Balancing Your Arrows

[HuntNorthEast]

I went to the search bar and didn't come up with anything covering the topic. Anyways, I have a few questions.

I had my arrows built at my local shop. Easton Axis 5mm with 75gr brass inserts, 2" Blazers vanes x 3 and Nokturnal nocks. Through paper, bullet holes. At a distance, I see the tail walking a little in a circle. I did a little research and results said this is caused by an arrow that isn't true. Threw the arrow on my roller and sure enough she has a little wobble.

Now, I watched a Bowmar video a while back where he used a torch to heat up the insert glue from the outside of the arrow (carefully). Once it was hot he used pliers to rotate the whole insert. Then Josh spun the arrow again and repeated this process until the arrow didn't wobble at all.

Now my questions. Is this a good way to true arrows? Is it effective/possible? Is there a better way to do it?

To be honest, Anything inside 40 is dead regardless and I wouldn't shoot beyond that under normal conditions. I enjoy practicing out to 100yds just because I can. It drastically improves form and adds a little fun watching the hang time (no I would never shoot a deer at that distance, yes you still get crazy penetration). So, my reasoning for wanting my arrows completely true is obviously so my setup can 110% of the time be as efficient as possible and kill as quickly and as effectively as needed.

Thoughts? Thanks guys.

 

[raisins]

I went to the search bar and didn't come up with anything covering the topic. Anyways, I have a few questions.

I had my arrows built at my local shop. Easton Axis 5mm with 75gr brass inserts, 2" Blazers vanes x 3 and Nokturnal nocks. Through paper, bullet holes. At a distance, I see the tail walking a little in a circle. I did a little research and results said this is caused by an arrow that isn't true. Threw the arrow on my roller and sure enough she has a little wobble.

Now, I watched a Bowmar video a while back where he used a torch to heat up the insert glue from the outside of the arrow (carefully). Once it was hot he used pliers to rotate the whole insert. Then Josh spun the arrow again and repeated this process until the arrow didn't wobble at all.

Now my questions. Is this a good way to true arrows? Is it effective/possible? Is there a better way to do it?

To be honest, Anything inside 40 is dead regardless and I wouldn't shoot beyond that under normal conditions. I enjoy practicing out to 100yds just because I can. It drastically improves form and adds a little fun watching the hang time (no I would never shoot a deer at that distance, yes you still get crazy penetration). So, my reasoning for wanting my arrows completely true is obviously so my setup can 110% of the time be as efficient as possible and kill as quickly and as effectively as needed.

Thoughts? Thanks guys.
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One of these

F.A.S.T. (Fletched Arrow Squaring Tool)

F.A.S.T. (Fletched Arrow Squaring Tool) F.A.S.T. is an arrow squaring tool that will allow you to clean and square your fletched or unfletched arrows just like we do at The Burt Coyote Co. This is the very tool used to precision square the nock end of all Lumen-Arrow shafts. For optimum...

lumenok.com

makes turning an insert usually a moot point.

Get a silver sharpie to mark your carbon and grind both ends until the silver is gone. Install inserts and once dry mark insert with black sharpie and use same tool to grind insert until black is gone.

You can pull everything off your arrow (if you used hot melt) and then use the squaring tool and then reinstall insert. Or just use on insert now.

They make cheap 3D printed arrow squarers on ebay, but I don't know how good they are.

Paper tuning at only one yardage doesn't tell you the whole story and I find that paper tuning with fletchings attached is close to worthless. The fletching just hides too much. I only paper tune with fletching a few times after I do the procedure below (just as a check for fletching contact, etc).

You can get a perfect bullet hole but the fletching is still correcting a force that can reappear. I shoot bare shafts through paper at 5 to 20 feet and tune until I get perfect holes. I put tape on the back of my arrow to replicate the weight of my vanes. Then I broadhead tune at 40 yards by making small changes until broadhead and field points hit the same. I do not recommend bare shaft tuning at 20 yards (to get bare and fletched to hit the same) for most shooters because it is just so hypercritical to form and you get more noise than signal at times.

Check for fletching contact also (powder on your vanes to see if it gets on rest, etc).

As far as an occasional kick of the arrow, that happens on perfectly tuned bows and it is because your form wasn't that great for that shot.

 

[MattMan81]

Is it all arrows? Or one in particular? There is a chance just one arrow might have a slight defect.
If it's all, Peel the fletching off and shoot it through paper. Is it still a bullet holes? I dry fit and spin my inserts in the arrow with a big broad head. I can feel some wobble in different locations. Then I paper tune them to set the noc rotation. Then Fletch. There is a number of reasons for some wobble like raisins said.
You could also just rotate the noc to a different vane and see if it changes any.
Also shoot a solid fixed target. Number your arrows. Shoot them into the target and see if they all point back to where you were standing. If you have one that consistently miss behaves rotate the noc. See if it's better. The Ranch fair had some good videos on noc tunning and arrow flight. Even if your not going down the heavy arrow path it's still good stuff on basic arrow flight.
Good luck. Let us know what you find.

 

[HuntNorthEast]

No fletching contact, consistent amongst unbalanced arrows only. The arrows that spin true do not do this. Arrow end are square and everything is mounted flush. I was thinking excess hot melt in the shaft from when they installed the inserts? Could be throwing the spin weight off? Mainly wanted to know if it is possible to move an insert using a head once things have been assembled? Bring the temp up slow with a torch until she starts to slip, make a quarter turn, let set, spin test again etc. until balanced.

These were tuned bare shaft through paper and produced bullet holes. Not with fletchings installed. I'm kind of puzzled honestly.

 

[HuntNorthEast]

Is it all arrows? Or one in particular? There is a chance just one arrow might have a slight defect.
If it's all, Peel the fletching off and shoot it through paper. Is it still a bullet holes? I dry fit and spin my inserts in the arrow with a big broad head. I can feel some wobble in different locations. Then I paper tune them to set the noc rotation. Then Fletch. There is a number of reasons for some wobble like raisins said.
You could also just rotate the noc to a different vane and see if it changes any.
Also shoot a solid fixed target. Number your arrows. Shoot them into the target and see if they all point back to where you were standing. If you have one that consistently miss behaves rotate the noc. See if it's better. The Ranch fair had some good videos on noc tunning and arrow flight. Even if your not going down the heavy arrow path it's still good stuff on basic arrow flight.
Good luck. Let us know what you find.

Good points! Thanks!

 

[Camelcluch]

A lot of factors in this one. Point weight, arrows length, wind conditions, illusion and much more. There is a ton of stuff that could be happening or not. Have you shot bare shaft at distance? Not perfect but you’ll see bad arrow flight at impact. I would also have a buddy watch your arrows and see if you are picking up the fletching.

 

[raisins]

A lot of factors in this one. Point weight, arrows length, wind conditions, illusion and much more. There is a ton of stuff that could be happening or not. Have you shot bare shaft at distance? Not perfect but you’ll see bad arrow flight at impact. I would also have a buddy watch your arrows and see if you are picking up the fletching.

I've also read that our eyes can play tricks on us and think the arrow is kicking out when it isn't. I don't know what causes this though, perhaps angle of sunlight.

 

[Bowmanmike]

I've also read that our eyes can play tricks on us and think the arrow is kicking out when it isn't. I don't know what causes this though, perhaps angle of sunlight.

This is definitely a thing to consider as well.

 

[Camelcluch]

I think certain colors of vanes picks up our vision. Sometimes I think my max stealths wobble and my buddies think I’m nuts. The flo orange is bright a heck and you can see the spin.

 

[raisins]

I think certain colors of vanes picks up our vision. Sometimes I think my max stealths wobble and my buddies think I’m nuts. The flo orange is bright a heck and you can see the spin.

Good call. I think when you have 2 vanes that don't catch your eye and one that does that you can watch that bright one rotating around the arrow. Maybe ironic that the shots where you really watch the arrow fly are usually your best shots....and they trick you into thinking they are junk.

 

[jakev383]

No fletching contact, consistent amongst unbalanced arrows only. The arrows that spin true do not do this. Arrow end are square and everything is mounted flush. I was thinking excess hot melt in the shaft from when they installed the inserts? Could be throwing the spin weight off? Mainly wanted to know if it is possible to move an insert using a head once things have been assembled? Bring the temp up slow with a torch until she starts to slip, make a quarter turn, let set, spin test again etc. until balanced.

I've done this to remove inserts - I put a field point in the arrow, and use a torch to slowly heat the field point. Checking every few seconds, eventually enough heat will transfer to the insert to heat the glue up and you can rotate or remove the insert. This keeps direct heat off the carbon.
With hot melt you can rotate; if epoxy was used then I would remove and re-epoxy the insert.

 

[Wirrex]

I've done this to remove inserts - I put a field point in the arrow, and use a torch to slowly heat the field point. Checking every few seconds, eventually enough heat will transfer to the insert to heat the glue up and you can rotate or remove the insert. This keeps direct heat off the carbon.
With hot melt you can rotate; if epoxy was used then I would remove and re-epoxy the insert.

This is the way I have always done mine. I’m guessing the shop used the supplied epoxy though. I’m not sure that you will get those out.

 

[Buckhole75]

Never let a guys in a shop put your inserts in.He just puts glue on the insert and pops em in.If you do not spin the insert the glue will cause alignment issues and if you shoot fixed heads they will not shoot well.If you are lucky they used a glue you can heat up and remove the insert but more than likely they used the epoxy that came with the arrows and you are screwed.Call the shop and see what they used.If you heat it enough to make the epoxy release you will probably damage the shaft.