Troubles;with me or bow?

[Samuel]

Hi there,

I consider myself a novice to the sport of archery so go easy!!! I've just recently purchased a 68" viper longbow with a draw weight of 30-35Ibs. My draw lenghth is 29" and had my easton jazz 1916's cut at 31" by the 'man in the shop'. When i tryed these aliminiun badboys out i was swifly disapointed. The plastic vanes kept chaffing the shelf which resulted in very poor arrow flight. Is it the case of sticking feather fletching on on some aliminium shafts, tuning my brace height further or just working with what i've got and improving my technique?

Please ...anyone ...help....!!!

[Kae]

The first thing I would check is your brace height, and especially your nock point height. Your nock height should be a mm or two above level.

I can't get to an easton chart to check your spine, but this would be a good start.

Kae.

[jimlee]

Samuel, the Viper is what is called in the UK an American Flatbow and I presume you are shooting with the arrow running directly on the shelf, if this is the case you might need to raise the nocking point slightly to let the fletchings clear the shelf, as you stated it may help to get the arrows re-fletched with feathers as they will deform more easily if they contact the bow, so the arrows won't be booted so far off line. Best advice I can give, is to get yourself to an archery club and seek lessons and-or advice.
Hope you get things sorted and welcome to the forum.

Cheers, Jim.

[Desert Archer]

Shooting off the shelf (instead of an elevated rest) with vanes almost never works. You need to get feather fletching on those aluminum arrows before you change anything else.

Dave

[ChakaZulu]

Feathers. I shoot a Viper and you really don't want vanes on it. It's a lovely bow though.

I'd get a fletching jig and do it yourself personally. Partly because it's enjoyable in its own right, but also because in my experience even feathers will get ruffled eventually (albeit my nock point was out a bit) and you're going to want to be able to do running repairs without going to the shop each time.