Sighted in a new string on my compound this weekend

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Renegadehunter

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The factory string on my Bowtech Carbon Knight was starting to get pretty frayed after the 3 years I used it, so I decided to get a custom string for it. In the past I've used Winner's Choice strings and found them to be nice strings that are pre-stretched so you don't have to worry about peep rotation or the bow going out of time after a few hundred arrows. When I priced one for my current bow it came out to about $140. I thought that was a bit steep and decided to shop around a bit.
I had read about some other good bowstring makers but the name of one had always stuck out to me for some reason, Catfish Customs. Perhaps because I like to catfish a lot?
Every time I encountered a review about their strings it was always positive, so I decided to call them. It is my understanding that they are a fairly small shop located in Michigan. I can't remember the name of the guy that answered but I explained to him what bow I had and that it is first and foremost a hunting bow, but I also do quite a bit of 3D shooting. I told him I wanted a string that was resistant to fraying as I would be walking through timber with it. He recommended a BCY material string and I went with his recommendation. He took my email address and told me that I would get a billing email shortly. When the email came a short time later I opened it and found a link to PayPal to purchase my string. I did a double-take at the price...a custom red BCY material string with black serving (and d-loop) guaranteed for one year against any defects, stretch, or peep rotation for a whopping $76 bucks. Almost half the price of most other places.
Well, the string arrived a couple of weeks later and is now on the bow. The string looks great, serving is tight and I can't see a single issue with it. The lengths were absolutely spot on, in fact the poundage after the new string was put on ended up being within .1 lbs of the factory string. The bow was paper tuned and French tuned.
I got out last Friday to start sighting it in again, 3D season is here and I wanted to get my single pin HHA dialed back in. I shot 20-30-40-50-60 yards and marked my sight for each. After I thought I had everything pretty close I decided to shoot 3 more arrows at 60 yards to verify before leaving.
The POA was the orange tape. There was a left to right wind so no adjustment was made. I'm pretty pleased with the Catfish Customs string and tune on my bow. I guess time will tell if the string stretches or I see any peep rotation, but it's looking like I have a winner so far.
 
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Custom bowstrings for compounds are not cheap. I had a local Archery Pro Shop make me a string and cable that set me back $120. Worth every penny.
 
Yes sir, 60 yards.
I'm pretty pleased with the bow set up.
I take it to a shop to have it timed and to be paper tuned, but always insist that they let me be the one that shoots the bow when paper tuning. Form variations can greatly effect the result of shooting through paper and it has never made sense to me to have someone else do the shooting through paper (something I used to do all the time) when their form is probably a bit different than mine. That way it is tuned to shoot bullet holes through paper with ME behind it rather than some pro shop guy. I also French tune it after the paper tune.
Another thing that really helps groups size is nock tuning the arrows. I number the fletching of every arrow and then shoot groups to see how well they perform the same. A lot of times you'll have several of the arrows group in one spot and several more will group in a slightly different spot. You then rotate the nocks to line up with a different fletching rather than the cockvane and do it again, you'll eventually end up with them all grouping in the same spot. This is due to the "dynamic spine" of the arrow, many manufacturers don't fletch their arrows according to the dynamic spine so if you buy pre-fletched arrows it really helps to do the above. Sometimes I'll find arrows that just won't group with the rest...they become grouse arrows that I pack when elk hunting.
 
Custom bowstrings for compounds are not cheap. I had a local Archery Pro Shop make me a string and cable that set me back $120. Worth every penny.
Yes they are Marty, I agree 100%.
I've never had a factory string that didn't stretch and end up with the bow going out of time and some peep rotation. I'm cheap (I hear I'm supposed to say "thrifty!") so I always use the factory string until it needs replaced before I go to a custom string. Most times I end up having to retune the bow twice after the initial setup when using a factory string.
The Winners Choice string on my old Alpine bow that I keep for a back up still has a good tune on it from 5 years ago when I first put it on and had it set up. I used it for a year after that as my main bow before buying the current one. Granted I don't shoot it much, but I do use it every year for turkey hunting. My main bow is always set up for 3D during turkey season and so I just take the old one.
 
Yes sir, 60 yards.
I'm pretty pleased with the bow set up.
I take it to a shop to have it timed and to be paper tuned, but always insist that they let me be the one that shoots the bow when paper tuning. Form variations can greatly effect the result of shooting through paper and it has never made sense to me to have someone else do the shooting through paper (something I used to do all the time) when their form is probably a bit different than mine. That way it is tuned to shoot bullet holes through paper with ME behind it rather than some pro shop guy. I also French tune it after the paper tune.
Another thing that really helps groups size is nock tuning the arrows. I number the fletching of every arrow and then shoot groups to see how well they perform the same. A lot of times you'll have several of the arrows group in one spot and several more will group in a slightly different spot. You then rotate the nocks to line up with a different fletching rather than the cockvane and do it again, you'll eventually end up with them all grouping in the same spot. This is due to the "dynamic spine" of the arrow, many manufacturers don't fletch their arrows according to the dynamic spine so if you buy pre-fletched arrows it really helps to do the above. Sometimes I'll find arrows that just won't group with the rest...they become grouse arrows that I pack when elk hunting.
60...NICE! 👍
Great point you brought-up about nock rotation. Nock rotation can be a very important fine-tuning element...especially if you construct your own wooden arrows like I do.
 
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