What is the minimum distance most of you bare shaft? What is your max? Thanks

K -

Sanity check @ 10 yards, "trad" @ 20, target up to 70M.

Viper out.

Pretty much as Viper said here too.

Would 15 do any good or go out to 20?

Start close and go as far back as you want too. A properly tuned arrow will fly accurately without fletching under ideal condition as far as care to shoot.

I have personally shot them from as far as 40 yards with good results. not that that’s a requirement. Personally 20 yards is what I tune for.

Any flaws in form, technique and adverse weather conditions will be the deciding factor on distance.

The error is so small at 10 yards spine won't make much difference. It starts to show up at 15 & opens up pretty good at 20. If you can group bare and fletched together at 20 that is plenty good. If you are a very good shot you can fine tune, make very slight adjustments, at 30 yards. That pretty well covers most of us for hunting. If you are a competitive target shooter you can take it out as far as you want. The adjustments will be very small at longer distances. If that is the case I am pretty sure you would have already known this. >>>----> Ken

Well, Ken… I suppose that really depends on how close you are to begin with!

LOL

JMO, if you are shooting wood or aluminum and you’re not sure how close you are, start at 5 yards. Maybe less. I have broken wood shafts when they hit the target flying at two extreme an angle, and they are just too valuable to go busting them up that way.

I have had the experience of seeing a bare shaft that appears to be perfectly tuned at about 50 feet break pretty hard to the right somewhere between 20 and 30 yards, such that I go from tidy little groups at 20 to missing by a couple of feet at 30.

But you know… Once you get it right, you’ve got it right. I have some bare shafts which fly right down the center to 50 or 60 yards. I’m not saying that I get terrific groups or anything, but if I can put them onto the paper when shooting at a 65 cm NFAA bullseye, then at least I know that my fletchings aren’t having to correct for any gross error.

So my philosophy has become “if you think you’re tuned, just back up another 5 yards and see if you find a reason to change your mind.”

Sooner or later, either your bare shafts will group to one side or the other vs. fletched, or you get to where you can no longer shoot a recognizable group anyway.

But if your bares are in it, they’re in it.

Yes Sir but with your experience, computer programs, & charts you shouldn't be that far off to start with. :^) If you see a aluminium or carbon hitting at a harsh angle wood or bamboo of the same spine will surely break. I broke one of my choice hand made, self nocked arrows by being lazy. I had several bows out. I thought wonder how it will fly out of this one. Hard lesson learned. >>>----> Ken

High FOC tuned carbon shafts will shoot a long way. I don't know if I would go beyond 15- 18 yards with wood. If you are OK at 15 with wood you are probably ready to fletch up. They are too easy to break when bare shafting. I have some of those tapered AD carbons that shoot without feathers way out there. I wish those would be higher quality. Tedd

20 to start and get things pretty right, then 40 with a lit knock to watch it longer and see it better.

Sometimes I shoot a dozen bare for a good while before I ever fletch them.

I also number each one in case I need to spot a repeat offender.

I like the way you think David. I have a dozen bamboo with that naturel taper, that I never bothered to fletch. I shoot them that way indoors or on calm days. Kind of proves you don't need 5 - 5 1/2 feathers if you are tuned. Eh? >>>----> Ken

I like those AD tapered carbons so much that I bought a bow #10 heavier just so I could get them to shoot in good tune.

They do have an Achilles heel, though, in that if you don’t get the glue-in nock adapters, they have a very short half-life at our club where it’s virtually impossible to miss a target and not hit a rock. I would never buy the nitro stingers again because they are so light that they are fragile but yes, high FOC is basically half-fletched anyway.

I have gotten aluminum to shoot Bare out to about 30 yards, but I have not pushed my luck with wood yet. I don’t think it’s necessary, to be honest…

I like to go out in a big open field and shoot as far as I can A hundred yards or more will REALLY tell you about your tuning.

If they are right, they'll shoot straight feathers or not, and no better way to find out how happy you and your release are.

always have a bare shaft in my quiver when practicing. Think it was Ken Beck who said it’s like having a personal coach

I agree 100%. They only fly straight when tuned and shot correctly.

Shooting a string of tuned bare hafts is no babysitter, if you want the truth about your form and release then that's where you'll find it.

With high FOC arrows like I shoot you'll see more at 10 yards than you will at 20. Even if it is flying poorly the arrow will straighten out at longer distances.

I guess you can 'fine tune' at 30 plus yards with some arrows. From personal experience if it's flying decent at 10 you'll be good with feathers/broadheads.

Don't let perfect be the enemy of damned good.

FOC on most of my arrows is right around 14%.

About 10-12 yds is good to start.I like to have the height about shoulder high as well.

Boy oh boy, shooting a bow is like rocket science. LOL

I would start at 15 and you can easily see the nock orientation as it flies to the target. After I got them flying straight or nearly straight, I'd move back to 25 and then done. If it flew straight at 25 it would fly straight at any distance.

I’ll echo the advice on wood arrows. Very easy to break if they hit the target on too much of an angle

“With high FOC arrows like I shoot you'll see more at 10 yards than you will at 20. Even if it is flying poorly the arrow will straighten out at longer distances.”

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…..

That is a Point Worth Investigating. The shaft that I had which suddenly broke off line somewhere between 20 and 30 was a 1916 aluminum with I believe it was 125 up front. So not a spectacular amount of FOC.

And to be reasonable about it, I don’t think there is a particularly sound argument that a shaft which is tuned well enough to fly straight out to about 20 yards is not stabilizing pretty quickly, in which case a fletched arrow would never allow things to get out of hand.

But I never would’ve known that my AD “trad lights” we’re not perfectly tuned head I not seen them getting off line and correcting at about 5 yards. Those had high profile 5 inch shields on them, so it was almost one and done. Just a quick kick to the right before they snapped back on-line. and there is really no upside to scrubbing off that first chunk of speed at five or 10 yards. Not like you can ever get it back.

I don’t know about you guys, but I have a tendency… Or at least I did before I started tuning seriously… to end up with arrows that were too damn stiff. I guess I will have to keep an eye out for some very stiff shafts in the busted arrow bucket at the club so that I can see how they read…

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