here actually tune their bows

I am a relative newbie to archery. However, I think that tuning has taken two divergent pathways. Maybe I am just so inexperienced that I don't know the difference but I have had to spend some time paper tuning and walkback tuning my Hoyt Vector Turbo.

My Elite Answer and my Quest Primal took little to get extremely accurate out to about 50 yards. Both have binary cams and are not split yoked like the Hoyt. I used the same set up of SpotHog 7 Deadly pins, 8 inch Stokerized Stab with saturn weight and QAD HDX fallaway rest.

My Hoyt is getting where I want it to be but it took more work. It has the same SH 7 deadly pin sight as the other two but I went with a TT extreme Pro fallaway rest.

I tend to have two types of arrows. Practice arrows that are Gold Tip Kinetics and then hunting arrows that are CE Maximas. Both group the same.

I don't shoot competitively but several of the guys that I shoot the 3D course do and they do quite well. I am not practiced enough to attempt to shoot animals farther than 40 yards. I just need to keep shooting.

Sincerely,
Thomas

That is pretty much what I did. I bought 1 dozen, cut the first all off the front end, cut the second off the back end, then cut the third 50/50 split. Played with those for a couple weeks. Then figured out that about 60 rear/40 front was what I was looking for. Played with that for a few days then wanted even less then 40 off the front. Last try was the charm at 75 rear/25 front. Is it 100% where it should be? I don't know but I am very happy were it ended up so that is the magic number for me. So I got 7 arrows out of that dozen.

I went thru I don't know how many knocks and vanes weighting them to get the closest dozen I could. Not many people are willing to go thru all that trouble. But if tatget archery is your cup of tea these are the things you just do.

An arrow that hits the target STRAIGHT at all distances is as good as it's gonna get for hunting purposes. It doesn't matter how accurate an arrow is if it's not going straight.

I run my setup thru OT2. Gives me several choices. Then set up my arrows and start tuning. Sometimes I do have to tinker with DW to get it just right. I wont run an arrow that bare shafts and fletched shafts wont group together. Usually shoot both out to 20 or 30yds. Then tweak fletched groups at 60.

Hoyts can be tricky till you get the cams synched right. Then tweaking yokes or rest or nocking point to bring it all together

Wow...... I'm a complete redneck bow hunter

I have mine shoot bullet holes in paper with fetching

Then I adjust my sights and go kill stuff. Decent equipment, good shooting form, tons of practice..... And reasonable bow hunting range.... Done!

I'm not the guy that needs to shoot 1" group at 50 yards. But my redneck methods will get me 4-6" groups at 40-50 yards in my pasture shooting a glendel buck target.

My longest shot at big game I'm my life was 38 yards at a mountain lion that I killed with that shot, second longest was the same distance at a cow elk which also died. 99% of the remaining shots which have taken game have been under 25 yards.

I like bow hunting for the "bow hunting" not for the long range accuracy skills. I don't think it's complicated to have hunting functional accuracy out to 35 yards. The massive science of this bow tuning is probably more a competitive or target level arrangement. But hey that's just my opinion.

Today's bows, arrows, and even an average pro shop should have just about anyone with desire shooting big game hunting groups in no time.

I like em close too. But sometimes they dont read the script. Plus i shoot 3d on occasion. Same bow, same sights, same arrows i use to hunt. I dont want my equipment "good enough". I want it right. And that means completely tuned. Because that "tuning" is not just for the bow. It requires the shooter to do things right as well. To each his own but why be satisfied with 6" groups when with a little extra time and effort those groups can become 2" groups? That kind of stuff builds confidence not only in ones equipment but in ones ability. And with most, that confidence goes a long way

I shoot recurves and if what Stu's Calculator and I decide we want to shoot, shoots good, I shoot it. May bare shaft one or two without the paper just to make sure.

Yup...as long as my arrow flys straight with a broadhead, I'm good. An arrow hitting game sideways is bad news.

Problem for some is shooting straight when it matters...

I call elk for folks just to keep in the game here in Az between the years waiting to draw my few tags. Often for guides that draw, as all their buddies are making money guiding during the same time.

One morning we went into a hotspot I found preseason, three fingers, three canyons and three herds. In the mornings before the herds split up to the bedding areas, all the herd and satellite bulls would tear that spot up.

Before light two of the herd bulls were fighting out in the seneca. We snuck around to a ridge and my buddy snuck over through some jack pines as I stayed under cow calling.

The bulls were screaming and fighting, I'm waiting for them to shutup when my buddy shoots one... then he sneaks back... the bulls are still going at it.

I raise my hands like... what? he shows me his bow, and there's no arrows left. He shot every one and missed every time.

We had to drive 80 miles to his sister's for his spare dozen...

He could sure hit a target's bullseye at 60 yds though... every time.

Kent

this is the answer IMHO here. If I were to be serious about bowhunting anymore I'd go back and tune for sure.

I got bored with bowhunting and only now do it at times, just shoot enough to make sure I'm good at 15 yards and limit my shots to that.

But really, in anything I want to do, I'd prefer to do it the best I can. I used to shoot to 80 yards as a kid all the time in the late 70s early 80s. We tuned the best we could and was amazing what you could shoot group wise at that distance.

Of course when the deer dodge the arrow at 20 yards accuracy at 80 doesn't help. But it sure makes a 15 yard shot a gimme every last time.

Though IMHO knowing how and when to draw teh bow when deer etc.... are 45 feet or less away, is much more important than anything else, assuming as noted, arrows are not hitting sideways.

That seems to be a southern thing.

Nope any deer with pressure on them become jumpy.

I can take you to a spot where you can damn near light off fireworks and the deer don't bat an eye. Then take you 20 miles from there and if you close your car door they are long gone.

That's actually good to hear, it gets frustrating sometimes, trying to explain why you can't kill deer around here wearing a pink tutu and shooting a whisker biscuit.

Why would anyone in their right mind and any self respect at all,... risk getting seen hunting with a whisker biscuit?

I love whisker biscuits...unfortunately our deer do too.

Mule deer always amazed me. Granted we never killed anything big with a bow, maybe a 140 ish buck. But 40 yards give or take was not an uncommon shot, and IF they'd seen something or you, they'd watch the arrow coming. Until it hit them or missed.

Then you have a 15 yard deer here capable of totally ducking/dodging out of the way of a decently fast setup... not even cutting a hair at times.

15 yards and in is my shot limit here in TX. Beyond that its a total gamble for me and as such I owe the animals more respect. Pigs are another story.

But as noted a tuned bow, from the late 70s, capable of hitting something the size of a softball or beer can pretty consistently out to about 80 yards, back then it amazed folks more than it would now. And think about how much better the bows, arrows, rests etc.. are.. 100 yards should easily hit a pie plate or better I'd think.

Some people can do it, but past 50 yards I'm getting out the metal detector!

Mule deer almost always bolt when spooked, then stop to look back... coues deer WT take off when they decide it's time and don't quit.

In the open Az desert most opportunities are longish but the mule deer will stand there curious. In the 80s and 90s I killed some at long distance and some at short... now that I'm in my 50s my range has shrunk... 40 is my real max.

It's about shooting vertical and ranging... another indicator of a tuned bow/arrow/head combo is keeping all shots on a vertical line, as the vitals are stacked vertical.

Horizontal stringing wounds and is an indicator of tuning issues. It's the biggest issue I see with hunters I take out.

Walkback tune on a hanging string, once I get to a 5 or 6 inch horizontal spread, that's my untimate max... sometimes it's 50, other times it's 60... so 40s my hunting max.

Getting old, a few floaters in my right eye, not as steady on my hold... Killing stuff doesn't seem as important anymore, animals can walk.

Kent

Funny how people in different areas of the country view gear. I wouldn't shoot anything BUT a Whisker Biscuit. I send my bows to Wes Van Horn for a super tune and strings/cables. From there it's no problem to sight in and shoot.