Determining hunting arrow cut length

[The big greasy]

Does everyone cut your arrows so when shooting a fixed blade broadhead, does it stick past the riser at full draw or does your broad head come in past the riser closer to your rest? What the right way or best way? Thanks.

 

[Kularrow]

I do one inch minus my draw length as a rule of thumb. If you’re chasing FOC I’d cut them as short as possible.

 

[Jimbob]

Mine come into the riser.

I cut my arrows to get the right spine not really worried about where they end up.

 

[OR Archer]

I cut mine right to the front of the riser. If I was using a mechanical I wouldn’t worry about coming inside the riser a bit.

 

[MattB]

With today's full capture rests, the risk of old of having a shorter arrow are no longer a concern.

 

[Billy Goat]

No right or wrong way so long as it tunes.

Some don't feel comfortable having their fixed heads inside their riser. I generally have a hunting arrow cut to around the Berger hole, seems for me having the broadhead close to my grip is most forgiving, meaning not too far forward, bit not too far back either.

 

[CB4]

What BillyGoat said. Cut it to where it tunes. Start longer and cut it down as needed.

 

[Ucsdryder]

Mine is 1” past the riser. If the drop away fails and that rest falls I’ll keep my finger if it happens to be in the way.

 

[5MilesBack]

I have always cut mine just in front of the rest, and they're still 30" CTC.

 

[The big greasy]

Ok, I have no access to a cutter, so I will just have to pick a length and get them cut at factory. My ibo is 315, 70 lb draw weight, and my draw length is 29.5. Looking at the goldtip pro hunter.

 

[Billy Goat]

Ok, I have no access to a cutter, so I will just have to pick a length and get them cut at factory. My ibo is 315, 70 lb draw weight, and my draw length is 29.5. Looking at the goldtip pro hunter.

Draw length is throat of the grip plus 1 3/4". So assuming your draw length is correct (many run longer than spec's) you can use that to determine an arrow length.

 

[The big greasy]

Ok someone school me here. How does one tune by starting arrow long and cutting down and what to look for. Setting up my qad rest from scratch. Set it up for center? Then what. How does one distinguish between arrow length and rest adustment. These arrows are coming fletched. Should I strip the fletching off of one, then bare shaft tune?

 

[5MilesBack]

Should I strip the fletching off of one, then bare shaft tune?

No sense in doing that, you can just go straight to BH tuning.

 

[Billy Goat]

Ok someone school me here. How does one tune by starting arrow long and cutting down and what to look for. Setting up my qad rest from scratch. Set it up for center? Then what. How does one distinguish between arrow length and rest adustment. These arrows are coming fletched. Should I strip the fletching off of one, then bare shaft tune?

Set your rest to centershot.

The spine changes with length. The shorter the arrow, the stiffer the arrow reacts.

How to tune? Well I use bareshafts, but as long as you are on the stiff side it's probably all you need to worry about with a centershot compound. If you don't have a saw to cut down the arrows you can alter your draw weight or point weight to stiffen or weaken the arrow reaction. More draw weight, more point weight weakens the arrow, less of one or both will stiffen. I find it easiest to use two bareshafts with electric tape where vanes would be to get weight on the arrow correctly, and then one maybe two fletched arrows. Shoot them at the same spot and tune til you get them to same poi. I prefer to not make rest adjustments for left/right impact at this point. I'll use yoke adjustments or shim the cams to get left/right. If I can't clean it up with that it's in the spine of the shaft usually, but some bows can be very grip sensitive so there's that too. High/low, which is the first adjustment you should try to correct, I'll either use the rest or nock point depending on the bow. Some bows should have the arrow running center of the Berger, some (Mathews) should have the nock point centered between the axles. On a centered in between the axles bow I set nock point and leave it, make up/down adjustments with the rest. On a Berger height bow I leave the rest alone and adjust the nock height. Once I get bareshafts dialed in at 20-30 yards I'll use micro-adjustments on the rest to dial in broadheads to field points at 60-75 yards.


You can start out just broadhead tuning. Don't need to use bareshafts, they just save you money on broadhead targets. Start close with your broadheads (20 yards), shoot two broadhead arrows followed by a field point or two. Do it repeatedly if necessary to get a consistent impact area. You can use a piece of paper to label your arrow impacts and pull each arrow after each shot if busting them up is going to be a problem.


If I can't get broadheads to come together with my field points increasing the spine usually fixes it. That's how I know I have too weak a spine for my hunting arrows. Hopefully someone has a better method but I haven't found the charts to be but so helpful, they will usually set you up with a weak arrow. Fine for target archery, for the best broadhead flight you want a stiffer spine.

 

[The big greasy]

Yeah I tried shooting 340s. Always shot bare shaft nock to the right, no matter anything.

 

[Billy Goat]

Yeah I tried shooting 340s. Always shot bare shaft nock to the right, no matter anything.

What was the impact? If it's impacting same spot I don't worry so much about which way the nock end of the arrow is facing, it's definitely better to have it perfectly straight in, but I can rarely get that. I blame it on my fat cheeks creating too much pressure on the string. Bareshafts are extremely sensitive.

 

[The big greasy]

The bare shafts were always 8 inches right of my field points and broadheads. My spine was maxed out with the 340s. You fat cheeks are doing something right by the looks of your pic!!!! Dream bull!!

 

[Billy Goat]

The bare shafts were always 8 inches right of my field points and broadheads. My spine was maxed out with the 340s. You fat cheeks are doing something right by the looks of your pic!!!! Dream bull!!

I'm a bit heavier than I use to be.

A right impact typically means weak spine, I always back the limb bolts off to see if that fixes it. You can use lighter points also. However 25 grains is maybe 2-3# reaction. So if using 100 grain points to start with it's easier to drop 5 pounds of draw weight than to loose 50 grains of tip weight.

Right impacts can still be a tuning issue other than spine reaction. Can be grip related as well. I like to try to confirm that a change in dynamic spine will fix it before I commit to it. Can't add arrow length back.

 

[The big greasy]

Yeah I'm going to order my arrows full length then trim one with a Drexel until I get the length I want, then hunt down someone with a saw.

 

[Billy Goat]

You can probably go heavier spine and cut to a length you want. If going gold tip you can use fac weights to increase weight on the front if you needed.

I rarely see a stiff spine issue with a compound.


Several on here have made an arrow saw with a dremel. Looks pretty easy. @5MilesBack is one of them. Can also make a nice device for squaring the ends. I just lucked into a great arrow saw for $25 at one point