Tuning and Shooting Progress

[Cedarsavage]

I’ve been consistent on shooting stickbow only this year. I think I bowhunted 12/28 with my compound and it hasn’t been out of the case since. Anyway starting to make some headway. I had been shooting 400’s with 160 up front. I thought I had good flight just going off feathered shaft flight, but when I took the feathers off they dang near turned sideways. Amazing how much those 5” feathers hid problems. I spent some time tweaking my setup and playing around. It’s a good rabbit hole to go down, at one point I moved my nock so high I was getting a nock low on the paper tune. lol For now I feel like I have it somewhat dialed. My groups are solid, I think the biggest thing I need to work on is back tension and a better release, so I don’t get better at bad habits. I'm starting to get vested in trad enough that I'm not worried if one will step out in compound range. I put together a video on my process and showed some before and after flight if you’re interested I’ll embed the link. Thanks to all the guys that have answered my questions on here. I’m sure I’ll have more. Video here.

 

[oldgoat]

Your foc is high enough that you could get away with four 2" feathers I bet, will give you better flight in cross winds. That's one of the biggest benefits of high FOC in my opinion, higher it is, the longer the lever arms the feathers have to act on giving them more control meaning you need and want less feather! I use four 2.5" because I have a feather chopper that size, if I could find a 2" court I probably would buy it!

 

[Cedarsavage]

Your foc is high enough that you could get away with four 2" feathers I bet, will give you better flight in cross winds. That's one of the biggest benefits of high FOC in my opinion, higher it is, the longer the lever arms the feathers have to act on giving them more control meaning you need and want less feather! I use four 2.5" because I have a feather chopper that size, if I could find a 2" court I probably would buy it!

Thanks. I'll give it a try. I had these shafts from before, I was gonna keep shooting them awhile then buy a new dozen for hunting. So I still have some time to play with stuff like that. I've been doing the ashby cut with scissors, but I have a hard time getting them perfect. Where did you get the 2.5 chopper?

 

[oldgoat]

Pretty sure it's 3rivers initially, but I bought it from rmsgear, think I looked and they didn't have them anymore, probably could get other style and chop back end off, just haven't researched it enough or buy razors.

 

[sneaky]

I've got a bunch of Rayzr feathers if you want to go down that rabbit hole

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

[Cedarsavage]

Pretty sure it's 3rivers initially, but I bought it from rmsgear, think I looked and they didn't have them anymore, probably could get other style and chop back end off, just haven't researched it enough or buy razors.

I was gonna ask if 2" would make any difference then I realized I shot them with no feathers. lol still stuck in that frame of mind. Next time I tear some feathers off I'll refletch with 2" and try my broadheads. I'm assuming that's where you would see a difference. I haven't tried a bareshaft with a broadhead. I bet the shorter feather would be easier to cut straight. I made a template, and trace on the feather with a sharpie, then cut with some kitchen scissors. About 2" into the cut I have to reopen the scissors and cut again, so I never get it perfectly lined back up. It doesn't look great but it seems to fly as good as I'm capable.

 

[Cedarsavage]

I've got a bunch of Rayzr feathers if you want to go down that rabbit hole

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

Thanks. I might get ahold of you. I think I'll try a test with broadheads first. I've only shot broadheads with the 3" so idk how a shorter feather would affect flight. Can't remember if I said it in the video but I'm shooting grizzly's so I'd think the small profile wouldn't be overly affected by fletching or lack thereof. I guess there's only one way to find out. I'll have to play around with it and see. I was planning on having one zwickey eskimo in the quiver in case I need a followup on a liver or gut hit, so I probably ought to test both.

 

[oldgoat]

Don't try broadheads with a bare shaft, asking for problems, I've only seen one guy that did it on video and he had north of 30 percent foc I think. I think if you want to chop those feathers down, I'd use a razor blade on a soft surface like pine or maybe cardboard and actually press straight down and chop instead of slice and make whole cut at once.

 

[Cedarsavage]

Don't try broadheads with a bare shaft, asking for problems, I've only seen one guy that did it on video and he had north of 30 percent foc I think. I think if you want to chop those feathers down, I'd use a razor blade on a soft surface like pine or maybe cardboard and actually press straight down and chop instead of slice and make whole cut at once.

That's a good idea, I bet that would make a cleaner cut.

 

[North Idaho Stickbow]

I use a 4-fletch 2” feather on all my arrows. I second what was said about high FOC making things a lot easier too, especially with broadheads. My arrows fly pretty well bareshaft though. I have experimented with really high FOC too, and that didn’t go well at all, so I think there’s a fine line.

If nothing else, the 2” feathers don’t hold all the water bigger fletchings do, which is a big deal around here.