Troubleshooting bow's arrow flight

[rcoen2]

Hi everyone, thanks in advance for your help.

I'm here to learn and troubleshoot why the second bow I built (for my girlfriend) is shooting arrows off to the left.  I'll post some pictures below to see if it can provide any helpful information for people to see what is happening.  I'm hoping and wondering there are some slight adjustments I can make to the arrow pass, or perhaps the string aligntment to help the arrows shoot more straight. 

PS the tiller on this bow is not perfect.  I'm not sure if that would effect arrow flight in this way.

Photos:

IMG_4369 by Ryder Coen, on Flickr

IMG_4370 by Ryder Coen, on Flickr

IMG_4371 by Ryder Coen, on Flickr

IMG_4373 by Ryder Coen, on Flickr

I don't feel like I have enough experience with archery to know what is normal and what is not normal in terms of arrow flight.  For this bow at a range of about 10-15 yards, were having to aim the bow like 1-1.5 feet to right of where we want the arrow to end up (in addition to below because of the flight curve). 

[Pat B]

That would generally be an arrow spine problem and not the bow. With a selfbow the arrow spine should be about 10# less than the draw weight.

[PaSteve]

I tend to agree with Pat. What spine are the arrows and what's the draw weight of the bow? You may need to try a few different spines to get the optimal arrow.

[spinney]

Left or right handed archer?
If right handed arrow to stiff overspined add more weight at the pile.
If left handed arrow not stiff enough less weight is needed at the pile and/or shorten the arrow if you can.

Spinney.

[Selfbowman]

 Cant the bow to about 2:30 and you might save some money. Although high and left for a right handed archer is to stiff on spine.

[bentstick54]

You mentioned that you are having to aim the bow to the right of where the arrow is actually hitting. Are you aiming the bow instead of the arrow? Make sure the nock of the arrow is coming in under your eye, then sight down the length of the arrow to aim and see what happens before investing in new arrows. Elevation is just learning where to hold with practice.

[rcoen2]

Wow, interesting I wasn't expecting it to potentially be related to arrows...  I do not know what the arrow spine is for the arrows I am shooting.... I am shooting some carbon steel arrows I bought from a conventional archery store, Gold Tip - Lightning, and I can't find information on the spine for these arrows. 

The bow is tillered at about 22# or so, and my partner is right handed, left hadn't holding the bow and right handed drawing the string back. 

[Badger]

 How far is the shooter drawing the bow? Is it 22# t their draw length? You need a very weak arrow for this bow. If you hang your arrow on 2 nails that are 26" apart, and place a 2$ weight in the middle of your arrow your arrow should bend about 1 1/4 or a little more. Otherwise it will shoot to the left of where you are aiming.

[Lehtis]

Take that lump away and round a bit arrow pass area to minimize arrow’s contact point on handle. Your bow hand is good enough as arrow rest. Traditional bows do not have arrow selves. Second, check the spine of your arrows to meet the bow’s poundage and draw length. Takes some time to test weaker and stronger shafts… and arrow length has important role as well. 2-3” longer safts than actual draw length allow more variability in arrow spine. As an example: I’m shooting succesfully ca. 30” arrows spined #65-80 with my 78-84 English Longbows with ca. 27” draw. Even one inch shorter and nominally properly spined arrows will not fly as nicely as those longer ones and are more difficult to hit bull’s eye.

[Pappy]

It the arrows are flying good, seeing nothing but nock when you shoot you have a couple of choices, cut the arrow pass a little deeper if you have enough thickness to do that or do as Arvin suggested ,cant the bow over a little to the right which will move the arrow to the right, I cant all my bow, some more that others because they are not center shot like a lot of glass bows are now days, the arrow is coming out of the bow headed left for a right hand shooter, the father you shoot the more left it is going to go. Just nock you arrow/hold it in your hand as if you was going to shoot it, look down the shaft and you can see it is coming out of the bow headed left. 
 Pappy

[Pat B]

I think Rcoen is using arrows he has and not arrows specifically for the bow. Believe it or not the correctly spined arrow is more critical than the bow.

[Selfbowman]

Also if those arrows have rubber vanes take them off and put feathers on . That’s probably half the problem. But yes Steve is right about spine . Your bow has a shelf but is not close to center shot. That’s not the problem though . Some children arrows from three rivers will get you close. But they are only 26” long. So will only work for a 26” draw or shorter. Good luck with it. Arvin

[Pat B]

You can buy 5/16" hardwood dowels at any hardware, craft or lumber store. If you hand pick the straightest dowels with the fewest and less steep grain runoffs you could make appropriate arrows each both bows.

[TimBo]

If you don't have time/inclination to mess with making your own arrows yet, 3 Rivers Archery has kid or youth wood arrows that work great at lower weights for not a ton of money.  Making really light spine arrows is tricky!

[Gimlis Ghost]

I think Rcoen is using arrows he has and not arrows specifically for the bow. Believe it or not the correctly spined arrow is more critical than the bow.

Long ago I heard that one can shoot more accurately with a poor quality bow and high quality arrows than with a high quality bow and low quality arrows.

I have been having a intermitent problem since putting my target back another ten feet. Often but not always several arrows of a six shot string will hit at a noticable angle with nocks kicked out to the left. Theres no consistancy in which arrows do this or when but I suspect its either a release issue or drag on the sleeve of my winter coats causing variations in velocity when initially leaving the string.
My most accurate shots seem to be when the string slaps my wrist above my watch band hard enough to bruise through the sleeve of the coat.
I'm using 500 spine carbon arrows with rubbery fletchings. Simple stiff leather tab.

Any suggestions?