Weak Arrows with field tips --- point of impact

[DanielB89]

I am curious to know what you guys think on this subject.  I am outside shooting my bow and almost all of my arrows are impacting left of where I am trying to hit.  I tried several different spined arrows with a variety of different tip weights, etc.  It seemed like the lighter the spine the farther they impacted to the left(RH shooter).

This is backwards of what I always thought.  Curious to see what you guys have found through your experience. 

[BWallace10327]

I am interested to know as well.  My guess would be a weak spine arrow would always impact to the right with nock left for a right handed shooter. 

[DanielB89]

I am interested to know as well.  My guess would be a weak spine arrow would always impact to the right with nock left for a right handed shooter.

I agree 100% with a broadhead tipped arrow, but these are field tips. 

My logic(may be wrong) with all this.  With a field tip the arrow's steerage is still on the back of the arrow, so when the tail end of he  arrow kicks out to the left, wouldn't the feathers pull the arrow left? 

and vise versa, when you shoot an arrow with a broadhead that is too weak, when you shoot the arrows nock end kicks out left, the broadhead steers the arrow to the right, right? 


I am just trying to make sense of this shooting.  lol

[BWallace10327]

That beats me.  A weak bare shaft seems to impact right nock left, but what you say about the fletching makes sense to me.  I think there is a segment on one of the Masters of Barebow with David Soza talking about this.  I'll try and find it. 

[Trumpkin the Dwarf]

Not to be an arse, but it sounds like you are either collapsing at the shot (right handed shooter?) or your bow arm is kicking out left. I have this issue quite often.

[Orion]

If you're bare shafting and your arrows are flying to the left, and you're a righty, they're too stiff, regardless of whether you have field points or broadheads on.  If you're shooting fletched shafts, they should hit where you're aiming unless they're way off in spine.

Or, ..... you have less than good form and you're plucking and/or moving your bow arm to the left at the shot.

[Friend]

Numerous factors could rendering your results.
A bare shaft will mark right when to weak provided the shot execution is both proper and consistent and the gull shaft specs are within reason for the now setup.

Please provide the bow specs, your draw and gull arrow specs.

It is not always easy to remedy a tuning issue even when  personally present
I

[jonsimoneau]

Probably an issue of collapsing just before the release or plucking the string. However, it could be an issue of the arrow bouncing off the side plate as well.

[Sam McMichael]

My speculation is that it is very likely a form issue. It seems that changes in spine have not made significant a difference, and that is what leads me to think form is the cause of most of the problem.

[M60gunner]

I can do the same thing. First I think I have an arrow/form issue. Then I start peeking which causes me to torque the bow. Go back to square one. Slow down you thought/ shot process. That helps me. If nothing else it will let you know if it's you or the equipment.

[pavan]

I can give two examples, one of me and one of a friend that I shoot with.   When draw and check my draw length, I take a look at the arrow.  The off eye sees the arrow better than the inline eye and that partially takes over the arrow alignment to the the target and my arrow shoots off to that side.   When my friend is trying to see how good his arrows are flying, he gets the same effect with the addition of looking like he is blocking his release energy, which will push the arrows left.  The vertical line at the target can help, if you cant the bow that system does not work quite as well, but it can still give you a clue if it is caused by the equipment or yourself. 

[McDave]

I've found, and others I have talked with have found, that the POI of a fletched arrow varies unpredictably with spine.  One would think that if an arrow is impacting left, weakening the spine should move the POI to the right, because that is what happens with a bare shaft. With a bare shaft, weak spine causes nock left causes POI to the right.  The whole shaft moves to the left of the bow at first, but since the bare shaft is pointed toward the right of the target, that's where it ends up. However, the feathers introduce another variable into the equation, because they correct the flight of the arrow.  So as the fletched arrow moves downrange, the feathers correct the flight path.  Depending on how effective the feathers are at correcting the flight path, a weak fletched arrow that starts out nock left (and with the whole arrow deflected to the left of the bow) might end up impacting left, center, or right of the target.  And changing to an even weaker shaft might result in a POI to the left, center, or right of the first arrow.

[katman]

I can vary point of impact of fletched shafts depending on where the grip pressure point is. To much on the right side of center, right hander, arrow will hit more left, just a thought. So torquing the riser at release.

[MnFn]

I think form issues as well.  Years ago I thought I had too weakly spined arrows. All my arrows were shooting to the right. I moved up in spine to 75/80 or 70/75 (I can't recall now) before they hit where I was looking.

I shot some over the winter and whatever I did in practice made a huge difference. When I took the same bow outside in the spring/summer,  I could clearly see my arrows drifting left at longer ranges.

I gradually reduced spine and ended up shooting 52/54 spined . Arrows were 28.75 long and my draw length was 27" long.  Arrows (Elite sitka spruce) and they flew really nicely with 160 grn heads (target and broadhead) out of a 53 lb Blacktail VL

[MnFn]

error while riding in car

[trad_bowhunter1965]

A lot of great information here. How tight are your nock on you bowstring? this can change the spine of the arrow. I shoot a Yellowstone Half Breed bow 46@27.5 my arrow are Surewood 60/65 29"with a 145gr point my bare shaft group with my broadheads and field point. I can change my string to a little heavier serving and shoot 50/55 Surewood shafts and get the same result.   

[Bldtrailer]

If the shaft is to weak you may be getting  a false stiff (impact to the left) the arrow hitting riser and not cleanly clearing, to much archer paradox (spray riser with powder, foot spray powder) and see if you clearing or not.

[slowbowjoe]

"Probably an issue of collapsing just before the release or plucking the string. However, it could be an issue of the arrow bouncing off the side plate as well."
"Or, ..... you have less than good form and you're plucking and/or moving your bow arm to the left at the shot."

For me, it's often this sort of thing, or my visual alignment. Assuming I'm correctly spined.