Clean Arrow Flight vs Upper Limb Tiller and Handle Size

[PeteDavis]

I am tuning my osage/hickory bow for hunting. It's a shoot around the handle bow pulling about 47#.
I noticed the heavier spined arrows wobbled a lot, and spined down so far to 55-60.
Do shoot around bows sometimes require a softer or lower spined arrow than one would expect?
Also, this bow is positively tillered upper limb +7/16ths. Could the upper limb be weak enough to throw things off?
Bow is quiet and feels good.
PD

[ken75]

sounds like your on the right track try a heavier head and see if it improves flight.

[gstoneberg]

Depends on how long your arrows are cut, point weight and design of the bow.  It is certainly possible that you'd need arrows with a weaker spine than that.  I have a test set of arrows from 3rivers for figuring out what spine I need.  My 50# longbow shoots 40-45 shafts best.

George

[PeteDavis]

Well, the arrows corkscrew in all spines. I got out my Mahaska LB and shot three different spine groups from it. All flew like darts. I am afraid the tiller on this bow I built is off somehow. It is getting close to hunting time and I may switch to the Mahaska this year rather than have anything iffy in the equation. I may try to tune in the osage bow but something is off that does not respond to spine. Nocking point is little help either.
Thanks all. PD

[half eye]

Hey Pete,
      I make and shoot a lot short "D" bows and they all have to go around the bow. I dont know about stiff handled bows but I try real hard to tiller mine as even as I can get them. When one limb comes out a little heavier than the other.....I've found that mine shoot a lot better with the stiff limb on top....believe it or not. I dont know why this is but it's true in every case of unequal limbed bows that I've made. Also I have found that brace height has a great effect on various arrows from the same bow....also dont know why that is so either.
      Just a couple of observations I've noticed in my bows. The only other thing I have experience with is fixed arrow rests/shelves....the wider they are (back to belly) the more potential for erratic flight. The bows I make for friends that want rests I make them as thin as possible (front to back) and only as wide as is absolutely necessary to keep the arrow up.
      Take what I say with a lot of salt, cause I dont spine my arrows, my self knocks are sloppy, and I dont use a string knock either and shoot off the hand.....just about everything wrong I guess. One last thing is fletch size and shape VS. head type and weight. My fletch is all long and low to the shaft.   Hope any of that helps some......you'd be real smart to listen to these other guys cause they shoot real good and most likely with a lot of different equipment.
rich

[PeteDavis]

Excellent comments Rich. The upper limb on this bow is almost 1/2" bigger at brace. I have sorta fixed the center of the bow and I can't reverse it, my rest is minimal. We learn best from things that don't work! My first osage bow is a cannon, smooth and dart flight but just a little too heavy. Reckon I better make another! PD

[George Tsoukalas]

"Do shoot around bows sometimes require a softer or lower spined arrow than one would expect?" Yes, Pete.
Spine problems (weak or strong) result in fishtailing. Nock too high or too low results in porpoising. Put those two problems together and you have cork screwing. Move the nock until the cork screwing stops and you get just the fishtailing. Until my nock point is established  I use about a 1/4 in wide strip  of duct tape ..about 2 inches long wound around. It is easily moved.  Sand the middle of the arrow until fishtailing stops and you've tuned your arrow to the bow. Of course, you didn't mention your bow weight so you could be under spined. Jawge

[PeteDavis]

46# at my draw.

[George Tsoukalas]

Probably over spined.  Jawge

[Holten101]

jawge has some good point regarding correction. If you are overspined, or if you wish to find out, then try adding heavier points (before you sand down to spine as jawge suggests).

I can also agree to what Half-eye says...I have experienced the same things. But sometiimes I make at bow that seems good (correct tiller, string track and what not) it just wont shoot any arrow cleanly...no matter what I do .

I make my own hazle and dogwood shot arrows...and I find that getting 3-4 matching arrows is MUCH harder and MUCH more work than making a bow. So now I make bows to match my arrows, not the other way arround;-)

Cheers

[gstoneberg]

In my experience it is much easier to tune the arrow to the bow if it is a little long.  Adding point weight to lower spine is much more effective if the arrow has 2 or 3 inches of extra length.

George

[MWirwicki]

I agree with George.  You are likely over-spined.  Try a 35-40 spined arrow and see what happens.  A brace height that is too low can also affect arrow flight when wrapping around the handle.  Also, try shooting the bow upside down and see what happens.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Matt took my answer, flip the bow end for end and giver her a spin. My 3 hunting bows for this year vary in length, style and materials greatly, however they are all 52-56# @ 28" and shoot a 29" 50-55 shaft the same as the next. I shoot 3 under and all my bows are slighty positive on the upper.