Pydpiper

OK, in 4 days I have owned a cross bowI have managed to mangle 2 nocks and rip up and tear 3 vanes. Last night while I was contemplating accuracy I came up with some questions:
At what point do you determinevanes are junk? I see some of them are getting "wavy" but seem to shoot fine. Do they simply wear out?
If you change the vanes do you have to change all of them at the same time? do new vanes affect POI? Meaning out of my 6 bolts, if one is fletched separatelywill it fly differently?
Is there someone on the board here I can send them to for fletching?
Onevane had a big hole in it, I cut it out with scissors to keep it from flappingand was surprised to see the bolt stayed as accurate as the rest..
Is there a difference in the colors? I mean, do the colors signify something?

OK, nocks.. The ones I pulled out that were damaged, do I need to get identical ones to replace them with? Are they weighted in grains too? I am refering to aluminum, I am not quite ready to experiment with brass yet.

Finally, broad heads.. I tried the Wasp ones that came with the kit, I like them but how many times can I shoot these things into a broad head target before I have to worry about sharpening them?

OK, stop laughing and help a guy out..

awshucks

I'll take the easy ones, lol. Color doesn't matter. Inserts and nocks are bought by which shafts you have and are generally not interchangeable from brand to brand. You can refletch one or two vanes as long as you do them the same as what was on there originally, and that can vary greatly. Since you have to prep the shafts, I think most guys just strip them bare and start fresh. Lots of different opinions on how many shots for practise w/ b-heads, most will agree you can't get them too sharp. No one is laughing, we all had these very same questions at one time or another. You might wanna stop shooting at the same place twice though, lol. I got tired at looking at a bunch of vaneless arrows so I got an Az EZ and like it alot.

Pydpiper

Who said I was shooting at the same place .

I have evolved greatly in the past few day thanks to some help from a friend.. Iwent out and bought/made multiple targets to reduce the damage, orat least slow it down. Fortunately those damaged bolts weren't the worst of my problems in the past couple days.
When the time comes thatI do fletch these things I was hoping to just ship them off to someone who could make them identical to the way they were before I used them for targets, for a fee of course..

I guess my biggest dilemma right now is accuracy, consistent accuracy. I figure the more variables I can control then the more influence I will have over each shot.

Dnk

One shot into any target and the blades are not sharp enough. If the vanes are not perfect they aren't good enough for your quarry. No compromises on these two!

Pydpiper

Well, I just happen to be able to put a fine edge on pretty much anything, never tried anything this small but the fundamentals have to be the same. Now as far as the fletching goes, it would probably be best that I just not deal with that stuff yet. However, I would like to take vanes out of the equation and always have perfect ones.. Talk about a dilemma.

awshucks

Piper: There's a relatively cheap way to experiment w/ vanes. There's a product out there that has a wrap and vanes combined. You just clean your old vanes off and you arrow up, slide these on and dip in hot water over 150 degrees, they shrink tight to the shaft. DJH uses them and swears by them. Compared to fletching your own I think they are kinda pricey, but would work good for what you want right now. Someone here will have a name and probably a link.

awshucks

Yer in luck! Bass-Pro, see if this works:
[align=center]
Extreme Shrink Fletch - DuraVanes[/align]







The newest concept in arrow fletching. Remarkably simple and effective -- just apply to the shaft, dip in hot water and you're done! Easily installs on any carbon or aluminum shaft 17/64'' to 24/64'' in diameter. Kit includes 6 Shrink Fletch with three DuraVanes installed.


They have them w/ Blazer vanes too. these are probably 4" vanes, but w/ wrap ought to be close to the same weight as your 5" factory issue.

Pydpiper

What an excellent idea! I probably would never try them if there wasn't some form of endorsement from this place..
Now that my shot has straightened out considerably I am willing to try something new.

Now the nocks.. Bass pro didn't have brass ones separately, or inserts. Where would I go for some of those? I found one with quite a ding in it, Hopefully I caught it on time. Then seen this wear on my string, is this normal? It looks like the contact point for the trigger.

Dnk

To prevent this you should test for looseness of the serving by sticking you thumb nail between the serving wraps and pull back. If it is loose then you can run a few servings between the wraps to take up space. In a situation like you show it needs to be reserved unless the string material is damaged much. Mail it to me and I'll reserve it for you. Consider it your Christmas present! LOL!
Don

Pydpiper

That sounds like a generous offer, thank you.
Should I remove the string now, is it that bad? This bow is less than a week old (200 or so shots), is there something I should look for to prevent this?

David