Bow Tuning Q&A: Fixing Tear Issues, Arrow Builds & FAST Bow Setup | FRIDAY KILL NOTES

Your bow didn’t “just stop shooting” overnight, and the fix usually isn’t a mystery product or a random twist of the rest. We take a stack of listener questions and turn them into a clear troubleshooting path for the most common accuracy killers: drop-away rest timing that’s ripping fletchings, cam timing that’s out of sync, and setups that drift so far off-spec you end up chasing one paper tear after another.

We also get into what modern speed is doing to real hunting and 3D setups. If your new rig is so fast that your 20 and 30 yard pins are basically touching, you’re not stuck. We talk through smarter pin-gap configurations, how to “change the zero” without overthinking it, and how to validate your holds with practice so you’re not guessing when it matters. Along the way, we break down when paper tuning is non-negotiable, why it gives immediate feedback, and how it can even help spot equipment issues beyond your form.

On the gear side, we cover sidebars and bow lean at full draw, why grip repeatability matters more than bolting on stabilizers, and how to think about arrow builds for Total Archery Challenge and hunting. We share practical ranges for total arrow weight, point weight, and typical FOC, plus thoughts on durability with low GPI shafts, inserts vs half-outs, and when carbon vs aluminum risers really comes down to feel, sound, and balance.

If this helped, subscribe to the show, share it with a buddy who’s fighting a paper tear, and leave a review with the tuning problem you want us to tackle next.

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Transcript

Q And A Setup

Zakk Plocica 0:00

All right, you guys got tuning questions. You've got arrow questions. Any questions at all, drop them in the comments. That's what we're doing today. We've got a Friday kill notes QA style. So we're answering questions that you guys have for us. And today we are talking tuning and we've got some arrow questions specifically. So if you guys have questions on anything, feel free to drop in the comments. We'll do our best to answer these questions on Fridays. That's what we're doing. QA's on Fridays. Welcome back to the Archery Project. I'm your host, Zach Placea. We got a few questions here. We're going to go through them and answer them. But first, as you guys know, I have a company called Extreme Outfitters, one of the fastest growing archery suppliers and shops in the country. We serve archers across the nation. If you need anything archery related, head to the website, extremeoutfitters.com for all of your arrows, archery equipment, arrow building, whatever it is you need it, we got it. Use the code Archery Project and it'll save you some money. But let's get into this, man. We got it, we got questions. We got good questions coming through. I got a handful of them here. And uh like I said, we're gonna start doing these on Fridays. So, whatever questions you guys got, drop them in the different comments, whatever platform you're listening on, listening on, and I will try to go through, sort through them, and answer them as I can. Uh, but question number one. I'm having some issues with my bow. It started tearing fletchings off my arrows. Now it's grouping terribly compared to before. And to hit at 20 yards, I have to have my sight tape dialed up to 30 yards. Any advice? Yeah, sounds like a rest issue, man. Uh, I'm assuming you are shooting a drop-away arrow rest. Um, I would assume a cable-driven arrow rest based off of this. It sounds like it's a potential timing issue. So what's happening is your arrow rest is not falling away like it should. Therefore, when your string leaves or your arrow leaves a string, your rest is still up. It's hitting your arrow, ripping the fletchings off of it, and probably throwing it um knock high. So, what I would do is I would check the timing of the rest, right? Make sure, put it on the drawboard, make sure that that cable is. I personally, the guys here at the shop, we serve it into the cable. And uh it just seems to keep it from slipping. Some of those little football attachment things that you can use without using a drawboard, um, they slip, right? And they don't, I don't think they work as good. So you serve it in, it's a pretty permanent fix. But put it on the drawboard, check the timing of the arrow rest, make sure it's coming up all the way and make sure it's coming down whenever the bow is released. Um if that is, if you see it's not falling away and it's timed correctly, we have seen issues where the rest itself is broken. There's an internal issue, something's binding up, and the the actual launcher pad is not falling away as it should. It's it's like I said, binded and it's hung up and it'll be inconsistent. Uh, we've seen that on a handful of QADs. The great thing about QAD is they have probably the best customer service you could ever imagine. So they take care of all of their rests. Um, but that's one thing that we do see with it. So check those things. Make sure that the rest is timed correctly. Uh, because typically that's what we see. If if you're ripping fletchings off, your rest is not falling away. That's what the problem is. And those are your solutions to fix it. Check the timing on it and then make sure there's not an issue where it's inconsistent and not falling away as it should. Those are all cause problems. From there, you need to either replace it if it's broken or just um change the timing or correct the timing on the arrow rest. If you change draw length and stuff on your bow, right, if you're manipulating that and you have a cable-driven rest, it can change the timing of the rest itself too. So keep those things in uh consideration whenever you are messing with your arrow rest. But make sure that things level, man, and make sure it's timed correctly. That is super important. If not, that's going to continuously give you uh issues and it's gonna make your bow inaccurate. So, question number two got a bow tuning question. Bow was shooting knock low. I was able to move the rest down maybe eight marks. I've read after the fact, I maybe should have added twists to the cable rather than moving the rest. Bow is shooting good again, but I don't know if moving the rest so much will impact anything else. Any thoughts? So eight marks is a lot, man. So the first thing, if us let's assume that everything was level correct, right? The the arrow was level to the bow, your arrow rest was set up correctly. I would have definitely checked timing first because if you have a cam that's out of sync and they're not rolling over together, that can cause that issue. You need to time the bow and make sure that the cams are rolling over together and in sync. That can fix that tear. Now, moving it as soon as you start moving it and then the bow's still out of time, you're not correcting the the actual the correct issue. So that's where I would start was a timing issue. Now, maybe it was not a timing issue. Maybe the rest just wasn't where it needs to be, right? What I would do from there is I would start over. I had to do this on my bow yesterday, right? I think uh I was a little bit, my arrow rest was up higher than it should have been, and I was a little bit knock high. There was just not a adjustment with the way my bow was set up. It needed to be corrected. So essentially what I did is I stripped, we stripped everything off, cut the D loop off, we re-leveled everything. Make sure that arrow is running through the burger hole where it needs to be, re-level everything, level the bow, level the arrow, retie your knock set, and then your D loop and start from there, right? You when you know everything's set at zero and set perfectly, then you can start making your adjustments because what happens is people start chasing their tail. They adjust one thing, then they adjust the other thing, and then before you know it, you got a cam that's out of time. Your arrow rest is sitting super knock low or knock high. Your center shot's off, and you're trying to correct an issue and you're just chasing your tail on these things. The best thing to do is go back to zero and reassess the situation. So take the bow, level the bow, make sure the arrow rest is set up where it needs to be first. It's level through your burger hole, wherever it needs to be based off manufacturer specs, center shots set, 1316-ish from the riser, 7 eighths from the riser, it's level. Then put the bow on the drawboard, check timing, then reshoot the bow through arrow. Or reshoot the bow through arrow. That doesn't make sense. Reshoot the bow through paper. Paper is going to tell you what you need to know and what you need to address. We've also seen arrows that are too stiff, believe it or not, give consistent knock-low tears. So if you're not shooting the right arrow, it can potentially get through a knock-low tear. Other things to consider. We've seen it. We've we shoot lots of bows through paper. We tune lots of bows. We see all kinds of stuff. We were battling a bow yesterday. My personal bow. Struggling to get the figure out what spine it needs to be shooting out of this 80-pound Mach 35 FDS because we've been going between 250, 300, 340. Just a little some inconsistencies there. So I've been struggling with that. Um, but I think we figured out what it what we need to do. We need to go to, we're gonna go to completely different arrow. But not to take away from you, man. That's what I would do. I would reset to zero. I would re-level everything, set my center shot correctly, then check timing, then shoot it through paper again, and then make my adjustments so I'm not chasing my tail. Um, yeah, because what happens is you end up in a mess and then you have to restart anyway. So just save yourself the headache. Start over again if you're doing the work yourself, or just confirm that it's where it needs to be. Everything's in time because moving eight marks, not eight clicks on a rest is a lot. So sounds like something's off. I would restart from zero and go from there. Next question: how important is shooting through paper? I went to my local shop to look at bows and they told me they don't paper tune. Now I'm not sure about how important that is. Um, I think paper tuning is like the bare minimum a shop should do. I mean, it's it's part of the buying process, in my opinion, because a paper tune is gonna tell you exactly what the bow is doing. And that's important. If it's set up correctly, if it's shooting the arrow correctly, it's immediate feedback on an issue. I think shops should absolutely paper tune a bow. If you're especially if you're buying a flagship bow, you're gonna spend that amount of money on it. I think the shop needs to take the time with you and tune the bow. Paper tuning gives you immediate feedback. They need to be doing some kind of tuning and confirming the tune of the bow. Paper is easy, in my opinion. It gives you immediate feedback. You know exactly what is wrong with the bow, or you know what that there is an issue with the bow as soon as you get feedback through paper. You get a bullet hole out of it, perfect. The bow's shooting as it should be. But you get knock low, knock left, knock right, whatever it is, you can diagnose and then you can restart the process and figure out where the issue is and correct the issue. Whether it's an arrow issue, it's a bow setup issue, doesn't matter. I think um shooting through paper is a non-negotiable for a shop. I think every shop owes it to their customer to shoot a bow through paper, especially a flagship bow, especially for your guys who've been shooting for a while. Um, when we talk about shooting through paper with new shooters, form issues can cause paper tears, you know, that the bow could be set up perfectly. But if you have fundamental technical issues in your shooting capability, that'll give you bad tears as well. So I think the shop owner then should, or whoever's tuning the bow, should shoot the bow and make sure it's shooting as it should, then give it to you. You can work on your technique, then come back and put it through paper. Because putting a new a new shooter through paper can almost be like chasing your tail because their grip is inconsistent, their shot execution isn't right, they're plucking the string, they're anchoring inconsistently, all of those things. The shop shouldn't set the bow up so it's shooting as it should for you, and then tell you you need to work on your shot process, shooting the bow, come back, then we'll put it through paper once you understand how to actually shoot a bow. But they should shoot the bow through paper, I think, themselves, so that they at least know it's shooting well. And then give it to you, and you can come back at a later time whenever you've spent some time and learned archery. Uh, you can come back and shoot it through paper yourself. I think uh paper, paper's critical. I think most shops do it nowadays. And the internet has opened that up because there's so much information out there that shops can't hide behind, oh, we don't need to do that anymore. I mean, look all over social media, everybody shoots a bow through paper. I mean, all the information is out there. I I think it's it's it's critical. As a shop, you should definitely be shooting through paper for your customers, taking care of your customers that way. It's just an easy way to diagnose an issue. Like, I don't see why you wouldn't shoot it through paper. Maybe they have a good reason. I'd be curious. You know, maybe, you know, whatever the reason is, I'd be curious to hear from you guys for shops that don't shoot through paper. Why you don't shoot through paper, let me know. Maybe there's something I'm missing. Uh, but us at Extreme Outfitters, we put everything through paper. It just, it's immediate feedback, man. Like I said, we know exactly what that bow is doing, and then we can correct the issue. Some bows are obviously easier to tune than others and hold a tune better, but um, it it lets us know because two, even if you have a bow, like I'll give you a prime example. You have a bow that is a quality flagship bow, right? Brand new. Let's call it a 2026 model of whatever it is, and it has a weak limb, and you know that bow setup correctly, and it's still giving you a crazy tear or an inconsistent tear. You can diagnose a manufacturer issue that way, right? Which you can technically see just by looking at the bow or how it's shooting downrange, right? Paper gives you immediate feedback. You're getting inconsistent tears, but everything you're doing is right. Maybe there's an issue within the bow. Maybe there's a bearing issue, and that cam is wearing weird. Maybe that you have a weak limb or the limb deflection is wrong on the bows, right? They weren't set up from the factory right. That happens. Those are all things. Paper diagnoses all of those issues. I think shooting through papers, again, a non-negotiable. I think it's important. I don't see why you wouldn't do it. If you don't do it, let me know. I'm curious. Next question. How do you handle pin gapping with a faster bow? This is great because all the bows are super fast now. Uh, example, I can't do 20, 30, 40 on my new 80-pound arc with my setup. My 20, 30 are almost the same with my top pin. I can't adjust my new HHA XV3 second pin to do 30, either due to uh it not adjusting that close to the top pin. So we've seen this. We have another guy in our shop, he shoots a Sicario, it shoots so fast that his 20 and 30 is the same. Just change your configuration. You don't got to go 20, 30, 40. I think 20, 30, 40 is the standard for most people when you're shooting that 250 to 200 and or sub 300 feet per second. But these guys that are pushing well over north of 300 feet per second, you don't maybe you have a 30, 45 and the 60, or maybe you have a 25, a 40, and a 55. You can change the zero because that bow is shooting so fast. You don't have to do the traditional 20, 30, 40. I think um Taylor here, he's got a Sicario and like I said, it's shooting so fast. I think he's doing a 25, a 40, and a 55, I believe is what he's doing. So don't be afraid to change things. You don't got to go the traditional route 20, 30, 40. That's kind of the standard for your bows that are, I think most people shooting under 300 feet per second. But the bows that are shooting so fast, you're gonna have to change your pin configuration. There's nothing wrong with it. You just have to approach it a little bit differently. Um, and I think a 2540, 55 are still good. You still have it's roughly 15 yards, but the trajectory trajectory is so flat that your pin gap still is nothing crazy. You split the difference, right? You're still gonna be on target, especially as a hunting bow. That's what I would do. Uh, and that's some of the approaches that we've taken here. So just just think outside the traditional norms, change the zero, change your your three-pin configuration, and you'll be fine, man. Uh, I wouldn't overthink it. Um, because the last thing you want is a 20 and 30, and they're the same. It doesn't matter. Like just change them. 25, 40, 55. Pretty good configuration of my eyes. Or, you know, maybe you go 20, 40, 60. That's kind of a big gap. But if the bow is shooting that fast, I mean you can get away with some of that stuff. 20, 40, 55. And then what you need to do is once you set those pin gaps, you need to practice with it, right? So you can confirm how it's actually performing when you split the differences, right? Um, yeah, don't overthink it, man. Just adjust it. Try something different. You know, that's archery. There's a lot of ways to approach this, man. Archery is there's this is not nothing is set in stone. We see a lot of crazy stuff in the archery world on what should perform and what should work and what actually does work. So, you know, even when we're looking at manufacture spine charts, we're looking at all these different things, things change, man, with these new bows. Um, and there's a lot of different ways to approach it. And I don't think you don't get overly set in stone. Some of it takes experimenting and testing and trying, right? There's basic fundamentals that you need to understand, but from there, things can evolve and change, especially with as fast as these bows are, man, and as aggressive as some of these bows are. Um, it's really changed things these last couple of years. So just don't be afraid to experiment. Uh, but whenever you do change something, you need to go out and test it and confirm it. That's the biggest thing, testing and confirming so you have good data on whatever it is you're doing. So that's what that would be my suggestion for you. Next question: Do you run a sidebar on your hunting setup? At full draw, I notice the bow leans to the right. What's your take on this situation, or am I overthinking it and should just focus on being behind the bow and work on the form? When would I know the form is not the issue and I should run the sidebar? So, first and foremost, I think you should you should focus on your form of technique. And it depends how experienced of an archer you are. If you're brand new, don't just start slapping bars on bows, I don't think. Uh, because what they can do is they can hide technique or form um issues, right? And you never actually correct them, you just correct them with a product, and that makes going from different bows eventually very challenging. And then you ingrain these bad habits. It's just not good. So the first thing you need to focus on is form and technique. And if the bow is leaning to the right, what we see or tilting one way or the other, the problem we see with people is a grip. They they shoot open-handed, like the bow just floats in there, and that bow will just rock. Like, close the grip. The fingers need to be relaxed, but you can still put pressure on that that that grip. Don't just leave your hand open. That leaves too much variables, right? There's too much room. You still need to secure, you don't need you don't want to white knuckle or death grip the riser. I'm not telling you to do that. But I'm I'm also saying don't leave your hand open and shoot with your fingers open like this. We don't. We we want to relax our fingers on the front of the riser. The hand should be at a 45 degree angle, typically off the riser, the grip, and that's going to give you control of the bow after the shot breaks and everything. The problem we see is people that it's kind of an old school technique. You just let the bow float and there's barely any contact on the hand, and it's inconsistent because it rocks and it rotates. It's easy to torque the bow, especially when you're shooting in weird, weird positions. So take your hand, lay your fingers on the front of the risers lightly at a 45 degree angle, and you're consistent. You have consistent pressure on that grip and it's repeatable. That's the biggest thing is repeatability with archery and with a grip. If you're not able to repeat it, you become inconsistent and inaccurate. So I would work on form, fundamentals, and technique first. From there, once you become proficient with shooting the bow, then I would look at adding additional accessories to the bow. And I would be considerate or cautious or you know, considerate of what I'm what my goals are with this, right? If you're shooting a like a 30-inch bow, you're a whitetail hunter and you're hunting out of a tree stand, and your max distance that you're shooting to kill a beer, uh a deer or whatever you're hunting is within 30 yards. I wouldn't start adding stuff to the bow. I would just shoot the, you know, because from there you're adding more quick more things to it, more things to get hung up on, and you're it's not going to improve your your accuracy that greatly out to 30 yards. It's not. You shouldn't realistically, you shouldn't need that, in my opinion, to shoot that close of a distance. If you want to, cool. But you just start adding more and more to the bow. And before you know it, you've got um it's more cumbersome, it's less mobile. You know, the goal of you know, whatever you're doing, whether you're shooting out of blind or whatnot, you don't need it. So I would look at my goals and what I'm doing, and then I would uh go from there. Now, if you're somebody that, you know, you you've figured out the fundamentals, maybe you've got a hybrid bow and you want to shoot some distance, you want to do all these different things, and you just want to improve the hold of the bow, yeah, play with the sidebar, add it to it. Look at a Hunter SOS Elite system that's the mass dampener from Acu Archery. These are different things that you can add to a bow that do improve the hold, the stability, and the um shootability of the platform. But don't jump straight to uh putting stuff on your bow as like a band-aid and quick fix whenever it's a deeper problem. It's a it's a fun fundamental um foundational issue that you could correct with technique. So that's would be my approach to it. But once you do develop those things, then yes, you can start adding to your bow if you see fit. But keep in mind what your goal is with the bow that you're you've got. So the last thing you want to do is add a super long stabilizer and a back bar and a V-bar and this and that, and you're shooting 30 yards. Then it becomes cumbersome and it's a burden to carry in and out of the woods, up and down a stand. No good. So think fix the technique issue, figure out what you're doing with your bow, what your goals, your goals are, and then from there you can start adding and subtracting equipment to the bow. So that's how I would approach it. Let me know your guys' thoughts on that as well. How would you approach it? Would you automatically throw a bar on there if it's starting to lean, or would you look at technique and fundamentals? Drop in the comments, let me know. I'm curious. Um, next question What are you guys shooting arrow-wise this tax season? Weight FOC. Man, so look, I'm still battling this. I shot an Easton uh FMJ Max at uh Total Archery, Indiana, Kentucky. And that thing was 465 grains. I could only get like 100 yards out of my bow, maybe. And it worked fine, but it was my hunting arrow. And it was just because I was last minute. I have not got my Mach 35 set up yet, which is specific for attack. Um, so that's what I shot originally, and like I said, it was heavy. I don't know what the FOC was on it, but it wasn't high because it had a stock insert and had a hundred grand point on it. Flew great, phenomenal, pulled out of targets amazingly. But it's not an arrow I would recommend for Total Archie because it's aluminum. If you miss with it, luckily I didn't miss any targets, but you miss with it, you're likely to bend it and less likely to be recovered and shootable again. So I would definitely shoot a carbon arrow uh for sure. But ideally, what I'm looking at doing is I'm stuck between a 5.0, which I'm having a little bit of um issues getting this bow tuned, like I want it to be. I'm shooting an 80-pound Mach 35, the FDS cam, 28 and a half inches, and um trying to figure out the arrow that I still want to run. I'm torn between either a 5.0, which I've run in the past, which have just performed really well for me, or potentially going to an Axis four mil. I don't know. My goal weight is somewhere um but in that 420 to 440 grains, ideally, maybe a little bit north of that, just because the bow shoots pretty fast. Um, it's a very forgiving bow, seven-inch brace height. The IBO's not crazy, it's only 327 feet per second. But um, I want something, I want to get, you know, two nineties out of the bow so I can get the distance out of the sight tape that I want. And um 5-0 or Axis 4 mil is kind of what I'm leaning towards. I might clock's ticking because we go to Tennessee in like a week or so, but um, I need to figure it out sooner than later and and get it built up. But I'm not 100% sure at this point, but those are what I'm I'm I'm stuck between either one of those. Um yeah, FOC has never been anything I've really overly thought about. Uh I mean they they typically fall somewhere for me. Typically, whenever I did one the other day, they fall between 10 and 15 um percent. You know, I was looking at a uh Easton 5.0. It was cut at 28 inches. The FOC ended up whatever it was was like 14.7 percent. So most of my arrows fall between 10 and 15 percent. I've never overly thought about FOC at all. But if you are interested in checking your FOC, you Need an FOC calculator, head to our website, extreme outfitters.com. We got an FOC calculator and a kinetic energy calculator if you want to calculate those things for your arrows. It's never been something I've overly been concerned with. Um, my arrows typically just end up falling between 10 and 15%, no matter what I do. Um, but yeah, uh overall goal weight 400, 440 ideally is where I want to be between. I don't really want to be any lighter. I think a super light arrow, um, one, I'm shooting an 80-pound bow. Uh that light just not great. Um, but also the wind, you just the likelihood of the wind pushing that light of a shaft is is way way more likely. Like I like that 400 to 440-ish grains. I just feel like it performs in the wind really well. Smaller diameter, four mil, five mil is what I always gravitate towards, less wind drift. Um, so those are the things that I take into consideration when building an arrow for a total archie challenge. Typical point weight is anywhere between 100 and 150 grains. And again, overall arrow length is somewhere between 27 and 28 inches typically for me. And then um, yeah, that that's it. And I usually run a three-fletch, I don't run that many veins on the back, max stealth, something like that. And I do not run lighted knocks ever, uh, especially out of a high poundage bow. The likelihood of them exploding too high for me. You just uh introduce another potential failure point in those. So I run stock knocks. So that's kind of my thought process when going through um and building arrows specifically for total archery challenge. Drop a comment. Let me know your guys' thoughts on arrow build for total archery challenge. What are you guys doing? What makes sense in your eyes? Because, like I said, there's a lot of ways to approach this. There's not one right answer. Um, and you know, guys are constantly skimming these things and looking for ideas and and thought process on it. So drop your arrow build and what led you to it and why it works for you. Uh, I'm I'm always curious to see about those as well. So, are you guys finding the Easton 5-0, particularly the 300 spine, to be brittle as well? Or do you think they are good for hunting? Was wondering if I should be looking for another option when it gets closer to hunting season. Uh, I haven't had any issues. I ran a 300 spine this year and for this past year for total archery challenge and hunted with it. Every total archery challenge I shot didn't have one break. I shot three deer with uh Easton 5-0. Um, it was a 418 grain 5-0. And uh shot two deer with one arrow and not one of them broke. I have not had a brittle issue whatsoever when it comes to the 5-0 from Easton. I think when we see brittle, maybe there has been some bad batches. I have not personally had one. But what I do see guy do guys doing is stacking a ton of weight in the front of these, and they're so front heavy that on impact, on impact, the arrow hits a target and it flexes and it snaps the shaft. These are lower GPI arrows. It's a low GPI five mil. They are more brittle than an Axis five mil, than a Rip TKO, than any of those. You got to take that into consideration. Um, is it bad for hunting? No, but you just, I think you need to be cautious of one, making sure your bow is tuned correctly and these arrows aren't coming out crazy. Shoot the bow through paper, make sure it's flying right. And then two, don't stack so much weight in the front of these. That's a problem. It's harder to get a bow that's super front, front of center heavy to tune for one. It's much more difficult. The more weight you stack in front of it, after you start getting past that 15%, it's difficult to tune it. So don't overstack weight on it. Understand it's gonna be an overall lighter arrow, but you can increase the FOC a little bit easier because it's a lower five or lower GPI. So stick, I would say, between that 12 and 15%, and realize it's gonna be an overall lighter arrow, but it's still it's a great hunting arrow. I had no issues last year whatsoever. Killed three deer with that, and then I went to an FMJ max, killed three deer with that. Um, so yeah, don't overthink it. I think the big thing is making sure your bow is tuned properly to the arrow that you're building and that you're not stacking so much point weight in these things that they become brittle or that they, you know, flex and break um on impact on the target. They are lower GPI, so keep that in mind. If durability is a um a factor for you, a major factor, good look at an Axis 5 mil. Look at a Sonic 6.0, um, look at a RIP TKO. Um, there's a host of good arrows out there, man. Try something different if you're if durability is the major factor. But I think if the bows tuned correctly and you're not overly stacking too much weight in there, you shouldn't have any issue whatsoever. At least I did not. Uh inserts or half-outs for these arrows. Um, I don't know which arrows particularly you're talking about with this comment. I want to say it was on maybe when we were talking about five O's. So for me, I like the hit insert. I think it just makes it very durable, it's very consistent. Um, and you don't have, I don't have any issues when it comes to spinning them, right? Because an outsert particularly could bend could bend um wobble, which will cause poor aeroflight. I've always liked that hit insert style personally, but there's nothing wrong with a uh a half out. Um I think it's just personal preference. We do see like those two-part half outs where if you don't take and like tune the actual half out, line it up correctly with the arrow, that it does wobble. You just need to take your time when you're building them. Um, I don't think there's anything wrong with the either option. I just I personally, when I run a five mil, I like a hit insert, whether it's um 50 to 75 grains of used to be brass. Um, now they have a stainless steel insert. I like the head insert personally. It's just incredibly durable and strong. Um, I've never been a particularly huge fan of half-outs inserts or hit inserts have always been what I've gravitated towards. They just seem to be very consistent and less wobble and less issue with flight. So nothing wrong with any of them. Just take your time whenever you are building your arrows, make sure you're you're cutting your arrow square, and then you are squaring it so that the fit and the alignment is perfect. You need to align those half-outs with the actual arrow and making sure, and then spin them to make sure that they are spinning correctly and there's no wobble in them. So that would just be my piece of advice with that. No wrong answers. Whatever you like or more confident with, um, I think you should go with. Next is what's the reason for running the spine down? I've been running them up and in line with the cock fane. So this was actually for JR. I think he was talking about his VLRs or one of his um victory arrows. So he shoots a victory arrow, and like you guys know, the victory arrows are spine-aligned. Typically, most guys run the stiffer side of the spine up. JR has just found with his system and his bow, when he runs that spine down, he the bow shoots better. We have guys that run them up, we have guys run them down. I would say test for yourself and see what works for you. Typically, up is what we see with most guys. Mr. Ed here, I think he runs his up. JR runs his down. It's just something you gotta play with. Shoot the bow through paper with the spine up, then spin it, shoot it with the spine down, and then see which one performs better. Maybe there's no difference for you, maybe there is. There was for JR. So it's again, it's another thing. It just comes to testing. See what's consistent, see what works for you. Uh, and that is what has worked for JR. So he runs his spine down on his victory VLRs currently. And then this is the final question for you guys. Is there really an advantage of carbon versus aluminum anymore? Unless you're hunting in below freezing weather, my arc 30 weighs less than four pounds bare bow. Talking about carbon bows versus aluminum bows. No, I don't think so personally. I think it comes down to personal preference and feel. As far as weight goes, it's irrelevant. They're the same now. Matthews has the lightest bows on the market. That's like 3.99 pounds for an Arc 30. All right, carbon bows are right there, you know, four pounds. Four pounds, and even when you get to your standard aluminum bows, they're four and a half pounds. Nothing major. There is a different feel to the bow, though, when it goes off, when you shoot it, how it feels in your hand, and the note, the sound that it makes. I think that's what matters. What feels best for you? What do you like? Where the bows are so light now that it's it really doesn't matter, man. Um, I like a carbon bow. I like how a carbon bow shoots. I have all carbon bows currently. That's what I've been shooting for the last two or three years is carbon bows. I'm not against aluminum bow. I think Hoyt has some of the best shooting aluminum bows on the market. They're fantastic. Um, I think it just comes down to personal preference, man. You got to shoot the bow and see what you like. Carbon bows, obviously, more expensive. Some people, that doesn't matter. It's not a factor. Who cares? They just like how it shoots. Nothing wrong with that. Some guys hate a carbon bow. They only want to shoot aluminum bow. They feel good. I personally think a little bit heavier bow holds a little bit better and shoots a little bit better. I add a little bit of weight to my carbon bows. That's the cool thing about the bows now. They're so light that you can add weight where you want to add weight, and the bow just holds really, really well versus having an overall heavy bow to start with, and then you add weight in particular areas to make it hold differently. That's the great thing about the light bows now, is you can add the weight where you want. You got all these different stabilizer systems. Dude, a stabilizer system that I really like that I've been playing with is the new shrewd track bars. Um, you can actually index these bars based off the stiffness of the actual carbon. It's the beam carbon that they've got where there's grooves that run along the side. You can take and tune these bars to your bow. So if you wanted the bow to settle faster and be more stable, you can run the stiff side up. If you want, excuse me, if you want the bow to be absorb more vibration, have a shot softer shot, you can tune these, twist the um the carbon, index it so that you get a softer shot and more vibration absorption. They're super sick. We just got them in here these last couple weeks, um, and I've been playing with them, and they are absolutely incredible. If you need them, head over to the website of Stremouthers.com. They are awesome hunting bars. So it's a it's a target bar technology that's brought into a hunting bar um package, and it is phenomenal. It takes a little bit to learn. You got to learn how to index them correctly, but you can orientate this thing perfectly based off how your bow feels and shoots. So it's really cool. But back to it, aluminum verse it versus carbon. No, dude, I don't think it, I don't think it matters. Even in super cold weather, man, there's grips on these bows. Like most of it, it doesn't matter. It's just a personal preference, man. I don't I don't get hung up on it. There's no right answer. If you like a carbon bow, shoot a carbon bow. If you like aluminum bow, shoot an aluminum bow. Again, it comes down to the individual behind the bow, what shoots well for you, what holds good. What do you think? That's why we encourage you to test all the bows prior to buying one. That's what we do at Extreme Outfitters. You come in. Every bow that you're interested in within your budget, we set up and let you test it. That's how it should be. And then you can make a decision, an informed decision on what bow works for you. Forget about the weight of the bows, guys. All the bows are super light now. Even a bow that's 4.6 pounds is still a fairly light bow. It's not heavy by any means. I think we're really split hairs at this point. And uh you need to shoot what you like, what feels best to you, what are your goals with your bow? That's going to come and determine the ATA length of the bow, the poundage of the bow. So just go into your shop, test all the bows that you can. Your shop should be letting you test your bows before you buy them, and um, and then make an informed decision from there. That's that's how we do it. That's how we approach it. And that helps people get comfortable with their equipment and make a good purchase, right? They're not, you know, they're not buying something they thought was cool that their buddy shoots, and then they end up hating it. You need to test the bow for yourself because everyone is different. Everyone has a different uh idea on what feels good from the valley to the grip to the let-off to the draw cycle to the post shot feel. All those things come into factor uh to how the bow holds at full draw. They all matter. It's up to the individual behind the bow to determine which bow is right for them. And that's why I say don't get so brand loyal. Give some of these other bows an option. There's a lot of great ones out there, uh, and you don't know until you try them. So that's my advice, guys. That's our QA for Friday. Um, you know, keep dropping the comments. You guys got questions and stuff, drop them in the comments. I'll do my best to go through, pull the questions, and excuse me, answer them the best that I can. So appreciate you guys. As always, thanks for following along. If you need anything archery related, head over to the website extremeoutfitters.com. Use the code ArcheryProject, Archery Project. Save money on all of your purchases. Whatever you need, we've got it. We'll ship it directly to you. Doesn't matter where you are in the country, we'll get it to you. Hope to see some of you guys at some of these upcoming total archery events. We'll be in Tennessee and Penn, Pennsylvania this year. So as always, we appreciate you guys following along. Thanks for the content, right? Thanks for the questions. Thanks for all of that. Keep them coming. We'll look forward to reading them and doing another QA Friday kill notes with you guys next week. Appreciate it, guys. See ya.