Transcription
Hey guys, Dan Pickar here with Eastman's Bow Hunting Journal and Beyond the Grid TV. I'm excited about this video today because I've wanted to do it for a long time. What I'm going to do today is tune a bow from right out of the box to shooting broadheads perfectly in 30 minutes.
So let's not waste any time. We got the Matthews V331 bear bow. We're gonna put our components on and then head to the range. You're going to be surprised. Stick with me here. No paper tuning today, but we're going to get this thing shooting perfectly, I promise you.
This is a QAD Ultra Rest Integrate. This is built for Matthews. This is a micro-adjustable rest. It's very important for the way that we're going to tune this bow, so make sure you get yourself a good quality arrow rest. Do not skimp on this. I love these drop aways. I don't think I would ever want to change if I had anything to say about it because I just love these rests. They're so sleek.
These Matthews bows have these Picatinny rails basically, and it just clamps to your riser right there. Super sleek and doesn't weigh anything. So I'm going to take this outer plate all the way off because it's just hard for you to see otherwise. We got to loosen this little screw, and then on the bow it goes.
Okay, got our rest on. We're good. Okay, next we want to put the string loop on because we want to set our knocking point for our arrow. So what I like to do for a string loop, I like this light-colored stuff, a little bit of fluorescent. It just helps to see that knocking point in low light. I always try to stay away from darker string loops just for that reason.
So we're going to tie our clinch knot here. We're gonna suck that all the way down, and it can be hard to know how long of a loop that you want. You don't want to cut it too long and have it too long or too short and have it too short. So what I do is I just go and tie it on with the piece of string that I have and kind of tighten it down. That's going to kind of give me an idea because this is going to stretch quite a bit.
So what I'll do is get my scissors. I just cut it right in line with that. Okay, and then I untie it, fray the end a little bit, and burn this. So my length should be good, and it's going to stretch too. So if it's a little tight when I start, I'm not going to get too worried about it because it will stretch. It'll work.
Okay, so this looks a little short right now. It will stretch a little bit. If I don't like it, if I want a little bit longer one, I can put another one on later, but that will stretch out nice. So what I want to do now is find my knocking point. What that means is you want your arrow to be knocked and sitting on your bow perpendicular to the string.
I like to start with doing it as perfectly perpendicular as possible. Man, over the years, I've learned just to eyeball it and get it pretty darn close. So you can do that, and what I'll do is I'll just kind of get down here. You always want your arrow to be shooting through the center of your rest bolt. That's the exact center part of your bow, and so you want to set your bow up so you're shooting right through the center of that part.
Once again, I'm eyeballing. I'm comparing the piece of the machined riser here from the arrow shaft and looking at it level and saying, "Yeah, that's right through the center of that bolt." I'm looking pretty parallel right here. I would probably just run with this, but you can put your bow square on, and you can get your exact center point by putting your bow square on and reading your numbers here.
There's the exact center point, and so that's running. It's actually right on, right to the center of your knocking point. Yeah, it's right there. So let's put our sight on, and then we're gonna throw this thing in the bow press and put our peep in, and then we're headed to the range.
Okay, we got a sight on, got our rest on. Let's take it out of the vice, and we're going to line up our center shot while we're at it. So what I like to do when I line up center shot, once again, I'm eyeballing it. I've done a lot of these, so I've kind of gotten used to doing it.
But what I like to do is I knock an arrow in the resting position, and I look straight down the center of this limb pocket bolt. I'm just looking straight down the riser, right at the center of that bolt, right down at my arrow shaft. I want it to come out right down through the center of this 740 nano dampener. That's just the center of my bow, and so that's kind of what I'm looking for as a starting location to set my center shot in the resting position is my arrow just passing through the center of my bow.
Okay, to set my peep sight, the first thing I want to do is draw my bow back. There usually is a little blue string here to help you indicate that. I took it out earlier, but what I like to do is just knock my arrow and draw my bow. Make sure my grip's good, anchor point's good. I'll close my eyes, I'll anchor, I'll come down and touch the tip of my nose to the string, and then I'll open my eye like I'm aiming.
That's exactly where I want that peep to be. So I can see a couple hairs on the string there. I'm gonna have that marked. Yeah, there's a little hair right there. That's where I'm gonna put my peep in. So into the bow press it goes. Matthews makes it really easy with this style of press. There's the little notches on the ends of the limb there. They fit right in there. That's pretty much the only way to do it, the safest way to do it.
So this easy press is definitely the best press for these Matthews bows. I'm just going to crank her down until I get a little tension on this. Okay, so my string is pretty loose here. Here's my hair right here, so I'm going to split this string. There we go, perfectly in half, and just tuck this peep in.
Okay, peep's in place, and then I want to go down here to my downward cable, and I need to split that. There's no string in this. I just kind of mess around with it until I have about half the amount of strands, and I'm not pulling any fibers apart or anything, and then I'm just tucking that string in.
So I slowly let my press back down. I'll make sure none of my strings and cables came off anywhere, so this is good here. Okay guys, we have the Ultra Rest Integrate MX installed on the bow via the Picatinny rail. This is a brand new rest, so we got it in the bow press, and we just strung it through the downward traveling cable, and that's what's going to activate the fork or the prong of the rest.
Now this rest is activated by tension, and this arrow needs to line up with that hash. This is in the resting position at this point, but for this rest to activate and essentially drop during the shot, it has to be starting from here with those two arrows lining up.
So the question is, how do we set the length of the cord on your rest? So this cord can travel through your cable, so you want to go a little bit short. All we're going to do to set the proper length on this is draw the bow back. It's that simple.
So we knock an arrow, load our arrow, and we're just going to draw this bow. During the draw cycle, this cord is going to pull through to the point to where this is activated, and it's going to set it to the length that we need.
Okay, there we go. We're at full draw. I can see with my eyes that those two lines are matched up, so it's set at the proper length now. So now what I can do is essentially mark this, and then I'll cut the excess off, melt the end, and you're set and ready to go. That's all it takes to set the pull cord on this Integrate MX.
Now, putting a peep in is going to twist the string a little bit and mess up your string loop, but you know, probably I'll have to adjust this maybe one more time if I don't have it perfectly lined up for me at full draw. A lot of times over time on new bows, the strings will stretch, and this will twist a little bit.
But just like a half a twist in the main string itself, either in or away from the twist of the string on the peep, and it'll straighten it right out. So that keeps it pretty simple. Matthews makes it really simple to check your timing. These are your timing holes on your cams, and there's one on each side.
So you look squarely through that timing hole, and you can see your cable through there. You want it to be passing through the center, if not close to that timing hole, and you want it to match on the other side. So I check one side, and then I check the other.
This one is going to be, let's see, it is not quite as advanced as this one, just by a tiny amount, just a fraction of a hair. So I'm probably going to shoot it as is. It's really, really close, and if I have any issues when I'm at the range, I can always come back to this and put a twist in my cable.
We're splitting hairs here. It may even just be both right on the money. All the Matthews bows that I've got coming from the factory, looking through these timing holes, they're usually very close. I mean, the guys do a good job at the factory setting these up for the timing to be dang near spot on, if not perfect.
So I've messed with them a little bit over the years setting up Matthews bows, but not much. I mean, I'm comfortable with taking this to the field and seeing what I can do. So let's go out to the range, and we're going to go shoot targets. No paper tuning here. That's a wasted step for bow hunting.
We're going to go right to sighting this bow in and then broadhead tuning. That's going to be the key to this tune today. Alright guys, we're out here at the range now. We just set this bow up. We haven't done anything but put the rest and the sight on and a peep. Other than that, it's not tuned at all.
The first thing we want to talk about is the arrow, your arrow selection. This is a 70-pound bow, 29-inch draw, so I'm shooting a 350 spine arrow. 350, 300 spine, either one of those will work. Technically, the 350 might be a little bit under spine for it, but I cut them short, 26 and a half inches carbon to carbon on this, so it's a little bit short, and that'll increase your stiffness as well.
But with Matthews, over the years, I've had zero problems tuning 300 spine and 350 spine, so I'm not too worried about it. So we have our arrow selection. Now we want to look at our sight. So we knock our arrow, and I'm just eyeballing here. Once again, I'm looking at the plane of my arrow. I'm looking down the string and seeing where my sight lines up, and I can see that my pin is probably a half an inch in.
So I need to move my sight housing to the left out a little bit and get it more in line with my arrow. I'll show you exactly what I mean here in a second. Okay, so I'm just going to loosen this. I'm going to move this sight housing out, oh, probably a couple notches, pull it out. I can see from the factory it's not quite where it needs to be.
So I'm out two notches now. Once again, I'm lining up the string to the sight. I'm almost lined up on the same plane, so I'm going to go another notch, notch and a half right there. That's dead center. One more. So I want my pin just to the outside of the same plane as my string and my arrow, just to the left of it.
Because with all compound bows, you're always going to have that lateral torque, meaning you have your cable guard. You're going to have side pressure on your bow, and so when you're at full draw, the bow is going to be torqued just a little bit like this. It's going to just be in like this, and that's going to bring your sight, your string, and your arrow all lined up, and that's how you get your left and right sorted out.
So I can see by just looking at it when I line up my string that my sight, my actual pins are just to the left of the string and the arrow on that plane. Okay, so my sight is ballpark. I have it all the way to the top, which is going to be at the top of my sight tape or 20 yards. So I have my sight set all the way to the top. It's probably going to be pretty close somewhere right there.
Once again, this is our first initial shot, so we're kind of, we're not guessing, but we're going to get close and make sure that we don't shoot over the target. Once again, we just want to get this arrow on the target. That's our goal right now. I drew this back when I set my peep. There, the string loop stretched out nicely. That's perfect for me. That's exactly the length that I like my string loops.
I like them shorter than I do long, but there's still enough room there to have flex and give if your hand's tweaking or it's off just a little bit. So that stretched out pretty nice. When it comes down to getting a perfect broadhead tune, your form has to be perfect if you want consistency.
So your grip, I hate to even call it a grip because you're not gripping it. Think of it as this meaty part of your hand. You're pushing the bow away from you. You're not death gripping it, so you're pushing the bow away from you. You do not want to overgrip the bow. If you look here, this would be overgripping. You're going to hit your arm; you're going to be torquing the bow.
What I like to tell new archers is this inside line of the grip. I do not like it to cross this crease this way. This is the no-go zone in here for gripping a bow. You want that grip on the meaty part of your thumb right here. So I like to put it right up in there. Imagine that you have a steel rod running down your arm, and it's coming out the palm of your hand. That's where you want your pressure.
So I got my release knocked, meaty part of my thumb, have the pressure. I'm drawing back, good anchor point right on the corner of my jaw, touching the tip of my nose to the string, and my peep is right there. That's exactly where I want it. I want it dead center. You can see that twist a little bit. We can solve that later when we go back to the bow press.
So I'm going to move up just a little bit. Come up with me. Once again, this is the initial shot. I don't want my arrow to go flying. I know it's going to be close. We're like six yards here, so I'm going to draw back. I'm kind of looking. I mean, you can look down your arrow shaft. It looks pretty good, so I'm going to kind of aim in the center.
Holy smokes, I hit about where I was aiming, so it's pretty close to being right on. So that's like six yards. Let's step back to 15 and see where we're at. Okay, we're going to shoot a couple more just to make sure we're sighted in. We're sighting in with field tips right now. That's what we're doing. We want to get as close as we can to the center, and we'll adjust our sight accordingly.
Got my trusty matrix target down there. You can see I rotated my modules. I rotated the hexes, so I have a nice fresh hex in the center. So we're a little low. I'm going to shoot one more. So when it comes to sighting in a bow, you want to move your front sight to the arrow to where you're shooting.
So we're a little low, we're a little right. Hopefully, I'll get a similar result here. Same spot. Okay, so I'm going to drop my sight down a little bit, and then I need to go to the right. So I need to come back to my sight housing here, and I'm just going a whisker to the right.
So there, just in a little bit. Tighten that back up, and we'll go get our arrows, and we're gonna shoot again. This is round two of our field tip shooting. See where we're at. We made some slight adjustments. We should be close to center now. That's in the white. One more just for consistency's sake.
See how my peep's rotating? I'm just gonna have to deal with that now and kind of twist it, but I'll have to put a twist in the string when I get back to the shop. That won't matter too much right now. Okay, that's in the white too.
Okay, so our bow's sighted in. We're 15 yards. We're probably going to step back to 20 yards, and then we're going to tune the bow. We're going to shoot broadheads and get this thing tuned perfectly and ready to go bow hunting with.
Alright guys, we're going right to the broadhead tune. So the first thing I like to do is get myself four arrows. I have two field tips, and I have two cut-on-contact broadheads here. High profile. This is what I'm looking for. I'm looking for a high profile broadhead. I'm looking for something that has a lot of blade because basically what happens is when it comes to broadhead tuning is your veins steer your arrow, and a big cut-on-contact broadhead also steers your arrow.
So what happens is if your arrow is leaving your bow knock left, knock right, knock high, or knock low, the broadhead is going to magnify that imperfection. My arrow leaves the bow knock left, and it travels down 20 yards and hits the target. It's going to hit to the right.
And so this big broadhead, the bigger the broadhead you have, the more it's going to steer to the right because the knock, the veins are to the left, and that can be a rest position or it can be a spine issue depending on what the circumstances are. So that's why I have a big cut-on-contact broadhead, as it magnifies the imperfections in my arrow.
So first thing I'm going to do is shoot two cut-on-contact broadheads and then shoot two field tips. Okay, here we go. Broadhead, 20 yards. Okay, there's one. I'm an inch and a half right of center, which isn't bad, but we'll see what this Iron Will does. But like I said from before, if I'm hitting to the right, it's probably suggesting that I have a little bit knock left coming out of my bow.
So now I'm going to shoot my two field tips. So this bow is sighted in with field tips, so this should be right on as well. Second field tip. Okay, I can tell my broadheads are hitting a little bit to the right, so I'm gonna go get my arrows, and we're going to make an adjustment.
Okay, so this is the fun part here, and this is why we have a micro-adjustable rest. So we have broadhead impact to the right. Once again, that suggests that my knock is left as it's exiting the bow. If my arrow was hitting to the left, it would be knock right. If it was hitting low, I'd be knock high, and of course, if it's hitting high, I'd be knocked low.
So it's telling me the imperfections in my arrow in my tune. So all I have to do is make my rest adjustment, and we're on to the next step. Okay, so this is the beauty of a micro-adjustable rest. My up and down is good; my left and right has issues.
So this screw is going to untighten my prong, and this knob is going to give me the adjustment, the left and right adjustment that I'm going to need. Now with my broadheads hitting right, that means my arrow is coming off the bow to the left. So the idea here is I want to bring the point of the arrow back to the left since my broadheads are hitting right.
So what I'm going to do is move my rest to the left, and this is a really small amount. We're talking a 64th of an inch. This is just the smallest amount, but it makes a big difference. So we're going to go one, two clicks to the left, and we're gonna tighten our prong back up.
With this, that's gonna bring the front of our arrow back to the left and hopefully correct our knock left problem. Now, if you have two corrections that you need to make, if you're hitting say low and to the right, you want to do one correction at a time.
So I want to get my left and right solved first, and once I get that in line with my field tips, then I'm going to correct my up and down. Luckily in my case, we just have a left issue, so it's just one movement. So we made our adjustments. Let's shoot our broadheads first.
Once again, shoot your broadheads first so you don't ruin your arrows, and let's see where we're hitting. That's a bullseye. That's in the white. So what that does is just by that small amount, it's taking that knock left out, and it's basically making your broadheads group with your field tips.
That's when you know you have the tune is when your broadheads group with your field tips. They hit in the same spot. Oop, I hit my other arrow. You don't want to do that. Hopefully, I didn't ruin it. That's a good sign though.
So there's two broadheads, and I fully expect these two field tips to hit right in there with them. Yep, and so making that 64th of an inch adjustment, it's not enough to really move the impact of your arrow as a whole. And even if it did, that's when you would move your sight after the fact.
But since I only had to do two clicks to the left, that's such a small amount that it didn't really affect my point of impact, so I'm not going to have to move my sight. But if it did, after you tune your arrows, after you're broadhead tuned, then you would move your sight and bring it back to center.
That's right in the white. So there you go. Tuning a bow can be very easy. It can also be very difficult, but if you keep the mindset of it simple and skip the paper tuning, once again, we're tuning for bow hunting.
If you're a target shooter, you're not going to shoot broadheads. Paper tuning is great, but since I'm a bow hunter, I want my broadheads to be perfectly tuned, perfectly accurate. I go right from the shop right to the range and get my broadheads tuned, and now I know my bow is perfectly tuned.
With my experience with helical arrow fletchings, I can shoot any broadhead I want now and have field tip accuracy, especially at distance. So for me, there's no excuse to not get a cut-on-contact or a fixed head not to shoot because I'm broadhead tuned. They hit with my field tips, and if your bow's tuned, they will hit with your field tips every time, as long as your form is good.
So there you have it. Broadhead tuning, simple. We did this in probably less than 30 minutes of actual work from the bow shop to the range. Hopefully, this helps you out. Be sure to subscribe to our channel, and man, we're always putting out new videos.
I'm always brainstorming of new videos to make for you guys just to make your lives simpler. Once again, leave me a comment if you have any other questions. You can email me anytime at dan.p@eastmans.com. I'm more than willing to help you guys. I love archery. I've been doing this for 25 years since I was a kid.
I've learned from my mistakes, and hopefully, my mistakes you won't have to make, and you will actually have a simple, pleasurable time tuning your hunting bow.