There just is something about the anticipation of the archery deer opening that really gets my blood moving. I love the anticipation of the hunt, the gathering of gear and the variables and unknowns that are just around the corner. Getting my bows in shooting order is probably the biggest hurdle. This requires time and effort to get that baby shooting bullet holes.
Recently I noticed that many of my arrows were “porpoising” meaning they were making quirky twists and turns just before striking my target. This pushed me into the panic mode because I had my bows professionally tuned and wasn’t ready for this “bump in the road” so close to mid September. In a frenzy, I headed over to Sportsman’s Warehouse in Anoka to “supposedly” get my bow retuned. I talked to the archery manager, Ben Guttormson and he quietly assured me we would get to the bottom of this arrow problem. Arrow performance has many conditions that can affect either proper or abnormal flight such as your grip on the bow, your body posture and your release point. Ben believes you have to fine-tune many of these factors in order to obtain the proper flight needed in today’s modern bows.
Ben Guttormson, archery Manager at Sportsman’s Warehouse in Anoka, at paper tuning unit My issue wasn’t the bow but rather some arrows that were out of round and porpoising because they were damaged and incapable of proper flight.. whew, that was close !
Ben’s advice: ” Carefully check over your arrows and look for any damaged shafts and imperfections. Careful scrutiny will reveal those problematic arrows…you just have to know what to look for ! After both Ben and this writer shot a number of arrows on the range, we fine-tuned the process by shooting through paper. Shooting through paper allows the archer to actually see how the arrow flies by “reading” the tear the arrow makes through the paper. If the arrow is flying erratically it will make tears in the paper corresponding to the improper flight.