How do you tune your longbow ?

[cloutman360]

How do you tune your longbow?Is it a sin to ask the question.Do you arrive at a satisfactory tune by a predetermined method? Serious and abusive replies most welcome!

[Dante]

Trial and error, when it feels good thats it for me. A bit of a twist of the string / change the bracing height and eventually Bobs your uncle.

But then again that just me

[Kae]

1. Set brace height (Thumb and Fist method - I know mines the right size )
2. Try arrows of the correct spine (Longbow arrows are cheap(er) to make, so I try a range of arrows around the correct spine).
3. When I've found the correct arrow, make up a set.
4. One tuned longbow.

Kae.

[Macbow]

Set brace height initially to your bowyer's recommended setting then adjust up or down a few twists at a time to whatever feels & sounds best when it is being shot. Often it is easier for another experienced archer to do the listening.
Then tune the best set of arrows you can afford to the bow. IMO the arrow tuning is vital as it is the arrows that are scoring points not the bow. The best tuned most expensive bow in the world cannot make a crappy set of arrows fly straight and true.

[English Bowman]

Originally Posted by Macbow

IMO the arrow tuning is vital as it is the arrows that are scoring points not the bow. The best tuned most expensive bow in the world cannot make a crappy set of arrows fly straight and true.

Absolutely, and that goes for any bow, longbow, recurve or compound. The thing is there is less scope for tuning a longbow to the arrow, playing with the string is about all you can do, so the thing to do is make the arrows match the bow

Daniel

[cloutman360]

Sound advice.What distance do you perfer to shoot when testing arrows?Do you use a target?

[English Bowman]

I tend to use various distances, much like walk back testing for compound or recurve tuning. I shoot for groups at 20yds, and then increase the distance out to the max that I'll be using those arrows at, so for target up to 100yds.

And yes I do use a target.

I also number my arrows, and if I keep having one arrow flying badly, I check the number and if it's the same arrow each time, I blame the arrow, if it's a different number I blame myself!

[cliveanne]

When I purchased my Longbow, "Tuning" came up in conversation. All the above was mentioned. I was looking for "Add/remove" strands. Or is that hypercritical?

[English Bowman]

Originally Posted by cliveanne

When I purchased my Longbow, "Tuning" came up in conversation. All the above was mentioned. I was looking for "Add/remove" strands. Or is that hypercritical?

Depends on how good you are!
Adding or removing strands will have an effect on longbow tuning, but I've never found the need to do so yet, maybe I'm not good enough to notice the difference, or maybe I've been lucky and got strings that are right first time.

Daniel