Tuning Driving Me Crazy - PSE EVL 34

[TX_Diver]

Summary - Struggling with tuning so here's a quick summary of what I've done so far with a few pics. Looking for any other suggestions to try!

About a month ago I replaced the strings on my EVL 34 w/ EC cam. 30.5" Draw at 69lbs, 85% letoff, 300 spine axis w/ 100gr point, 50gr HIT, and 10gr collar. 3 fletch AAE max stealth with a wrap and a nockturnal on the back.

Last year I shot the factory strings and it ended up tuning well with the arrow pretty close to parallel with the riser once I shimmed the cams to move them farther left. This year I'm driving myself crazy chasing my tail with it after the string change. There are probably 2-300 shots on the strings now as a data point.

1 - Starting at last years centershot (just inside 13/16") the arrow was not parallel with the riser and I was getting a left tear through paper, as well as broadheads and bareshafts hitting right of a fletched arrow at 20. Bareshafts had a steep tail left entry.

2 - Bringing the arrow parallel with the riser put centershot at .73" and I still had left tears.

3 - Moving the rest up did a little to help the vertical portion of my tear but I still tore left.

4 - Moving the rest back to the left to bring the arrow in line with the string and the center of the riser (the way Dudley sets up the PSEs and many others report having good luck with) still gave me a left tear.

5 - Moving to 13/16" center shot still gave me a left tear.

6 - In an effort to be smarter than my bow I decided that I probably needed to establish a good centershot and then move the nock to adjust where the arrow was pointing so I moved my cable guard in slightly. This actually made a bit of difference and reduced my left tear!

7 - If a little is good then more is better right (lol) so I moved the cable guard in a hair more and went outside.

I took a broadhead (VPA 3 blade, field point, and bareshaft outside and started shooting).

At 20 my bareshaft was about an inch right of a field point with much less of a steep tail left entry, so I moved on to BH tuning and found the BH to be about 3" low and a hair right. I moved the rest up and they were pretty close so I moved back to 30. At 30 I was still within about 3" so I move back to 40. Typically I try to get BH and FP hitting dead on at 50 and find that gets them close enough for anything closer, and even out to a bit past 60.

At 40 I shoot 3 Broadheads and they are all about 6-8" low and 4-6" left. I bump the rest up and shoot one, it hits the right elevation but is about 2" right. I shoot the second one and it's low left again. Visibly poor arrow flight. Thinking I may have pulled the shot (even though it felt good) I go pull em and shoot again. Shooting the low/left arrow again and I'm even further low/left into my table.

On the plus side the heads seem pretty durable. I put vise grips on an old arrow and hammered it out. Still spins true so shout out to VPA.

Anyways, all that to say I feel like I'm chasing my tail here. I'm thinking I need to go back to the draw(ing) board and check my timing as that's the only thing I can think of that may cause that much vertical inconsistency. I don't think I'm getting fletching contact as I should have about 3/16" clearance between vanes and cable guard, but my next thought is to slide the rest a hair right, and also move my cable guard out a bit to gain more clearance to the cables. I have the PBTS system so I could yoke tune also but I get mixed reviews on the effectiveness so I figured I'd start with the easy stuff. I do have a press if I need to yoke tune it.

If anyone is an expert PSE tuner please feel free to throw out some suggestions too.

 

[OR Archer]

The vertical is probably the timing like you suspect. As far as the left issue I would look hard at yourself. If you have done all of what you stated and haven’t seen any change it’s probably something you are doing. Hand position, facial pressure, too long on the draw length etc.

 

[TX_Diver]

The vertical is probably the timing like you suspect. As far as the left issue I would look hard at yourself. If you have done all of what you stated and haven’t seen any change it’s probably something you are doing. Hand position, facial pressure, too long on the draw length etc.

Last year I had a left tear issue that wouldn’t go away til I shimmed the cams. I can’t shim them any farther left though this year.

 

[WI in the west]

Im still young in the tune my own stuff game but i found my grip is a huge factor in my broad heads and bare shafts. I tense my hand muscles up and BH’s will go right consistently and field points hit on. If my hands relaxed theyll hit together consistently. I pounded my head against the wall for a couple weeks moving stuff around until
I figured it out

 

[Yobrevol]

If you are getting inconsistent shots, it could be a few things. Cam Timing, Fletching Contact, nock pinch, nock fitting to tightly to string. Often times it is the shooters form. Facial pressure is one thing people don't always think of.

 

[TX_Diver]

One twist in left yoke and dropping the rest got me pretty close. Need to shoot outside tomorrow. I am getting the occasional bad tear so I’ll pay attention to grip and facial pressure. Guessing rotation of release hand may be the culprit too so I’ll play with my tension release too (currently shooting a nock 2 it)

 

[HuntWyld]

It’s always helped me to focus on one thing at a time through paper and not worry about BH tuning until I get a bullet. IE fix the vertical tear until it is only tearing left then focus on the left tear with rest/shimming/etc. Only do one thing at a time and solve it before moving on otherwise you’ll wind up spinning your wheels chasing things around.

 

[4ester]

I had a similar left tear a couple weeks ago that had me stumped.

Decreased my draw length by 1/2” and adjusted my grip it went away. Sometimes it takes a bit to figure out a new bow (coming from shooting a Prime).


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[Zac]

I wouldn't put a lot of stock into trying to line up your shaft with your riser. Always stick with the manufacturer recommended center shot. Also you may want to try dialing down the poundage and see if that makes any difference, you may be right on the border as far as spine is concerned.

 

[TX_Diver]

I wouldn't put a lot of stock into trying to line up your shaft with your riser. Always stick with the manufacturer recommended center shot. Also you may want to try dialing down the poundage and see if that makes any difference, you may be right on the border as far as spine is concerned.

PSE recommends lining the shaft up with the riser in the booklet that came with my bow. That's the only reason I even looked at that.

As far as spine I shot this setup last year at the same DW and DL and it tuned fine. Not to say that I shouldn't look at that too, but it wasn't the first thing that came to mind.

I'll shoot outside this evening and see what happens with the latest changes.

Thanks!

 

[TX_Diver]

Moved cable rest maybe 1/8" around clockwise to get a little more clearance and then moved rest right a bit. One thing I did find form-wise is that I was rotating my hand a little too much and the d-loop was catching the release jaw on the way out. Switching to a silverback removed most of the flyers and arrow flight issues I was seeing. So I need to work on that!

Got one arrow hitting pretty close at 30 and one that's always right, like way right... Gonna try some other arrow/head combos tomorrow and revisit this again. Have some IW heads that I used last year and know fly well.

 

[feanor]

Good recommendations from everybody. Glad to hear you’re getting some progress. It can be really frustrating not getting things tuned up. Keep it up.

 

[TX_Diver]

Good recommendations from everybody. Glad to hear you’re getting some progress. It can be really frustrating not getting things tuned up. Keep it up.

Yes!

Struggled a bit the last 3 years also but always got it figured out, even swapped limbs from one bow to another and changed strings last year with no major problems after I shimmed the cams. This year the string change is driving me crazy! Will post up again tomorrow with an update.

 

[Samdemarais]

I would take some athletes foot powder and spray it all over riser/ shelf area and check for clearance, first thing. Then I would try turning poundage down a full turn, or make your arrow stiffer and see what that does. Also, check your nock fit and pinch. Maybe grab a wrist rocket release and see if that changes anything. If your results a very sporadic it’s probably you or vane conract

 

[TX_Diver]

Little update.

I've got Iron Will solid 100s flying well to 40 and hitting with my FP. At 50 the groups open up a bit while my FP still stack right in there.

PSE EVL at 68lbs, 30.5" DL. 1/2 turn out of each limb bolt. 300 spine easton axis, 29.25" carbon to carbon length, 50gr HIT, 10gr IW collar, 100 gr points, 3 fletch max stealth w/ wrap and nockturnal. Total weight ~530gr.

I've tried some VPA 3 blades and they are about a 6" group at 20 yards. I tried Sevr 100 gr 1.5s at 50 and the first two shots were barely on an 18" target. Repeating the test and REALLY focusing on form will get me occasional good shots but generally still a group that is 3x my FP and 2x the IW group size. I did have to go dig an IW out of the grass yesterday and also shot my table again which isn't normal for me at 50...

A bareshaft and FP are both within 1" of each other at 20 yards, but not consistently 1 side or the other (i.e. the groups overlay pretty well though). Haven't shot through paper recently but was getting a bullet hole before I came out and started BH tuning.

I've checked timing 2 days ago and pressed the bow today to check for loose screws, etc. The 2 set screws holding the cable guard were the only ones I found.

Is it possible that those 2 screws would cause that much havoc on my tuning? It sees like that'd show on the IW and FP more (I do have more "fliers" than usual, some I can call but others are unexplainable. Even with that though it seems like the sevr heads shouldn't be that far all over the place?

I have a few 4 fletch arrows from last year and as a data point they fly better than the 3 fletch it seems.

It's dark now, but if that doesn't fix it what else should I check? I feel like my tune must be right on the edge and anything I do wrong that would normally be hidden is getting magnified or something...

3 FP at 50 and the first 2 shots with the sevrs on the outside. There are shots from my recurve on the target too so don't panic with all the poor shots in the black/white (although some are from the compound too)

 

[Billy Goat]

How many different IW heads are you shotinh for your group? If shooting a single head on a single arrow it might just be luck.

Things seem fine spine wise, but I'd try backing the limb bolts out and seeing if that improves anything, shouldn't, but if it does that gives you a direction to go.

 

[TX_Diver]

How many different IW heads are you shotinh for your group? If shooting a single head on a single arrow it might just be luck.

Things seem fine spine wise, but I'd try backing the limb bolts out and seeing if that improves anything, shouldn't, but if it does that gives you a direction to go.

5 IW heads all generally the same POI.

Limb bolts out another half turn was next on my list but trying to just change one thing at a time. Will do that tomorrow as I’ve fixed the screws now

 

[TX_Diver]

Shooting with the set screws brought the group in a tiny bit or at least eliminated the wild fliers for a few rounds. (left target). Still not real happy with it though.

Right target: I then took another half turn out of the limbs and kept shooting and that brought it in more. The group did shift down about 4" though halfway through. First 3 FP are the ones left of the yellow, then BH were hitting slightly right/high.

Then I had a low flier, back up high, then the whole group moved down including FP.

I had slid my peep up a bit yesterday night after shooting and I'm thinking it moved back down as it's closer to the marks I had now.

All shooting at 40. If my group doesn't move again I'll shoot out to 50 and farther and try the VPAs again. I didn't get to try them or the sevrs due to time constraints.

If my group moves again I'm considering tossing the bow in the cornfield. JK. I'll take another half turn out of the limb bolts and go from there.

 

[OR Archer]

Have you tried ditching those lighted nocks? I honestly hate those things. They are some of the most inconsistent pieces of equipment out there. I’ve had instances of BH not grouping with field points while using those. Change them out and they are shaving off vanes with no other adjustment.

 

[TX_Diver]

I haven't this year. The stock Easton nocks don't fit on the string at all which is a bummer as I have a stack of them. I'm hesitant to reserve the entire thing this close to the season too...

I think I have 4 black eagle nocks somewhere though. I'll see if I can find them and try that. The nockturnals tuned fine last year but it's possible that the new string is slightly different enough in diameter that it's making a difference.