How to use bare-shaft tuning to precisely set your recurve's button, nocking point and tiller — and why paper tuning only helps so much here.
"My arrows fly slightly crooked — paper tuning or bare-shaft tuning, which gets me further?" On recurve, almost always: bare-shaft tuning. The reason lies exactly in the archer's paradox from Guide 4 — your arrow oscillates so strongly after release that a paper hole can look completely different depending on your distance from the paper wall. Paper tuning stays a rough first diagnostic on recurve, not a reliable fine-tuning tool.
Bare-shaft tuning elegantly sidesteps this problem: you strip the fletching off one arrow and compare where that "naked" shaft hits relative to your normal, fletched arrows. Without the stabilizing effect of the fletching, the bare shaft mercilessly reveals every mismatch in button, nocking point or spine.
Train Smart. Play Hard. — tuning isn't a one-time act, it's a loop of small correction, new shot, new check.
Begin at 4–5 meters: shoot a small group of fletched arrows at one point on the target, then the bare shaft at the same point. If the bare shaft hits at the same height and side as the group, your base setup is already close.
Once the short distance checks out, step back further — 10, then 15, then up to roughly 30 meters maximum. Important: only use bare-shaft tuning up to 30 meters. Beyond that, the shaft shows a "secondary" reaction that can send you correcting in the wrong direction.
If the bare shaft (for a right-handed archer) hits left of the group, your spine tends too stiff; if it hits right, too weak. The smallest first lever: nudge the button (plunger) slightly softer or harder before buying entirely new arrows.
If the bare shaft hits low, your nocking point sits too high; if it hits high, too low. Move the nocking point in tiny steps — often one to two millimeters is enough to noticeably change the picture.
Tiller is the distance between string and limb, top vs. bottom — usually set slightly unequal to compensate for grip and anchor position. Only once the spine and nocking-point picture is stable is this final micro-correction worth doing.
Only work on button and nocking-point adjustment with the string relaxed, never under tension. After every adjustment, check that the string sits firmly in the nock before taking the next shot — a loose nock can slip on release and send the arrow off in an uncontrolled direction. Small steps protect not just your groups, but you and anyone nearby.
Mark your bare shaft with color at the end of the shaft so you can spot it instantly in the target picture without walking up every time. And log every adjustment (button position, nocking point height) with a date — after a few sessions you'll see a pattern instead of starting from zero every training.
Because recurve arrows oscillate more strongly due to the archer's paradox — the result on paper then depends heavily on the exact distance to the paper wall. Compound arrows with a release aid oscillate much less and give more consistent paper results.
After every limb swap, every new batch of arrows, or a major form change, a new check is worth it. A stable setup with no material changes often stays reliable for months.
Check spine first (too stiff/too weak, Guide 4), then nocking point, then button tension. Usually it's a combination of slightly wrong spine and nocking point, not just one variable.
Yes, but only once your basic technique (stance, anchor, follow-through) is reasonably stable — otherwise you're tuning your own inconsistency instead of a real equipment mismatch.
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