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Compound bow tuning

Mschmeiske

Mschmeiske

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
Sep 4, 2017
Messages
1,950
Location
New York
I’ve done brief reading and such on tuning a compound bow, I don’t believe it’s rocket science and I’m sick of spending money at a shop when I believe I could do it myself….
I don’t want to put my foot in my mouth, so I’m basically asking for those of you who tune your own bows, let me know if there’s more too it, or if your “average Joe” is more than capable of doing the work themselves.
I can tie in a peep sight and dial in a sight/rest with modified French tuning… but I’m curious about cables and strings mostly. Hope that makes sense.
 
Mschmeiske said:
I’ve done brief reading and such on tuning a compound bow, I don’t believe it’s rocket science and I’m sick of spending money at a shop when I believe I could do it myself….
I don’t want to put my foot in my mouth, so I’m basically asking for those of you who tune your own bows, let me know if there’s more too it, or if your “average Joe” is more than capable of doing the work themselves.
I can tie in a peep sight and dial in a sight/rest with modified French tuning… but I’m curious about cables and strings mostly. Hope that makes sense.
Click to expand...
No bow expert. But I been doing mine the last few years. I use the portable Bowmasters press. 4' level to make sure my cams are parallel. Check your axle to axle. Check timing. Some bows have some marks on the cams for the cables to show timing marks. Shoot thru paper and adjust the other stuff until good. YouTube videos for anything more technical.
 
If you have a good ability to take something apart. Then remember how you put it together you should be good on strings and cables. I used to tune a lot of bows. Not rocket science like you said. One thing is you’ll need to know how your bow tunes. Certain bows need different things. The ability to tell between single cam, cam and a half and a dual cam bow is helpful too.
I’m not too caught up on the newer bows. I do believe some of them tune differently. Or like the tips to tune them is different. Like Hoyt’s with their cams that take up the cable differently needs tuned a little different.
If you twist a cable or take a twist out stuff like that. Also some bows need a certain press. I think it’s the past Parrell limbs like the semi older Hoyt’s needs a certain style press. That may not even be a factor anymore. Again I’m out of the loop on this stuff though. I don’t mess with it anymore.
 
Average jack archery, Sean’s outdoors and John Dudley’s school of Nock are pretty good. The average Joe can most certainly do it.
A couple main things to know about bow tuning:
Learn as much about your bow as possible. Bows are the same but different.
Learn about yoke tuning. Just cuz your bow has cam lean doesn’t mean it’s out of tune.
I use a bow master with a crappy jig I slapped together but if I could afford a press with a draw board I’d get one in a heartbeat. To put twists in your cables you really need a press
 
I might add, the easiest bows I've had to tune were dual yoke systems. Of course, this assumes you have a way to press your bow. There was a nice video that came out last year from Eastman's Hunting Journal that was simplified tuning for the bowhunter. I posted the video on here awhile ago. The method he uses is simply group tuning with rest adjustments to get BH and Field Points hitting together. This assumed your bow was in spec and everything (e.g. cam lean, timing, etc.) were already accounted for and your rest and d loop were at dead even or very close. Thereafter he used simple rest micro adjustments to get both arrows to shoot together. For someone without a press this is a good method. The old dudes (Roger Maynard, Marlow, etc.) believed that once your bow was set up "square" it was the archer that had to do the most tuning regarding their form, release etc. I highly agree with that assessment as well. Problem is, today's carbon arrows can be wonky and make you think your bow is out of tune when really your shafts need to be rotated to shoot off the stiffest part of their spine. If you go aluminum (like those guys did back in the day or graphite) you didn't need to worry about that and as long as your broadhead tipped arrows group together, you are ready to hunt. There is a lot of truth to that too.
 
I've thought often of making the plunge of $$$ into a shooting machine, either Spott Hogg's Hooter Shooter or Coop's Bowsmith system and getting my bows to shoot perfect bullet holes with them and then just concentrate on my form. You then know the bow is perfectly tuned and if when you begin to shoot that same bow and your arrows are rippin' paper or whatever, its an archer form problem, not an equipment problem.
 
And I guess I didn't expand on the part of the carbon arrows. I have basically found that you must nock tune each bare shaft until it shoots the smallest tear possible before making adjustments to your bow (assuming it is set up properly). Sometimes just rotating that carbon arrow nock is what makes the difference and then add fletching and that arrow flies beautiful thereafter no matter what you screw onto the end of it and as long as it is the proper tip weight. You will find that several different tip weights may work for your system as well.
 
I highly recommend writing down on paper every twist you make. It starts off all good until down the road when you’re like, dang, where was everything at???
also don’t remove twists if you don’t have to. This will loosen the serving I’m told.Strings are supposed to have specific amount of twists per inch “roughly”.
“the nuts and bolts of archery” is a great read from the dude Nuts&Bolts, from another archery forum.
www.dropbox.com

Nuts & Bolts Of Archery 2012 Updated version.pdf

Shared with Dropbox
www.dropbox.com www.dropbox.com
 
MattMan81 said:
Careful @woodsdog2 your getting close to spending a lot of money. And requires a lot of space to have it all set up. If you got all that.. go for it, and when can I come over. :)
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I know, I know. Its killing me. Maybe we can go halfsies and figure out a mutual storage and use location???? I'm half kidding!!! I get it one half the year you get it the next. We can exchange hunting locations for change up hunting when its time to move it each others homes????
 
It would be kind of cool to add this to SH meet ups. Everyone gets their bows dialed in, exchange not only SH ideas but bow and tuning ideas as well???? We'd have to have a month long meet up for it to work!!! :fearscream::fearscream:
 
woodsdog2 said:
It would be kind of cool to add this to SH meet ups. Everyone gets their bows dialed in, exchange not only SH ideas but bow and tuning ideas as well???? We'd have to have a month long meet up for it to work!!! :fearscream::fearscream:
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@redsquirrel saddlehunter.com trailer. Contains everything you need for bow tuning. 30' enclosed trailer. Bow press, hooter shooter, misc arrow shafts, tip weights, broadheads, every kind of saddle, tree stand, climbing stick.
I'll throw $20 in on it.
Wonder if you could make a living running a portable trailer like that. Or at least a weekend side hustle.
 
@Mschmeiske, you can definitely tune a bow yourself. The mystique of bow tuning is no longer a dark art since the advent of the interweb and YouTube.
Just like yourself, I got tired of having to go to a shop and pay to have work done on my bow and not know exactly what or how it was done or whether what was done was actually needed so I decided to learn how to do it myself. This was a few years ago when the only adjustment I would make would be with my sight, lol.
Now I'm no expert tuner and don't profess to know it all but I have been able to successfully tune every single bow I have put my hands on, from a couple of solocam Mathews to a bunch of their newer offerings, a few PSE's and a couple of Bowtechs. With all of these bows I was able to set them up to specs, paper tune to shoot bullet holes, have perfect arrow flight and have broadheads and field points hitting together. Three were tuned for friends with them shooting the bow and another was with my son. Different bow manufacturers, different cam systems and cables, different draw weights and lengths but the tuning process is relatively the same for every bow. The best part of learning how to tune is the satisfaction and pride knowing the job is done right.
I say go for it!
 
Forgot to mention that you will need a bow press to work on your bow and although the initial price may sting, remember it's a one time purchase that will save you a bunch of $$$ over the years. A draw board isn't an absolute must have but it can really save you time and help with tuning. Check the internet for diy drawboards to make an inexpensive one yourself.
 
Mschmeiske said:
I’ve done brief reading and such on tuning a compound bow, I don’t believe it’s rocket science and I’m sick of spending money at a shop when I believe I could do it myself….
I don’t want to put my foot in my mouth, so I’m basically asking for those of you who tune your own bows, let me know if there’s more too it, or if your “average Joe” is more than capable of doing the work themselves.
I can tie in a peep sight and dial in a sight/rest with modified French tuning… but I’m curious about cables and strings mostly. Hope that makes sense.
Click to expand...

It's not that hard in typical cases....just go slow and take pictures and measurements before you do anything (especially for the first time).

It isn't rare for people to route cables incorrectly.

When you put a new string and cable set on, there is a good chance it will be out of spec. I first put it on a draw board and sync the cams to each other. You then add or subtract twists from cable(s) and/or string until draw length and draw weight are on and your axle to axle length and brace height are within tolerances (preferably you can return all these to what they were before string change). Depending upon your cam system, you might have to adjust yokes or shims etc.

once it is in spec, then check cam sync again because you might have changed things....i just can't see adjusting to spec with a bow out of sync starting out

I used to use a bowmaster press to do this. I can't stand those. . If you want to save money, get the synunm press or better yet spend the money on a last chance ez green press. You also have to have a draw board. A vice is nice but not absolutely necessary.
 
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Taking a picture or five is always a good idea. There was just a thread on archery talk not too long ago and a guy installed his cables wrong and put the bow on a draw board and cranked it back and his scale topped out at 100# draw weight. It didn't blow up but he smoked his limbs.
 
I’ve been tuning for 4 years now, maybe it’s not rocket science or dark arts, but sometimes it actually can be a little bit of both… depends on the bow and the setup. Plenty of times I’ve gone down the rabbit holes of “how important are the cam timing holes”, is it the bow or my grip or the arrow spine, no matter what this peep won’t align, nudging rests vs twisting yokes… ETC. I love it sometimes and hate it sometimes. But my bows are much much better tuned than when I used to rely on a shop.
 
Mschmeiske said:
I’ve done brief reading and such on tuning a compound bow, I don’t believe it’s rocket science and I’m sick of spending money at a shop when I believe I could do it myself….
I don’t want to put my foot in my mouth, so I’m basically asking for those of you who tune your own bows, let me know if there’s more too it, or if your “average Joe” is more than capable of doing the work themselves.
I can tie in a peep sight and dial in a sight/rest with modified French tuning… but I’m curious about cables and strings mostly. Hope that makes sense.
Click to expand...

I’ve been tuning my bow and friends bows for about ten years, it’s definitely not rocket surgery but I stick to bow models/brands I’m familiar with, just easier that way. If you can find a bow tech to help you get started that’s a huge help.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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