Answer:
First, we wouldn’t use the bare shaft from the start. Use it only if you can’t determine by any other method whether or not you have a fletching contact problem. The reason we are hesitant to use the bare shaft is because it is fairly easy to damage a shaft when shooting it without fletching. That is because it can easily bend on contact with the target if it gets too far sideways.

We recommend standing roughly six feet from the paper and placing the paper at least three feet from the backstop. That way the arrow is clear of the paper before it hits the target. If you are using fletched arrows you can place the paper much farther from the backstop.

For the ultimate guide to tuning your bow and arrow tuning you can download the east archery tuning guide here.

The center serving on a bowstring serves as a launching pad for an arrow. It secures the nocking position, snugs the nock and protects the strands of the string from harmful wear created by finger tabs or release aids. If it unravels or loosens, shooting becomes hopeless or even dangerous. For safety sake and consistent shooting, learn to replace the serving on your bowstring. Given the low cost of serving jigs offered by Bohning, Bjorn and Cavalier and serving material by BCY and Brownell, there’s no reason not to.

Although monofilament or nylon serving material will work, we prefer braided Fast Flight for the extra flexibility and strength it provides. A tight serving of Braided Fast Flight will outlast any other serving type. Although a 100-yard spool costs about three times as much as monofilament or nylon, a spool will serve enough strings to last for years.

For all the items you need to serve your bowstring and a dvd on how to serve your bowstring see: http://www.eders.com/products/bohning-all-in-one-serving-kit.html

Follow the steps shown here to learn this important task.

Step One

To start, remove the bow's cable guard and position cables so they are out of the way. Next, split the bowstring about two inches above center or two inches above old nocking point using a rounded nail and insert serving material leaving about four inches of thread along the string.

Step Two:

Using the serving jig, wrap the serving down and around bowstring 10 to 20 times.

Step Three:

After wrapping the serving about twenty times, pull the extra thread tight and cut.

Step Four:

After cutting the extra thread, continue to wrap the serving tool down and around the string until you are about 4 to 5 inches below the arrow rest. Be sure to adjust the tension on the tool so wrappings are tight together. You adjust the tension on the serving jig by tightening or loosening the wing nut.

Step Five:

After serving about four or five inches below the rest, pull out a large loop of thread, insert the tool back within the loop.

Step Six:

After pulling jig through loop, begin serving from bottom of loop up toward the serving you just wrapped. Be sure to wrap serving in opposite direction from the above serving. Go around ten to twenty times.

Step Seven:

Once there is 10 to 20 wraps inside the loop, position tool along top serving.

Step Eight:

With the serving jig now hanging over the top of the loop, use your hands to serve the thread down and around the bowstring. As you wrap the serving thread around the string the lower part of the serving thread that you just made at the bottom of the loop will unravel. When the serving on the bottom is completely unraveled there will be just a small loop of thread left.

Step Nine:

After the bottom of the loop is unraveled there will be a small loop of thread left at the bottom of the serving.

Step Ten:

Hold the loop and pull the serving tool string to pull the loop through. Pull tight and trim off.

Step Eleven:

After cutting the extra thread you are ready to install nock set. Using a T-shaped nocking square place a nocking point about 1/8 inch above the top of the rest. You

Step Twelve:

Release shooters may want to add an extra-tight layer of serving below the nock set for extra protection from caliper releases. Perform the aforementioned, except lay two or three inches of serving and fold serving against string when beginning, rather than placing it through the serving.

Editor’s Recommended Products: If you want to serve your bowstring, you absolutely need two things, A serving jig and serving thread. I suggest you check out the BCY 26 Server. It allows you to adjust tension nicely and is the tool we used to put this article together. As far as thread goes, Brownell Diamondback Braided Fast Flight is the way to go. If you need to get a T-square and nocking pliers, the Allen Compact Bow Tuning Kit is a hard price to beat. Last but not least, Saunders’ Nocking Points complete the project. Have fun and don’t be intimidated. Once you get the hang of serving the bowstring, its easy and it feels good to be able to do it.

Get all the products you need to redo your center-serving at eders.com:

For all the items you need to serve your bowstring and a dvd on how to serve your bowstring see: http://www.eders.com/products/bohning-all-in-one-serving-kit.html

For all the items you need to serve your bowstring and a dvd on how to serve your bowstring see: http://www.eders.com/products/bohning-all-in-one-serving-kit.html

If your field tips have been consistently wobble-free and your bow is well tuned, you may simply have a bad case of the jitters. Apprehension about THE first day can do funny things to people, especially bowhunters after they attach a razor sharp broadhead to their hunting shafts. Torquing the bow, lack of back tension, not picking a spot, target panic, plucking the string and poor follow through are just some of the problems brought about by anxiety.

Fortunately, the solution is simple. Relax! Take it easy! Concentrate on the basics, and your form will return in minutes. If your arrows are still flying off into the wild blue yonder, then you are experiencing more than an anxiety attack-you’ve got one or more of those dreaded tuning problems.

First check to see if ALL your shafts are going hay wire. One or two could be dinged or bent from your summer practice sessions. Even pulling an arrow from a target butt, if not done with care, can cause curvature to an aft. Look too at the nocks. You may have replaced one improperly by cutting or not cleaning the nock swage, or by not rotating the nock correctly for proper fletch clearance.

A simple spin test will show you if your other arrows are wobble-free. Sometimes machining tolerances between broadheads and bushings are too great which can lead to your broadheads wobbling all the way to the target. A plastic washer might eliminate the problem, but more often than not you’ll need to switch broadheads from one shaft to another in trial and error fashion until you find a combination that spins true.

Of course, if you have been practicing extensively with your broadheads, you might have damaged the blades or bent the ferrule. Examine each head closely, and if that’s the case replace the damaged head with a new one.

A gob of glue on one side of the insert can also cause your arrow to wobble near the broadhead. Simply reheat the glue around the insert, and then twist the insert with a pair of pliers to redistribute the glue. Be careful, those aluminum shafts can be hot.

Broadheads suddenly veering off course? A new bow quiver full of arrows can change your point of impact.

Broadheads still veering off target? Think back. A common mistake archers make is adding something to the bow that wasn’t there during their summer practice sessions. Swatches of muff glued to your arrow rest or plunger button to silence an aluminum hunting shaft can have a deleterious effect on arrow flight. And a quiver full of arrows or a new stabilizer can sometimes change your broadhead’s point of impact leading you to erroneously believe your arrows have suddenly gone awry.

Did you make any changes to your equipment, like increasing the poundage of your bow, after you attached your broadheads? If so, did you turn the upper and lower limb bolts evenly? A change in bow poundage can adversely impact the spine of your arrow, and uneven stress on the limbs can stop the wheels or cams from rolling over simultaneously. This can interfere with the bow’s timing and cause your broadheads to porpoise up and down.

The most common explanation for poor broadhead flight however is lack of fletch clearance, often indicated by black on your arrow’s fletching. Indeed, the slightest interference between any part of the bow and the arrow’s fletching will ruin broadhead accuracy.

First check your bow for loose or damaged components. Start by tightening everything down with a set of Allen wrenches. A loose arrow rest, a cable guard that has turned into the bow or a bow sight that has slipped down into the arrow’s path can all cause your broadheads to fly haphazardly. Then give your bow a good look-see. Defective limbs are rare these days, but cracked launchers are not. A bent cable guard had me screaming for mercy one day until a friend noticed the unusual curvature. I must have stepped on the thing!
  
Next, eyeball your finished arrow to see if the fletching clears your cables, overdraw unit, center shot window and the forks on your arrow rest. You may need to rotate your nocks, adjust your cable guard, change your cable slide, remove part of your overdraw unit or try a different design arrow rest to get the clearance you need. And check out those arrow-rest support arms. They are notorious fletching grabbers!

If you can’t pinpoint the source of the interference, take the powder test. Spray your arrow rest, over draw unit sight window, cables, cable guard and the last eight inches of the fletched end of an arrow shaft with dry foot powder, and then shoot the shaft into a foam target. You don’t want the arrow to penetrate to the fletching. If the fletching comes in contact with any part of your bow, the foot powder will scuff or smear showing you the point(s) of contact and the position of the fletching as it leaves the bow. That should tell you if you need to rotate your nocks, readjust your cable guard, switch over to a lower profile fletching or change your style of arrow rest.

Arrows still wobbling? Your bow may not be as well tuned as you thought. According to Wayne Meritt, general manager of the Genesee Valley Taxidermy and Shooting Supplies complex in Caledonia, you may need to have your hunting set-up paper tuned at a qualified pro shop to achieve perfect arrow flight.

Tighten down all components. A loose arrow rest or cable guard can raise havoc with broadhead flight.

“A broadhead-tipped hunting shaft has the capacity to magnify any tuning error in the bow,” says Meritt, “causing the arrow to porpoise and/or fish-tail. Properly tuned however, your hunting shaft will look like a round dot all the way to the target.”

Generally, a tail-low tear indicates a low nocking point which can be easily corrected by raising you nocking point a 1/16″ at a time. A tail-high tear indicates a high nocking point. Lower the nocking point a 1/ 16″ at a time until you get the arrow point and fletching appear to enter the same hole. Once corrected, you arrows will stop porpoising. A tail-left tear usually indicates a weak arrow for right-handed shooters-lefties will expenience the opposite pattern. You can decrease your bow weight, use a lighter broadhead, switch to a stiffer shaft or increase the plunger button tension. Release shooters may have to move the arrow rest slightly to the left.

A tail-right tear usually indicates an arrow that is too stiff. Lefties again will see the opposite pattern. You can increase the bow weight, choose a weaker arrow, decrease the tension on the plunger button, or use a heavier broadhead. Release shooters may have to move the arrow rest slightly to the right.

There are however other variables including your shooting forn and the bow’s timing that can adversely affect the arrow’s flight through paper. That’s why visiting your local pro shop is most always in your best interest. Indeed, the paper test may verify what a good bow mechanic already suspects: an under spined arrow shaft is the second leading cause of poor broadhead flight.

“Many bowhunters, erroneously believe a lightly spined shaft will give them a speed advantage,” says Meritt. “After all, a flatter trajectory makes yardage estimation that much less of a problem. However, as a general rule of thumb, a lightly spined arrow does not mean more speed. In fact just the opposite may be true.

“When you set your hunting bow up with the correctly spined arrow, and you must include the shooter and shooting style in this equation, it will give you the flatest trajectory, the most speed, the most penetration, the most accuracy, and be the most forgiving in execution. Everything is gained by having a correctly spined arrow.

“For example, a 2114, 2213, and 2312 all weigh virtually the same, plus or a few grains. There is however a significant spine difference between these arrows. Why then would you want to shoot an arrow that borders on being under spined when you can shoot a properly spined shaft at the same weight?”

What about the fletching itself? Keep in mind that most finger shooters do best with standard five inch fletchings set with a slight helical. A release shooter may get away a shorter fletch or a fletch with less profile if the bow is well tuned.

One final note. Should you line up the broadhead blades with your arrow’s fletching? I hear different opinions from knowledgeable mechanics across the country. It doesn’t seem to be a requirement, but on the other hand many believe this set-up does seem to be more forgiving. One thing everybody seems to agree on, and that is it can’t hurt. Good hunting!

Paper Tuning
Generally, a tail-low tear indicates a low nocking point which can be easily corrected by raising you nocking point a 1/16″ at a time.

A tail-high tear indicates a high nocking point. Lower the nocking point a 1/ 16″ at a time until you get the arrow point and fletching appear to enter the same hole. Once corrected, you arrows will stop porpoising.

A tail-left tear usually indicates a weak arrow for right-handed shooters-lefties will expenience the opposite pattern. You can decrease your bow weight, use a lighter broadhead, switch to a stiffer shaft or increase the plunger button tension. Release shooters may have to move the arrow rest slightly to the left.

A tail-right tear usually indicates an arrow that is too stiff. Lefties again will see the opposite pattern. You can increase the bow weight, choose a weaker arrow, decrease the tension on the plunger button, or use a heavier broadhead. Release shooters may have to move the arrow rest slightly to the right.

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Answer:
Bare shaft tuning requires you to first shoot a group of arrows with fletching into a backstop at 20 yards, followed by a group without fletching. Make adjustments to bring the two groups together, and as soon as the unfletched arrows strike the same spot as the fletched, your bow is tuned. If the unfletched arrows impact above or below, first examine your wheel timing before moving your nock point up or down respectively. If they impact to the left (and you are shooting fingers) your shafts are probably too stiff. If they impact to the right your shafts may be too weak (finger shooter) or you may have contact between the fletching and your rest.

You may choose to shoot a bare shaft through paper to determine whether or not you have a fletching contact problem. If you can get your bare shafts to punch a perfect hole, but not your fletched shafts, you know your adjustments are fine. You must only rotate your nocks to find the position that will permit perfect arrow flight.

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To see just how much an arrow flexes and how much contact there maybe with your rest and bow, watch the video below.

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Equipped with broadheads, your hunting arrows are more sensitive to in-flight factors than are your practice arrows. Surely you know that the combination of broadheads and poor arrow flight will cause wind planing. But, even for advanced archers, tuning can sometimes leave a person scratching his head. There is one simple shooting test – an acid test for archery – that will provide important feedback on the most difficult elements of tuning to isolate: bow hand torque and fletching contact.

Shoot a bare shaft through paper and you’ll learn important information about your arrow flight and your shooting form. When you remove the fletching from an arrow you make it much more critical of tuning and release errors. Finger shooters have used bare shaft tuning for years, but it is just as valuable for release aid shooters when done correctly.

ELIMINATE FLETCHING CONTACT
Fletching interference is the most frequent cause of tuning problems. By removing the fletching from an arrow and shooting it through paper you can isolate interference as a possible cause. For example, if you are paper tuning a fletched arrow and get a left tear, the cause may be the position of your rest, bow hand torque or fletching contact. On the other hand, if you are shooting a bare shaft and get the same tear, you can immediately eliminate contact and work on the other two variables.

Once you have tuned a bare shaft you can again shoot one with fletching to find out if you have corrected the problem, or if contact is occurring. If you believe you have contact the nock must be rotated slightly to make the fletching fit through the rest. If this doesn’t work the degree of helical can be reduced slightly to improve clearance. Before you throw up your arms or wave the white flag, also take a look at your rest. It may be too restrictive to allow the fletching to pass cleanly. In that case, simply spread the support arms until they are just able to prevent the shaft from falling through. At last resort, you may also consider trying a different rest style.

FOUR KEYS TO IMPROVED FORM
Better shooting form results in better arrow flight. These tips will help you eliminate your form flaws so even bare-shafted arrows produce a bullet-hole.
Just relax: Tension results from straining to hold the bow at full draw. It’s nearly impossible to keep the pin from bouncing all over the target when your fighting the draw weight. Don’t be too proud to turn your bow down a few pounds (one turn on each limb bolt reduces draw weight by 3 to 5 pounds). You can always turn it back up as your strength improves with practice.

From the ground up, your whole body should remain relaxed throughout the shot. However, a relaxed bow arm is especially important. Bend your bow arm just enough to unlock the elbow causing your arm to relax more fully and act as a shock-absorber for the shot.

Use your back: The large muscles of the back are best suited for supporting the shot. Try this: After getting to full draw, relax all the muscles except your back. Feel the weight of the draw being supported by the large muscles just above and between the shoulder blades. To better feel these muscles at work, try flexing your back in a way that pulls your shoulder blades toward each other. The muscles you feel tensing are the same ones you should be relying upon to lock you in at full draw. These muscles can be built up very quickly and don’t add tension to the shot.

Releasing the string: With fingers, the correct trigger is the simple act of relaxing the back of your string hand. The string will slip out smoothly. The best finger shooters release the string with only two fingers. Consider dropping your top finger off the string once you reach full draw.

Mechanical release aids require a different approach. Two simple steps will have you squeezing the trigger instead of punching it. First, don’t release the arrow as soon as the pin crosses the center of your target. Let it float there for a second or two. This will defuse the nervous tendency to mash the trigger, which if unchecked, can quickly lead to an ugly condition known as target panic. Second, as your pin starts to settle on the target, rest your finger on the trigger. After a couple of seconds, simply curl it smoothly in one steady motion.

Follow through: The follow-through in archery is both mental and physical. It serves to hold everything together long enough for the arrow to escape the bow. Many bowhunters snap their grip hand closed at the same moment they release the string – destroying accuracy. A wrist sling may help you keep your hand relaxed and your fingers limp without the fear of dropping your bow.

Shooting a bare shaft through paper give critical feedback on all elements of tuning including your shooting form.

Your bow arm is another important part of the follow-through – maybe the most important part. Keep it steady and resist the common tendency to drop it when you release the string; it shouldn’t move one inch until the arrow hits the target. Follow-through mentally by staying focused. Continue aiming until the small spot you’re trying to hit disappears at the end of your arrow.

BOW HAND POSITION
Shooting a bare shaft through paper at a range of three to five yards also provides immediate and extremely critical feedback on the quality of your grip. Several years ago I was helping a buddy tune his new bow. He’s left-handed and for some reason we simply could not eliminate a hard left paper tear. Tears that point left for a left-handed archer and to the right for a right-handed archer are very rare among release aid shooters. I was perplexed. An hour later we’d tweaked just about everything and yet the problem persisted. In an effort to determine if it was some kind of weird contact problem, we removed the fletching from one of his shafts and shot it through the paper. It slashed even more wildly to the left.

The light bulb came on in my head. I took my buddy’s left-handed bow and shot it right-handed. The arrow made a perfect bullet hole on the first shot! Even though my friend is an accomplished archer, I immediately knew he was holding the bow wrong. He was trying to shoot the new bow using the same hand position he’d used on his old one. By experimenting with a couple of minor grip changes my friend was soon making a perfect bullet hole, as well. He found that by simply applying a little more thumb pressure to the side of the grip he could solve the problem with no discomfort or loss of accuracy.

This brings up an important point. I’ve tuned many different bow styles through the years. Every one of them required slightly different grip pressure to make it tune properly. That is one reason why some bowhunters get stuck on one bow brand – their bow hands have learned to seek the proper no-torque position automatically on familiar grips. The quickest way to determine if your bow hand position is faulty is to shoot a bare shaft through paper.

OTHER FORM FLAWS
In my own shooting I’ve been able to isolate various departures from correct form that were destroying arrow flight and making good accuracy literally a hit and miss deal. When you’re shooting fast arrows, 240 fps or faster, it becomes more difficult to group exposed blade broadheads consistently beyond 25 yards. If you hurry the release, or get a little tense, the arrow will veer badly. The trend is toward smaller heads to solve this problem. This “solution” only treats the symptoms of the ailment, and only partially at that. It is better to eliminate the root cause of shooting problems: grip tension, hand position and a rough release. Shooting a bare shaft through paper gives you the feedback you need to become a better archer.

BARE SHAFT TUNING FOR FINGER SHOOTERS
Bare shaft tuning means something different to finger shooters and than release aid shooters. For years, finger shooters have shot unfletched shafts in order to determine what corrections to make to their bow and arrow setups when tuning. If you wish to try this proven technique, first shoot a group using fletched shafts and mark the center. Next, from the same distance, shoot a group using bare shafts and mark this center. If both groups have essentially the same center your system is tuned. However, if the bare shafts plane off-line you’ll have to make corrections.

Here is general guideline to the proper corrections when your bare shaft groups are different from your fletched shaft groups. If the bare shaft group is to the left, try a more flexible shaft, increase point weight or turn up bow poundage. If the bare shaft group is below, move the nock point down, check fletching contact with the rest and check wheel timing. If the bare shaft group is to the right, try a stiffer shaft, a lighter point or reduce your draw weight. If the bare shaft group hits high, check wheel timing or move your nock point up.

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