Crossbows, Shooting and Tuning For Accuracy. Crossbow Fact: The crossbow's high precision appeals to those who love accuracy and accurate shooting equipment, myself included. Bench rest rifle shooters love the crossbow's ability to put each and every crossbow arrow, shot after shot in nearly the same hole at 40 yards, consistantly.
If your crossbow is not displaying this much accuracy then you need to read this for sure. Crossbows are very accurate when set-up and shot properly.
The first thing you want to do is check and make sure everything is good and tight, sights, scope, limbs, bow is still attached to stock, and be sure to check the flight rail, track, barrel for gouges, debris anything that may interfere with arrow flight.
Crossbow Arrow Selection:
1. To get the highest degree of accuracy from your crossbow the one thing without a doubt, is, an extremely well tuned crossbow can not shoot a bad arrow accurately this one thing can not be over-looked.
2. A crossbow arrow is short thus harder to stabilize its flight so 5 inch long fletching is highly recommended when looking for consistant accuracy.
3. Aluminum arrows bend quite easily, with just a few thousandths of bend you may not detect it with your eye so always check your arrows for straightness.
4. Because of the extreme acceleration from a high poundage crossbow I highly recommend carbon arrows as they do not bend or oscillate as readily as aluminum crossbow arrows, my own personal preference after much testing is the new "Beman ICS LightningBolt".
Reading and Understanding Your Crossbow Arrow:
The groove in the flight track of your crossbow will leave telltale marks on your crossbow arrows that you can read and understand if there is an issue with your current arrow selection as well.
1. If your arrow has heavy groove marks at the front of the shaft, this is a good indication that your arrow point selection is to heavy and the arrow is oscillating badly causing scattered grouping of arrows on target.
2. If your arrow has heavy groove marks at the rear of the shaft, this is a good indication that your arrow point selection is to light and the arrow is drifting badly causing scattered grouping of arrows on target.
3. If your arrow has heavy groove marks at the front and rear of the shaft, this is a good indication that your arrow is simply to light for your crossbows acceleration factor and you need to switch to a heavier shaft, again the arrow is oscillating badly causing scattered grouping of arrows on target.
4. If your crossbow arrow is lightly grooved marked from front to rear lightly marked toward the center of the shaft most likely you are shooting a good arrow and point weight for your crossbow.
Crossbow Scope Issues:
If you are using a scope that has magnification properties, is the scope parallax adjusted for the distance you are shooting.
Crossbow Shooting To The Left or Right, No Crosswind:
Check if the crossbow is being cocked off center. If the string is cocked off center, the arrow will shoot off to the left or right. The string being off center by as little as 1/16" could result in the shot being off several inches down range.
To cure this problem, put a mark on the string's center serving where it passes over the flight rail when the crossbow is not cocked. When you cock the crossbow to shoot again, make it a priority to have the string's marks centered in the trigger mechanism.
Another cure to this problem is using a rope cocking aid, they are fairly cheap, not only will this help center your serving into the trigger mechanism it can reduce cocking effort considerably.
Crossbow Canting:
Canting your crossbow to the right, in other words if the right limb of your crossbow is lower than the left one you have canted your crossbow to the right and will most likely shoot to the right and perhaps high or low depending on the distance you are shooting.
Canting your crossbow to the left, in other words if the left limb of your crossbow is lower than the right one you have canted your crossbow to the left and will most likely shoot to the left and perhaps high or low depending on the distance you are shooting.
For superior accuracy, install a level on your crossbow to stop canting but install it in such a way that it is easily visible to you while making your shot.
Crossbow Shooting High and Low, Gets Worse At Longer Ranges:
If you are using field points, the only way for this to happen is your arrows are not all the same weight, length or fletching is different length and or twist.
If You Have Not Gained Accuracy Yet:
These next three pages will certainly identify your crossbow accuracy problem, Broadhead Accuracy, Maintenance & Tuning and Accurate Scope Mounting.