Hi I have a question about shooting bare shafts.
The Bow I'm shooting is 56# @30.5 draw and the target is about 30m

When Shooting a 400 carbon  That's 32" long  and it flys far right (like a foot) with 200 up front, But when I put 300 up front it comes back to center.  What's happening there?

Then when I shoot a 340  31.5 " long  with 275 up front it seams to shoot center good

Any thoughts about what going on thanks

Are you right or left handed?

Right hand

How many times have you experienced this? More then 20? Maybe if this is a consistent arrow impact you could be having a false weak spine, kinda like if your knocking point on the string is too low sometime it will shot nock high.

Are both shafts the same diameter and similar weight?

100 grains is a big change while bareshaft tuning. Especially if it's already weak; and I'm surprised you haven't broken or bent a shaft (that may actually be the problem, too).

HOWEVER: 100 grains difference in the wrong direction on a severely weak FLETCHED SHAFT will result in dramatic fishtails. So I would expect a bare shaft under these conditions to be flying like a squirrel in a spruce tree full of martins.


Maybe you could fletch a couple shafts and tune them by eye until they are close and then give bareshafting a go? My suspicion is that afterwards you will find a +/- 25 grain weight change will result in the expected left/right variations we archers are familiar with.

Quote from: Silent footed on July 17, 2020, 09:49:56 AM
100 grains is a big change while bareshaft tuning. Especially if it's already weak; and I'm surprised you haven't broken or bent a shaft (that may actually be the problem, too).

HOWEVER: 100 grains difference in the wrong direction on a severely weak FLETCHED SHAFT will result in dramatic fishtails. So I would expect a bare shaft under these conditions to be flying like a squirrel in a spruce tree full of martins.


Maybe you could fletch a couple shafts and tune them by eye until they are close and then give bareshafting a go? My suspicion is that afterwards you will find a +/- 25 grain weight change will result in the expected left/right variations we archers are familiar with.

So I would expect a bare shaft under these conditions to be flying like a squirrel in a spruce tree full of martins. 

I would suspect that a full length 400 spine arrow with 200-300 grains up front out of a 56# bow drawn to 30.5 would be 3 to 4 feet to the right (weak) unless you had the striker plate built way out.. Some times in tuning it helps to try and make the "textbook" exact opposite thing happen to confirm that you don't have a mystery issue. Kind of like the idea of starting your string nocking point high so you know it's high and not a false reading...

Try putting a 85 or 100 grain point on it and see if you get a stiff reading   

Yea I have nocking point up at 1/2 and both arrows are The Same diameter, the bow is a buffalo by b.j. I asked my bow maker  he thought a arrow range of a full length 400 250 upfront
It could  just be me , that distance Seams to really shows Any flaws in form/release with a bare shaft.

Quote from: Possum2546 on July 17, 2020, 12:07:57 PM

Quote from: Silent footed on July 17, 2020, 09:49:56 AM
100 grains is a big change while bareshaft tuning. Especially if it's already weak; and I'm surprised you haven't broken or bent a shaft (that may actually be the problem, too).

HOWEVER: 100 grains difference in the wrong direction on a severely weak FLETCHED SHAFT will result in dramatic fishtails. So I would expect a bare shaft under these conditions to be flying like a squirrel in a spruce tree full of martins.


Maybe you could fletch a couple shafts and tune them by eye until they are close and then give bareshafting a go? My suspicion is that afterwards you will find a +/- 25 grain weight change will result in the expected left/right variations we archers are familiar with.

So I would expect a bare shaft under these conditions to be flying like a squirrel in a spruce tree full of martins. 

Yep: squirrelly.   

The times I've bare shafted fox, I began at 5 or 6 yards and tuned, and then was able to move back a bit, and fine tuned, and just gradually extended my range while tuning until I was out to 25 or so yards with decent flight. I did learn enough to know that I prefer to rough-tune a fletched arrow and proceed afterwards and strip off the feathers to do the more sensitive bare shaft test. In mind, bare shaft testing is just too sensitive to use before any initial tuning.

There are a lot of bare shaft tuners on here who will chime in sooner or later though. I'm sure they'll tell you everything you need to know about it.

To me, I Think  the 340 Spine arrow is the one I'm gonna work around
I just feel that arrow combo  is getting on the heavy side tho. The arrow comes in at 623-630   and probably be around 19% foc.   I was hopping to stay 530 range.