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Who's shooting? Tuning? Tinkering?

Quantum673

Black Hat Cajun
Supporting Member
Changed my arrows couple weeks ago. Went with Black Eagle 500's with 4" inch helical. I though my old setup was great but curiosity got me and I had to try something different. Old ones are BlackOut Hunter EX 400's.

Glad I talked myself into trying it. These arrows shoot awesome. Can't believe the difference.
 

jagermeister

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
18,060
223
Ohio
I need to do some tweaking. I noticed my string stretched a bit and brace height had gone a little thin. So twisted up the string and bumped brace height up further than I had because black widow recommended something larger. It quieted the bow more and reduced vibration, which is good... but now my nock point is too high. I need to bust out a couple bare shafts and get her dialed back in.
 

Tipmoose

Well-Known Member
Supporting Member
2,678
85
Grove City
I generally try not to chase fads or silver bullets. I watched the THP vids and listened to RF but just find something about him grating. Maybe Im reading into it but I sense some arrogance or snide side-eye type stuff. I will be watching THP this year on their deer tour though and see how often the deer duck the string on their new set ups.
 
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giles

Cull buck specialist
Supporting Member
I generally try not to chase fads or silver bullets. I watched the THP vids and listened to RF but just find something about him grating. Maybe Im reading into it but I sense some arrogance or snide side-eye type stuff. I will be watching THP this year on their deer tour though and see how often the deer duck the string on their new set ups.
This year will either make or break him. But people have been shooting slow heavy arrows for a long time before wheels made them fast.
 
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I generally try not to chase fads or silver bullets. I watched the THP vids and listened to RF but just find something about him grating. Maybe Im reading into it but I sense some arrogance or snide side-eye type stuff. I will be watching THP this year on their deer tour though and see how often the deer duck the string on their new set ups.

THP's one video showed a couple pigs ducking/moving pretty good. Both of which still ended up with dead pigs. You would think heavier arrow, less bow noise?
 

Sgt Fury

Sgt. Spellchecker
I saw a video with one of the Wensel brothers...I think it was “Bowhunting October Whitetails”. They showed slow motion of deer ducking arrows. Their conclusion was that anything under 20 yards cannot physically duck the arrow...they just don’t have the time to move their body. Past 20 yards, if the deer is on alert and/or looking right at you, there is a definite possibility of ducking the arrow. Farther shots past 40-50 yards, they can react to the noise and duck the arrow...even if they are not looking right at you.
 

brock ratcliff

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
24,834
247
I’ve been fooling around a lot with some of my trad bows. May hunt with them exclusively this season. Then again I may hunt with compounds or crossbow, or nothing until gun season. Lol. Anyway, today I dug out a 30 year old string tracker and shot it a couple times out of a 40 lb recurve at 20 yards. As it was 30 years ago, it made no difference in arrow flight even from the light poundage bow. I think I’ll rig it up to a zebco 33 so I can crank the deer back in if they run off too far. Honestly, with the range I’ll be shooting, I don’t know why I haven’t used the thing for the last three decades or so. For you younger fellas that have never seen them, look em up, they are slick and speed up tracking efforts immensely.
 

brock ratcliff

Dignitary Member
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24,834
247
I saw a video with one of the Wensel brothers...I think it was “Bowhunting October Whitetails”. They showed slow motion of deer ducking arrows. Their conclusion was that anything under 20 yards cannot physically duck the arrow...they just don’t have the time to move their body. Past 20 yards, if the deer is on alert and/or looking right at you, there is a definite possibility of ducking the arrow. Farther shots past 40-50 yards, they can react to the noise and duck the arrow...even if they are not looking right at you.
Past 35 they flat don’t care. I still have that video somewhere and I think they claimed they didn’t bother at longer range. It was that 20-35 that they duck. I’ve shot a pile of deer at 40 and slightly beyond, and they always stand and catch it.
 

Sgt Fury

Sgt. Spellchecker
Past 35 they flat don’t care. I still have that video somewhere and I think they claimed they didn’t bother at longer range. It was that 20-35 that they duck. I’ve shot a pile of deer at 40 and slightly beyond, and they always stand and catch it.
I shot a deer about 25-30 years ago with a Golden Eagle bow...round wheels...super quiet. First shot quartering away About 20 yards, complete pass through and the deer didn’t react....continued feeding past my stand. I thought I saw the arrow hit but started doubting myself. I nocked another arrow and let fly at about 35 yards. Again, shot looked perfect, yet no reaction. The deer went about five more yards (still browsing) and got the “wobbly legs” and fell over. Only time I’ve ever had that happen. Not only did the deer not hear the arrow, he never felt it either. Funny thing was that a friend of mine had told me the season before about a deer he shot and it did the same thing. He nocked a second arrow and when he looked up the deer collapsed.
 

brock ratcliff

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
24,834
247
Dave and others have mentioned the Ranch Fairy dude a time or two. He’s annoying to me, but he is right about arrow foc and weight. I shot through deer every time I launched and arrow at them 30 years ago and they often had little or no reaction to being shot! With today’s mechanical heads, they react. It hurts a whole lot more I assume. We get these massive cuts on the skin due to the head pushing and stretching the skin inward before ever being cut. It’s gotta feel like being hit with a hammer before the cut. Back in the day, sharp heads just sliced through with little pressure, they just sliced through flesh cleanly. I’ve cut myself with properly honed broadheads and didn’t even know I’d done it. I can only image it’s the same for a deer with good heads like we all used back in the day. I have used mechanical heads for several years- they work well on deer, but deer definitely react differently when shot with them.
 
The RF is annoying and we have known heavy arrows with 20% FOC are best for hunting since the Ashby report back in the 80’s. He also found single bevel broad heads to penetrate the best. So RF in not putting out any knew information.
I did find his method of tuning arrows interesting. Even knock tuning seems plausible.

Time to go shoot


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 

Jamie

Senior Member
5,691
177
Ohio
I’ve been fooling around a lot with some of my trad bows. May hunt with them exclusively this season. Then again I may hunt with compounds or crossbow, or nothing until gun season. Lol. Anyway, today I dug out a 30 year old string tracker and shot it a couple times out of a 40 lb recurve at 20 yards. As it was 30 years ago, it made no difference in arrow flight even from the light poundage bow. I think I’ll rig it up to a zebco 33 so I can crank the deer back in if they run off too far. Honestly, with the range I’ll be shooting, I don’t know why I haven’t used the thing for the last three decades or so. For you younger fellas that have never seen them, look em up, they are slick and speed up tracking efforts immensely.

better bump that up to the 808 for reeling in deer.
 
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giles

Cull buck specialist
Supporting Member
The RF is annoying and we have known heavy arrows with 20% FOC are best for hunting since the Ashby report back in the 80’s. He also found single bevel broad heads to penetrate the best. So RF in not putting out any knew information.
I did find his method of tuning arrows interesting. Even knock tuning seems plausible.

Time to go shoot


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Some of us weren’t shooting bows back then😂
 
The majority of THPs demographic wasn't alive when Ashby put that out and probably couldn't tell you who the good doctor is, or why he matters to archery.

I'm a bowhunter from back then and I never heard of him. To me Ranch Fairy is one of those guys that annoys you at first but if you just listen to what he is saying and not how he says it you can quickly tell he is genuinely excited about the work he has done. You can say this person was the first but RF is the current one who is getting attention with recent data as well as a buttload of dead pigs he's tested everything on. I agree wholeheartedly on the sharp broadheads as there have been plenty of times I cut myself and didn't realize it until I saw the blood. That's another RF topic as well.
 
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Heavy arrahs n big cut on contact broadheads are the thing these days!
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brock ratcliff

Dignitary Member
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24,834
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Last night I took the night off. Sent both kids to the shop. My bride was busy watching something on TV so I was left alone for hours. Can’t say when that last happened. I seized the opportunity to shoot... a lot.

There was a steady rain falling so the feathers in my arrows got soaked pretty quick. I went ahead and mashed em flat on one arrow so I could sorta bareshaft tune. I’ve been shooting this particular little recurve a lot lately and it’s been shooting pretty well, but I’ve never really dialed it in for perfect flight. Big feathers fix a lot.

I switched over to shooting three under, something I do once in a while. I could see I had a serious knock problem due to the switch so I fooled with that for a while and got it fairly close. Then I needed to figure out what to do about the arrow sticking knock left in the target. There isn’t a lot of lateral movement to be made when shooting off the shelf but I was able to fix that issue by trimming down the striker plate. Arrows looked pretty darn good coming out of the bow. By this time it was starting to get dark so I dug through a junk box and found a lumenok. Put that thing on the arrow and finished up fine tuning. The lighted knock was the ticket! My eyes don’t see all that well anymore but with the glowing green ball flying at the target I was able to see a slight wiggle that I managed to tune out of the bow with knock adjustments.
I said all that to make this point: if you are working on a trad bow’s arrow flight and are not shooting wood shafts, try a lighted knock. It’s amazing to me how any little wiggle shows up