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Bow tuning: centre shot, clearance and the plunger

Tuning aligns the arrow, the rest and the string so the arrow leaves cleanly, and it starts from a correctly mounted rest and plunger.

Centre shot and the plunger

Centre shot is the sideways position of the arrow relative to the string and the bow's centreline. On a recurve it is set with a spring-loaded plunger, or pressure button, that the arrow rests against; on a compound it is set by the rest position and the launcher blade.

Getting centre shot right lets the arrow flex cleanly around the bow, the archer's paradox, and recover in straight flight. A plunger that is mounted in the wrong hole, or a rest that cannot reach the right position, makes centre shot impossible to set.

Clearance and the rest

Clearance is the arrow and its fletching leaving the bow without touching the rest, the riser or the plunger. Contact throws the shot off and tears vanes, and it is a common hidden cause of unexplained fliers.

A drop-away rest exists to give clearance by falling out of the way as the arrow goes; a blade launcher gives a narrow contact that the fletching clears. Either way the rest has to be mounted correctly to the riser to sit where tuning needs it.

Bare shaft and paper tuning

Tuning is confirmed by tests. Bare-shaft tuning compares where an unfletched arrow lands against fletched ones to reveal a spine or centre-shot error. Paper tuning reads the tear an arrow makes through a paper sheet to show whether the nock end is kicking high, low or sideways.

Both tests only make sense once the rest and plunger are properly fitted. The mount is the foundation; the tuning is the fine adjustment built on top of it, which is why fit comes first.

Related

Sources: Wikipedia: Archer%27s_paradox · Archery GB · Wikipedia: Bow_and_arrow