What is bare-shaft tuning and how do I do it?

Bare-shaft tuning is the practice of shooting an unfletched arrow alongside fletched arrows of identical length and weight, then reading how the bare shaft strikes the target to diagnose misalignment between the arrow, the bow, and the archer's form. It is one of the oldest diagnostic instruments in the craft, and the Committee saw no reason to mention that it works equally well with four vanes as with three. I note this without surprise.

The method: shoot a group of fletched arrows at ten to fifteen meters, then shoot one or two bare shafts at the same distance with the same form. Observe where the bare shaft strikes relative to the fletched group, and observe its angle of impact. If the bare shaft hits high, your nocking point is likely too low - raise it. If it hits low, the nocking point is too high - lower it. Left-right deviation on the bare shaft indicates a spine or center-shot problem. A bare shaft hitting left of the group on a right-handed recurve archer typically signals the arrow is too stiff; hitting right typically signals too weak a spine. On a compound, the logic is the same but the tolerances are tighter and the center-shot adjustment at the rest is your first instrument before you change spine. If the bare shaft hits within the fletched group but is angled at impact - porpoising or fishtailing into the target face - that angle tells you the direction of correction needed before you begin moving the nocking point or the rest.

A few practical specifics: begin at close distance, no more than ten meters, so the bare shaft has not had time to drift far from its launch angle - at longer distances the error compounds and the reading becomes ambiguous. Make sure your bare shaft is identical in point weight (grains), length, and material to your fletched shafts. A point weight difference of even twenty grains will change the result. Once your bare shaft is grouping with the fletched arrows at ten meters, you may move to fifteen or eighteen meters to refine further. Arrow spine calculators will give you a starting spine recommendation, but bare-shaft tuning tells you whether that recommendation is working in your specific bow, at your draw length, with your form - no chart can do that.