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How To Tune A Compound Bow

Apr 18, 2022Bow Tuning and Repair

Compound bows are incredible pieces of technology that provide an archer with amazing accuracy and power. However, you must properly tune a compound bow to achieve this. While tuning may seem a little complicated at first, once you learn the process you’ll be making your own adjustments whenever you want. Let’s get to it!

What is Bow Tuning?

Tuning a bow involves making small adjustments to different aspects of the bow to ensure it is set up properly. These adjustments can be made to things such as the arrow rest, arrows, cam positioning, cam timing, let-off, and many others. These adjustments ensure everything is working properly.

How to Tell If Your Bow is Out of Tune

So how do you know if your bow needs tuning? You may see several issues that can indicate that your bow could use a tuning. A few of these include bad arrow flight, inconsistent arrow groups, strange noises, or bad vibrations that are felt when shooting. You may also need to retune your bow if you change anything with your arrows or bow including a new arrow rest, bowstring, or different arrows among others.

How to Tune a Compound Bow

Tuning a compound bow involves going through a number of steps to ensure the entire setup works in harmony together. To achieve this, you must go through these steps in the right order and make sure things are properly installed and tuned. Simply follow these steps:

1. Attach the Arrow Rest

Properly install the arrow rest that you intend to use. Attach it squarely and ensure to use all of the included installation screws that are provided. If needed, use a level to guarantee that it is perfectly straight and level once attached.

2. Set the Draw Weight

Next, set your draw weight. Most compound bows are versatile and allow for a range of draw weight adjustment. Set your draw weight to a weight that is manageable. You do not want to “overbow” yourself with too much weight. This will cause you to tire out more quickly and negatively affect accuracy. Choose a weight that is comfortable for you!

3. Set Your Draw Length

After you determine your draw weight, find your optimal draw length. If you don’t know your draw length, there is a simple method you can use to find it. Simply take the length of your arm span from fingertip to fingertip, then divide that number by 2.5. This should provide a rough draw length estimation, allowing you to set up the bow. You may also need a bow press for this step, depending on the model and brand of your compound bow.

4. Set the Peep Sight

Since everyone is different, each bow is tuned to the individual. Just like draw weight and length, the peep sight must be set according to you and your eye placement. Many people say that a peep should be around 6 inches above your nocking point. However, everyone is different and the angle, anchor, and length of your face will come into play. The best way to set your peep sight is to have someone place a mark on the string while at full draw. Then, simply place the peep sight in line with your eye.

5. Set Your Let-Off

Once the peep sight is in place, you can set up your desired let-off. Some compound bows do not allow you to adjust this, but many do with a simple twist of a wrench. If you are intending to use your compound bow to hunt with, many places have laws in place that dictate how much let-off you can use. The same can be said with certain competitions and shoots, so set up the let-off accordingly. For example, most bowhunters prefer bows with more let-off. This allows hunters to stay at full draw for longer periods of time when in range of an animal. Target shooters, on the other hand, prefer less let-off as it allows them to be more accurate. You can set this up to be wherever is best for you and your setup.

6. Adjust the Cam Timing

Cams are what give your compound bow its power and both must work in conjunction together. This is why cam timing is so important. Cams have stops built into them and are meant to hit a cable or limb once the cam reaches full rotation. If one cam hits before the other, this can cause accuracy and consistency issues.

The best way to see the cam timing is to use a device called a draw board. This allows you to draw back the bow with a mechanical crank all while watching the cams closely. You can do so very slowly, inspecting every step and the precise moments the cams hit the stops.

If there is a timing issue with your cams, the fix is to place twists in the cable that is connected to the cam that hits the draw stop first. You can place half twists or full twists to help change the timing. Start off small and reevaluate the timing after every adjustment until you get both cams in sync with each other.

7. Adjust Center Shot and Nock Point

Now with the strings and cams set, adjust the center shot and nock point of your bow. The center shot references the right alignment of the arrow rest in relation to the bowstring’s nock point. A poorly aligned center shot will cause many issues, including causing your arrows to fish-tail at the shot or porpoising issues. There are a variety of tools such as a “T-square” or “bow-square” that you can use to help you find and align your center shot by ensuring everything is squared up and straight, but this step could result in a little trial and error before you get it just right.

8. Fix Fletch Contact

Sometimes the arrow’s fletching can come into contact with things like the arrow rest, riser, or even the sight as the arrow is released. As you can expect, this can cause major accuracy issues. To see if your bow has any issues with this, simply spray white aerosol foot powder on your arrow’s fletching and shoot it into a target. After the shot, check your arrow and fletching to see if the white powder has any marks in it, indicating bow interference.. If you are using a drop-away arrow rest and do have contact, you can then adjust the timing on the rest to avoid it.

9. Bare Shaft and Paper Tuning

The last step in tuning your bow is to put all of these previous steps together and bare shaft or paper tune your bow. Paper tuning involves shooting an arrow through a sheet of paper to indicate flight issues. If they are not shooting straight or otherwise have issues, tears in the paper will help guide the necessary adjustments. While either method can be used for both compound and traditional bows, most archers prefer to use bare shaft tuning when shooting with fingers. Paper tuning is best when using a mechanical release aid. You can, however, use either method or even both if you prefer!

This is another part of the process that can take some time and effort. If your bow is out of tune in any way, it could potentially show up during this step. Luckily, this allows you to make the necessary adjustments and shoot again to see if it’s correct.

Fine Tuning a Compound Bow

Once a bow is properly tuned, you may need to fine tune a few things afterwards. This helps you shoot tighter groups and finish the entire process. To fine tune the bow, you need to shoot arrows at a target and make small adjustments to the arrow rest. To start, stand 20 yards from your target and shoot an arrow at a specific point. Adjust your bow sight until your arrows start grouping well at the point you are shooting at.

Next, hang a plumb bob off of one of the arrows in the center of your group. Back up to 30 yards or more and continue using the same 20-yard pin to shoot another group of arrows at the same specific point on the target as the 20 yard group. These arrows should hit lower on the target than your previous group.

If this new group of arrows hit to the right of your plumb bob string, make a slight adjustment to the arrow rest (to the left) until the arrows are hitting within ½ inch of the string or closer. If the arrows are hitting to the left, do the same except move the rest to the right. This will improve your accuracy and keep your groups tighter.

The next step is to go back to your 20 yard target line and shoot at a 1-inch wide horizontal line in order to measure the height of your arrow group. A simple strip of tape can be used to make this line. If your group is taller than 1 ¼ inches, put a ⅛ turn in the bottom limb bolt and try again. This will generally be enough to tighten this number up, but again make small adjustments and repeat the process instead of large adjustments. If you need a little more guidance, PSE Archery put together a great tuning document you can reference for more clarification.

Final Thoughts

Tuning a compound bow can seem a little complicated at first, and while there are many steps, it can be a fun and enjoyable process. Once you do it for the first time, you will better understand the ins and out of a compound bow and it will allow you to perfectly tune your bow. A tuned bow will be much more accurate and smooth to shoot, so it’s well worth the effort to do it right!

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