Broken arrow !

[alanesq]

I made myself an identical arrow apart from feather fletching and it seems to go to aprox the same place on the target as my other arrows (as far as I can tell with my dodgy aiming anyway ;-)
I think the problem may be the way I am aiming? I line the string up with the centre of the bow then aim with the tip of the arrow (as I think I read somewhere this is how its done - as the arrow bends round the shaft when you release) - should I be looking straight down the arrow instead?

BTW - I have played with changing the spine, weight and length of my arrows but none of these seem to make a lot of difference - I am only shooting 30 yards, is this why ?

What sort of acuracy would be considered to make you a decent shot with a longbow?
e.g. at what distance would you expect to be hitting the yellow most of the time
Just wondering how I am doing (will probably be depressed when answer arrives ;-)

Cheers

[Macbow]

Alan - it sounds to me more like a form issue rather than arrow spine. I had a similar situation recently and ended up buying shafts spined 40-70 in order to correct my arrows grouping left. Everything went left irrespective of spine. At the end of a long and expensive process I ended up back with my original arrows.
The problem was a combination of not having a solid enough bow arm - I was relaxing it while I was concentrating on aiming (I have changed my aiming process so my usual shot process was different) - and an almost imperceptible twitch on my bow hand fingers which was enough to torque the riser slightly left.
Try tensing up your bow arm tricep and pushing slightly towards the target at release - the push forward is more mental suggestion than hard physical action. And try and grip your bow as lightly as possible - not always easy with a traditional longbow. Just try and maintain a relaxed grip and solid bow arm during the shot and the follow through.
Hope this helps a bit.

[Macbow]

Just a suggestion - try putting a sight on your bow for a little while - just a piece of tape wrapped around the riser at whatever height corresponds to 20 yards. A sight can tighten up focus and your groupings until you are happy then take it off.