new to shooting - couple of questions

Hey guys I just bought my first compound a couple of weeks ago. Picked up a PSE vision, its very fun to shoot. I got the hang of it with 4" groups at 20 yards, but I want it to be tighter, and better groups at 30 and 40. I'm hoping its just human error right now, which will come with more practice.

My question is about the fletchings. The arrows the guys at the bow shop ( shooters choice ) set me up with are easton powerflight, 340 grain, with small blazer vanes.


how does a bow react to small vs large fletchings?

also, i noticed the off colour fletching on the blazer vane is perpendicular to the nock, while i have some more practice arrows a buddy got me from the states, and they are easton carbon raiders, 340 grain ( i cut them to match my original arrow length ) and they have large fletchings, and the off colour fletching is directly in line, putting the off colour straight up when its nocked.

Should i be using all the exact same arrows all the time for practice and hunting?

One more..
How much speed change is there by changing the draw weight. I believe the guy set my bow up at 63lbs, i asked for 70, but he said it would be too high for a new shooter learning to shoot.

Thanks

Absolutely use the same type of arrows for hunting. You will know exactly how your arrows will fly when the moment of truth arrives. The bow shop technician was correct in lowering your draw weight as your muscles will have time to react to the added stress of drawing 70 pounds. You still have about 2 months to "crank it up" to 70. Have fun, practice frequently and don't forget to post your pictures come October!

Skuba, stick to same arrow config between practice and hunting, consistency is key to accuracy. The off colour fletching helps you nock the arrow the same way every time, if you give me what kind of arrow rest your shooting off of I can give you accurate feedback on its position. Usually you want the off coloured arrow straight up in line with nock and string, there are few exceptions but just so we get you off on the right track let us know the arrow rest. You can rotate the nock on any of the arrows you have to get whatever alignment you want, the nocks are not hard glued in but press fit.I shoot powerflights also, great arrow for the buck, the shorter Blaze vanes are the way to go IMO, vanes create drag to straighten out the arrow flight, to much drag is that, too much drag, if you can get good performance out of the shorter vanes go that route. Most important thing is pick a set up (bow, arrows, heads, release) and stick to it, shoot it, make changes after long periods of time, not a practice session. Use practise tips that are the same weight as the broadheads you will use to hunt, again, consistency. Nigel Read (my bowtech) wrote an article for OOD a couple months ago about practising, stance, drawing, hand and hold position etc, it would be well worth your while to read this and stick as close as your comfortable to his guidelines (you can find it on this website), you may make a slight adjustment to your hand or hold position which is OK because no two people are the same, but if you do make a change, stick to it. Be conscious of every shot you take, don't be quick to release, hold, pause, shoot. With time you can start seeing toonie size groups at 20, coffee cups size groups at 30 and 40, you will occasionally have better groups at the longer distances but again, consistency is key, if you can hit coffee cup size groups on a consistent basis your well on your way. http://www.backcountrybowhunting.com/articles/calc/, Go to this link, you can see the impact of draw weight vs speed, calculate your arrow weight, check your FOC, then use the values on draw weight vs speed calculations. Don't get caught up in the speed trap, focus on the quiet and accuracy aspect, you'll chase speed for a lifetime but it will always come down to how quiet is your bow and how accurate are you. I hope this helps and gives you lots to consider, PM me if I can be of further help. Good luck, enjoy the challenge.

Thanks for the responses guys,
DGM, I have a whisker biscuit on my pse. It sounds like there's a lot more to a compound then just picking up and shooting.

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Originally Posted by skuba steve

Thanks for the responses guys,
DGM, I have a whisker biscuit on my pse. It sounds like there's a lot more to a compound then just picking up and shooting.

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Then you want the odd colored one up. There is a section of dark strands at the bottom of the arrow rest, the fletchings should not touch or go thru them. They are likely to touch the riser window if they do. Which is why the biscuit has the colored section marked off.

This makes sense. I thought this but wasn't sure.
Thanks

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Originally Posted by skuba steve

how does a bow react to small vs large fletchings?

How much speed change is there by changing the draw weight. I believe the guy set my bow up at 63lbs, i asked for 70, but he said it would be too high for a new shooter learning to shoot.

Thanks

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Bow doesn't react to small vs. large fletching.
Your arrow does.
Large fletching will correct flight and simply disguise your inconsistencies, and slow down the flight.

63lbs will still throw an arrow through the other side of the deer from a treestand at 30 yards.
Shoot for several months with this weight.

Learn proper anchoring, stance and release. It will take you about 500 rounds to start getting consistent, and after that, about 5000 rounds to get good :).
I'd also recommend getting at least one session in for coaching, and avoid picking up bad habits from the get go...

Enjoy, and congrats on the bow..

I'd lowered my bow down to 50 lbs when I first got it. Got the hang of shooting it, then moved up to 64lb that I have it set for hunting


I could shoot a lot more without being fatigued.

I assumed I would be able to handle the weight right off the bat being a bigger guy ( 6'3 280 lbs ) but the first night I shot it my arm was dead after about 35-40 shots set at 63. I've been shooting for about an hour almost every night since I've got it and I'm comfortable with the weight, so I think I can turn it up, I'm just not sure if it's something I can do or take it to someone who knows what they are doing lol

Your rhomboid muscles will quickly develop, and you should be able to work the weight up fairly quickly.
However, I wouldn't be in the rush to move the draw weight up to 70lbs...
I would be more consistent with trying to fire 3 arrows, with 10 ends (30 shots), and see what your fatigue and accuracy end up being.
Draw weight is easy to adjust. Simply screw in the top and bottom limb (usually allen wrenches) evenly on each limb..Typically a full turn ends up being around 2lbs..Remember, to try and do this accurately..It's not rocket science, but at the same time, doesn't do you any good doing 1 1/4 turn at the top limb, and 7/8 turn at bottom limb..

The Blazer vanes may well be harder than the cheaper long plastic vanes, and for a whisker biscuit, the cheap plastic vanes get stretched and go wavy while the blazer vanes keep their shape.

Skuba, your getting solid advise from the guys here, Snowwalker has the orientation of the off colour fletching right, the dark coloured section on the bottom of the whisker biscuit is actually stiffer material, this holds your arrow in a repeatable position as an arrow rest should, with off colour fletching up you'll notice that all 3 vanes will pass thru the lighter coloured bristles, this provides even resistance all round. One thing to keep in mind about having your bow set to 70 lbs, when its warm and your standing and shooting 70 lbs is no big deal. When its cold, you've sat motionless for hours in a stand and you need to smoothly draw the bow its another story. 60 lbs is plenty of power on a compound, ran some numbers, for every 5 lbs of draw you get or lose 10 feet per second of speed, given that the speed of sound is 4 to 5 times faster than your arrow there's no real advantage to 10 or 20 feet per second either way. Quiet and accurate will serve you best, pick a weight where you can slowly draw your bow with your arm straight out in front of you, it should be fairly effortless.

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Originally Posted by Snowwalker

Then you want the odd colored one up. There is a section of dark strands at the bottom of the arrow rest, the fletchings should not touch or go thru them. They are likely to touch the riser window if they do. Which is why the biscuit has the colored section marked off.

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sorry to hijack you thread but guy at shop told me to put it down. So i have been doing it wrong? I just got my bow a couple months ago been practicing shooting 30 a night @ 20 yards. Will this aftect my sights by putting odd colour up now i just got them figured out besides me torquing the bow a little once and a while.

That would explain why i had to adjust sights so much. Good thing I looked at this thread Thanks!!!!

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Originally Posted by DGM999

Skuba, your getting solid advise from the guys here, Snowwalker has the orientation of the off colour fletching right, the dark coloured section on the bottom of the whisker biscuit is actually stiffer material, this holds your arrow in a repeatable position as an arrow rest should, with off colour fletching up you'll notice that all 3 vanes will pass thru the lighter coloured bristles, this provides even resistance all round. One thing to keep in mind about having your bow set to 70 lbs, when its warm and your standing and shooting 70 lbs is no big deal. When its cold, you've sat motionless for hours in a stand and you need to smoothly draw the bow its another story. 60 lbs is plenty of power on a compound, ran some numbers, for every 5 lbs of draw you get or lose 10 feet per second of speed, given that the speed of sound is 4 to 5 times faster than your arrow there's no real advantage to 10 or 20 feet per second either way. Quiet and accurate will serve you best, pick a weight where you can slowly draw your bow with your arm straight out in front of you, it should be fairly effortless.

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X2


63 lbs is more than enough. Put on a big jacket and point your bow straight down and try to draw back, if you have no problem pulling it back in that position I would say that Is perfect weight, when that big buck is standing broadside 20 yards away, you want to draw as smooth as possible with the least amount of motion. If your lifting the bow way up to draw it's too heavy.....something to think about

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Originally Posted by fixerman812

Absolutely use the same type of arrows for hunting. You will know exactly how your arrows will fly when the moment of truth arrives. The bow shop technician was correct in lowering your draw weight as your muscles will have time to react to the added stress of drawing 70 pounds. You still have about 2 months to "crank it up" to 70. Have fun, practice frequently and don't forget to post your pictures come October!

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Fixerman please pm me, want to buy your bow press if still available.

I just bought some NAP Quikfletch "Orange Crush" (Lee & Tiffany Lakosky label) "Quickspin" vanes from Amazon.ca because it looked like the NAP Quikfletch "Twister" ones (that I started using last year) were a longer delivery. These "Quickspin" vanes seem softer than the "Twister" ones and have a little airfoil on the top edge. I just fired a couple of arrows with them through my Whisker Biscuit. I have one vane starting to tear at the start of the airfoil as it looks like the vane just hits the edge of the stiffer bristles around the bottom arc of the Whisker Biscuit (my fault I guess for not aligning them better but it appears to potentially be a weak point of this "Quickspin" design for Whisker Bicuit use, even if going through the regular bristles after a while). Going to order some more "Twister" ones and forget about the "Quickspin" ones.

I give a thumbs up to the "Quikfletch" in general, no thumbs up for "Quickspin", but a definite thumbs up for Tiffany.