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2019 Hoyt Powermax tuning

Edhead35

Member
SH Member
Joined
Jun 9, 2020
Messages
72
Location
MA
Hi all, I will post pictures later, but I wanted to type of the text of the post on my lunch break. Bought the bow in December 2019. Shoots great, started learning about tuning and ran into something. I have an EZ green press and draw board, so I have the equipment to work it out once I understand the process more.

The bow came at 50lbs draw with some Beman arrows, 400 spine, and 100gr field points. Shot, damaged, lost vanes, lost a few arrows, and bought a fletching jig, an arrow saw, squaring device, and some new Easton 6.5 classic shafts, and started paper tuning. 7 yards back with the 400 spine, I was getting a 3 inch nock left tear, 5 inch bareshaft nock left tear. I add twists to left yoke, no change, move rest per the Easton guide, no change. Lower poundage, no change. (no significant changes I should say.)

I buy some Easton 6.5 classic shafts, but this time with a 60gr insert instead of the ones that come with it (I think 29gr or so), and I go with 340 spine. Cut the problem in half back at stock settings for yokes and rest. I put 3 twists in left yoke, it's almost gone, and with 4.5 twists maybe 5, I may have lost track of a half twist, and they shoot bullet holes bareshaft. Centershot I have set just above center of arrow to center of berger hole, and 13/16 from riser. Also I am now at 60lbs draw, and a 28.5" DL (including the 1.75 you add onto grip to d loop measurement)

The root question is this. What is an appropriate amount of cam lean? I tried researching on Archery talk and it's overwhelming. Seems like consensus is Hoyt's will usually tune with cam lean, and I would assume yoke tuning will just make this more so if you need to adjust in the same direction it's already leaning. Mine shoots bullet holes with a decent amount of lean. Stock it had some lean when it was brand new, like an arrow would cross maybe an inch above the d loop. Now it's enough so it's obvious its leaning quite a bit.

I shoot weekly at a JOAD program, so aside from throwing out shots during tuning that I know are bad, I am not aware of any significant form issues (shooting 260s usually with a hunting setup, Hamskea Raptor 1/4 peep, IQ 3 pin hunting site, Hamskea Trinity hunter rest, and a Stanislawski index release.

I am not unhappy with how it's shooting, more worried about any downsides to it being that far off, like limb wear, spacer wear, axle problems in a twisted system.

I can post a pic of how much the string comes off the cam leaning to show it when I get home.
 
20200923_172927.jpg
You can see the distance between red lines string and edge of cam as it angles away.
 
I just pulled my powermax out of the closet. It's a spare now, but it doesn't appear to have nearly that much cam lean, although it does have some. I don't know a lot about tuning, but I will say that all the pro shops where I am in Colorado all tune a bow to zero so to speak and then tune the arrows to get it flying right. Never had to do much at all to get my powermax or my rx1 bare shaft tuned.
 
Always correct cam lean first before you do any shooting...once cam lean is correct, make sure your cams are timed. Once cam lean is good and cams are timed, begin the tuning process. Your cam could certainly tune with a little lean; I’ve seen that often. Just put together a PSE Omen for a guy and it tuned with a little cam lean...not as much as yours, but a little. The main issue with too much cam lean is that the bow is more prone to derail and the string come out of the cam track when being drawn from a weird angle (like out of a saddle in a weird position)...it’s not the end of the world. I’d say leave it alone this close to bow season if it’s tuned...

So many possible other issues...maybe your limb deflection is a little off. Some people will switch limbs (move the left one to the right, right to the left) as a quick fix, but I would NOT do that. I’d just start back from scratch next year with a new string and reset cam lean to an acceptable lean and retune.
 
If your cam is leaning that much to get “a good tune” odds are it has something to do with grip (where most issues lie) or facial pressure on the string, or your specs not being right (ATA, Brace Height, etc.) just something to consider...
 
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