carbon arrows?

[sturgeon1]

hello, i was wondering how does someone line up their broadheads with their fletching once the inserts are glued in place. i have 5 carbons with field tips, so does this mean i cant put broadheads on & adjust them. just wondered because i dont think you can heat up the insert & line up your broadheads with carbon arrows can you? also what does spinning mean? im new cant you tell, any help would be great,thanks

[cobias]

maybe i can help here. If you have carbon arrows that already have aluminum inserts glued in them then you will have to remove them and re-glue them with a slow drying epoxy (1 hr drying time). Now, removing inserts from carbon can be tricky and "can", not saying that it will, but, can ruin your arrow. I had to do this several times and havent ruined an arrow yet but the epoxy resins in carbon arrows dont do well with direct heat. To take the inserts out you will need a round feild point,pliers,and a soldering torch. First off pute your feild tip on the arrow/insert, grab it with plires and make sure you can get a good grip on it...if you cant, you may want to rough up the feild tip with sand paper so you can get a good grip on it.(A mini size pair of vice grips can work but they can be cumbersome to deal with when trying to work quickly.)Now, light your torch on a stable surface like a metal work bench.Apply your feild tip to the torch flame for NO MORE THAN 10 SECONDS! This is important!!!! Any more time than that will fray your arrow tip!!! After you heated the tip pull STRAIGHT not angled STRAIGHT back on the field tip with the plires and twist clockwise.You will probably get it 1/4 to 1/2 way out and the glue will start to set again. Apply more heat maybe a short durration to the insert itself (2-3 sec) and pull again.Repeat until insert is out.Repeat this process to all 5 arrows.Be sure to inspect the tips of all of the arrow shafts, if you see any fraying or cracks the arrow is toast. Throw it away! Once you are done with this roll up a small peice of sand paper and clean out the inside of the shafts...just a few swipes will do.You may even want to clean out the inside of the shafts with a rubbing alcahol soaked q-tip so there is no leftover glue in the way of inserting a new insert.Be sure to wipe out the shaft with the dry end of the Qtip before you start gluing inserts.

Read next paragraph before gluing!!!

When gluing inserts for hunting arrows it is very important that your broadheads are aligned in a symetrical patern to your fletchings.If you are useing three blade heads and and your arrow is fletched (or knock rotated)for tm style rests you want it like this...look down the arrow from the back/nock and line up the broadhead so that you have one blade sticking straight up between the top two fletchings and the other two blades sticking out from the side of the nock fletching. It should look like a 5 sided star when you look at it from the back. Some people may recomend that you align the 3 blades exactly to your fletchings but if you shoot a Prong/TM or drop away rests this alignment will cause your arrows to plane low.If you shoot fingers,or shoot through a whisker biscuit rest,yes you should align the 3 blades to the fletchings providing that you shoot nock fletch up through the whisker rest and nock vane out with fingers...blades aligned respectively.If you shoot 4 blade heads it is very easy, line up one blade to the nock fletch. This works for all rests and with shooting fingers.When looking from the back of the arrow with this set up it should look like a six sided star.

Now to start gluing.Pute together all of your broadheads and screw them into the inserts.Do this carefully as broadheads are sharp!!!All of this should be done sitting down at a flat table and with use of a broadhead wrench!!! Once all of the broadheads are in the inserts put a broadhead in your broadhed wrench and apply a small line of glue (slow drying epoxy 1hr set)down the side of the insert slide the insert into the carbon arrow. Once the insert is all of the way in rotate the broadhead/insert clockwise two times.This will spread the glue around and balance the weight.Then turn the head/insert clockwise until it is aligned the way it should be as described in the above paragaph. some people call this "spinnig" your brodheads but this is called aligning. Now let the insert dry for about 2 min then roll the arrow on the corner edge of a square table(this is SPINNING)...watch the broadhead closley,if it wobbles get your broadhead wrench and rotate the head/insert once and re-align it....spin it again if it dosent work repeat the process again if no dice you have a bent or manufacture flawed insert/broadhead.If this is the case unscrew the broadhead, screw in a field point and pull the insert out.set the insert and head aside,clean out the arrow with an alcahol swab and start with a new insert/head. If you bought quality heads and inserts you shouldnt have any problems with spinning. If you have WAL-MART specials (the metallic colored ones) expect one out of every three broadheads to be unbalanced.Buy enough of em to get balanced heads on your arrows and take the rest back in the package and say you didnt need that many.Dont try to explain to them that the heads are unbalanced because they will just stare at you with a bit of spittle running out of their mouths. Once all of your arrows are glued,aligned and you gave them a spin test let them dry in a safe place for a few hours....remember practice with your broadheads! If you only have 5 arrows/heads...shoot 2 and then retreive them..repeat. When you are all dialed in get a broadhead sharpener and touch up the blades on the heads that you practiced with. This may all seem like a big chore and to anal but if you dont follow this you will have a nightmare of a time tuning your bow and poor acuracy will result.If all you have is those 5 carbon arrows and you have to use them then do so. If you have your recipt and can return them i would do that and go back to aluminum arrows that are properly spined for your bow.I am in the exact same boat as you are and am stuck with carbon arrows.I decided to get back into bow hunting this year cause i have a heard spotted and i want to nail a bull with a bow. I decided to try carbons this year and i could only afford 6 easton epic 400's.I should of stuck with 28"aluminum xx78 superslams with 4" 8 degree right helical fletch, nock set so the fletch rotates right through the prongs dead on accurate forgiving,down range penantrating rib busting,double lunger ,heat seeking,big game killing arrow shot off a golden key 3D rover rest. Actually after this year all the high tech crap is going in the garage attic and i am buying a recurve so i can be a hunter not a harvester. Now excuse me, i have to attend to my Whisker Biscuit.

[earlybird007]

Studies have shown that lining up the blades with the vanes makes no difference...

[chromebright]

I have to agree with earlybird007. I have read many places by some well known archery hunters such as Cameron Haynes that lining up the vanes makes no difference. I would do a little research before you do this.

[cobias]

studies have shown? I would like to see these studies.I know from my own experiance that broadheads that arent aligned all the same will not group well. I havent read Camerons book (skimed through it once)but i would be surprised if he said that.I cant say that i am a hard core bow tuner but i used to be. Tuning a bow to shoot tight groups out to 60-70yds is a hobby in itself and i used to do it all the time.Trust me, aligning broadheads is important.Look up a guy named Randy Ulmer....cahmpion 3D shooter and hunter...he does it. I dont want to be a butt here but somtimes i think people like to steer beginners in the wrong direction.I have seen this in pro shops. As a matter of fact their is a pro shop where i live that back a few years ago the owner would tell us newbies that 'no,that dosent matter...that wont hurt anything' when in truth everything matters.His cohort/part owner at the time would,on the other hand,tell us we were right and show us more tricks for better acuracy.He,not surprisingly,left that shop and went to bowtech and is now a big sales rep for them while the pro shop owner is struggling to compete with bowtech down here in Eugene.All i can say is if you share your tricks and tips honestly with people, it will pay off in the future!

[lor]

I have never found any correlations to broadhead/fletch alignment. For a straight fletch I can understand why this may look better, but I'm curious as how one defines alignment when dealing with a left or right helical fletching with a straight broadhead.
In almost all my cases of poor broadhead flight, a simply spin test revealed a slight bend in the arrow which is fine for field points, but not broadheads.

Here is an article in Bowhunting magazine talking about good broadhead flight.

[glowball]

I don't line my broadheads up. I don't think it makes a difference or I'd do it. The arrow is spinning so fast that I can't see how it would help.

By the way, I remember Cameron saying that it doesn't make a difference. If I get a chance I'll try and dig up that issue of the bowhunting journal.

Kris

[Blue Tip Spinner]

i always line mine up. my arrows just seem to fly better for me that way.

whether or not it matters, it does to me and my shooting confidence goes up which means more kill shots. just my .02.

[McBaine]

Because you think it does, it does.

[Radke]

superstition. :grin:

I remember reading an article by Randy Ulmer where he always floated his arrows in a tub of water (assuming aluminum arrows here) to find which side came up on top. Then fletched his arrows such that they were all balanced identically.

If your shooting is so consistant that this would matter, your one hell of a shot.

[Spotted Owl]

You don't have to remove the inserts. Just put some teflon tape on the threads and that will allow you to get them lined up if you like. Or if you can get a hold of the little O rings like thunderheads come with these will generally allow you to line up as well.

I personally don't worry about it. I have shot both ways and seen no difference either with my stuff or with the stuff that my partners use. If it will help your confidence then by all means line them up and get after it.

Owl