- Joined
- Jan 17, 2019
- Messages
- 6,264
Ill try to be concise with my "Fairy Dust" journey.
Bought a new to me Matthews Switchback this year from a friend, got a good deal, 300 for bow, arrows, case, release etc. Arrows were 400 spine, 100 grains up front. Shot fast, shot okay. Throw a broadhead on there, arrow wanders off target.....2 or 3 inches in any direction.
Watch THP, see Ranch Fairy, do the research, understanding momentum and energy, this makes some sense to me.
Start testing.....take fletchings off 400 spine arrows....shoot....8 inch tear. Tinker, tinker tinker, lots of different spines, lots of different weights. End up with 250 spine, 250 grains up front, 30 inches making absolute bullet holes in the paper. Nock tune, add fletchings, test with my broadheads.......end up blowing an arrow right through my target, buried up to the nock.
I focused on proper arrow flight, let the weight of the arrow end up wherever it ends up. Ended up with a 30" 600 grain arrow, 250 spine, with 250 grains up front. yeah my pins are spread out a bit, I can only shoot to 40 yards, but I wont have shots over that where I am at anyways (Southeast CT).
now I just need a deer to test it on. Was a tough year for public land here. Coyotes are absolutely out of control here, and I was on the ground this season, which ruined the 3 opportunities for shots I had, due to limbs/trees being in the way.
If you were a newer shooter or weren't focused on form previously and those 400 spine arrows were even close for your bow, then I'd bet an 8 inch tear (esp. if it was left/right) was grip torque and/or fletching contact with the cable/rest/bow. It's actually tough to get a tear that bad unless those things are happening. As you progressed and tried different things, you might've been getting better at tuning and shooting and that was one of the factors pulling your arrows into better flight.
I shoot a 340 spine arrow, but I could probably get a 600 spine shooting near bullet holes within an hour if I wanted to mess with my system.
It's common for multiple things to be working together. For instance, as people add point weight or go to a heavier shaft, then there broadheads start shooting better. A lot of that is that heavier arrows are slower and slower arrows don't wind plane as hard and so (all else being equal) always shoot better with broadheads.