Tips and Tricks

Sighting In (with your Trophy Ridge® sight):

1. ASSEMBLE the sight and mount it on your bow.

2. ADJUSTING TORQUE out of the bow is a serious problem among many archers. There are many things that cause a bow to torque: buck fever, shooting out of a treestand, shooting on a side hill or shooting with a glove.

A number of our sights have a unique feature to allow the archer to identify torque: Trophy Ridge Torque Adjustment Feature. The following instructions detail how to use this feature. Draw the bow back and aim as usual. All the sight pins should be in a straight line. Because each archer holds his/her bow slightly different, there may be a need to adjust for hand torque. If so, simply loosen the top and bottom torque adjustment screws and adjust accordingly. Note the torque adjustment marks for precise tuning. Once adjusted, tighten the screws down firmly. You should never have to use these adjustments again. However, if you have to adjust the sight left or right an extreme amount, this will change your torque adjustment.

3. SIGHT PIN ADJUSTMENT has gotten easier since Trophy Ridge developed its line of "No Tools Adjustment" sights. No more allen wrenches are needed! Trophy Ridge has already set your sight pins in their preferred positions. But, because of different trajectories from different bows, there will be some adjustments. We recommend leaving the top pin where it is and sighting it in by adjusting the vertical and horizontal knobs. Now the rest of the pins can be sighted in. Release the appropriate cam-lock by pulling it down. Move the sight pins with appropriate individual micro adjustment (up to move the pin down and vise-versa). Once adjusted, replace the cam-lock back to the locked position.

4. SIGHT LEVEL: There is no need to adjust the sight level bubble. You have already adjusted the bow torque out with the torque adjustment feature. This in conjunction with the bubble mounted perpendicular to the sight pins result in an automatic leveling system.

What type of biscuit do I need for my setup?

As a general rule, a loose fit is good, and a tight fit is bad. A tight fit will result in more noise and possible left-right errors due to hand torque. All biscuit sizes are interchangeable. This means that to switch arrow sizes, it may only be necessary to switch biscuits. It will not be necessary to buy a whole new rest. The following table relates the available biscuit sizes to the available arrow types and sizes:

• Biscuit Size
  Arrow Sizes
• Small
  (0.300" inner)
  Trophy Ridge, Acc, Outsert Carbon, Axis 17xx or smaller Aluminum
• Medium
  (0.320" inner)
  Internal Component Carbon, 19xx or smaller Aluminum
• Large
  (0.385" inner)
  23xx or smaller Aluminum
• Fishing
  (0.360" inner)
  Unfletched Fishing Arrows Only
• 

I keep getting a high tear when I paper tune my bow. How can I fix it?

If your bow is set up with even tiller, and the arrow rest is positioned so the arrow passes by the anchor bolt hole, and you are getting a high tear of 1/4 inch or less, then this is a satisfactory setup with the Whisker Biscuit and will result in good groups. There are however several things to check when you encounter a high paper tear. They are:

Biscuit gripping the arrow too tightly — If the wrong size biscuit is being used for your arrow, or if the biscuit is not adjusted correctly and is fitting too tightly around the arrow shaft, a high paper tear is likely. To correct this problem verify you are using the correct size biscuit for your arrow. Then if necessary, adjust the biscuit by spreading it open at the split until the arrow passes freely through the biscuit. A loose fitting biscuit is optimal.

String Nock Point too Low — The string nock point should be adjusted so that the arrow lays flat across the riser and passes in front of the anchor bolt hole. It is better to have a slightly high nock point (1/8 to 1/4 inch), than a slightly low nock point. A low nock point can produce a high paper tear.

Incorrect Spine — 2 cam and 1 cam bows seem to differ as to how they respond to spine. Here is what you will typically see:
Two Cam Bow — A high spine weight will cause a high tear. In general you won't see a low tear.
Single Cam Bow — A high spine weight will cause a low tear. A low spine weight will cause a high tear.
Disclaimer — There are many different cam designs, each with its own personality. If you find that the above observations don't pan out, try the opposite. If you are getting a vertical tear you can't get rid of by adjusting the rest or nocking point, it is a good bet that the arrow spine is the issue.

Biscuit too far to right or left — Occasionally a vertical tear can be corrected by moving the biscuit to the right or left a slight amount. If you notice that your vertical tear leans to the side, try a slight horizontal adjustment.

How Should I orient my Arrow Fletching?

The Cock Vane should always be in the up position.

My fletching wrinkles or tears, is there anything I can do to fix it?

We have tested many different vanes from many different manufacturers and found that some hold up better than others. Here is what we have learned:

White vanes are the softest regardless of the manufacturer or material. This is because it takes a lot of dye to produce the white color and the dye weakens the vane. You will also notice that white vanes get discolored faster than other vanes.

Rubber based vanes are the easiest to glue to an arrow shaft, but are the weakest material to make vanes from. Most arrow manufacturers use rubber vanes because they are so easy to glue on and allow the mass production of arrows. You can tell a rubber vane by its usually textured surface and elastic nature. Rubber vanes have some memory, but when stretched past their elastic limit, they will wrinkle. Rubber vanes also wrinkle in flight due to the acceleration of the shot. You can expect about 150 shots before seeing damage to the vanes.

Urethane based vanes are the toughest vanes and hold up the best over the long term. They are however more difficult to glue to the arrow shaft. The base of the vanes must be cleaned well with a solvent, or simply dish soap. A good flexible glue like Flex-Fletch glue works the best. Urethane based vanes don't oscillate during the shot, and are the most quiet as they fly through the air. You can expect thousands of shots without damage to the vanes.

The best method we've found to affix the vanes to the shaft is as follows: First rub the shaft with a fine abrasive sandpaper or scotch bright. Use a flexible glue on the base of the vanes like the Bohning glue. Then dab a hard glue like super glue or goat-tough glue on the front and back of the vane. Let the arrow sit over night. You can then shoot it thousands of times before having to worry about the fletching again.

We have found the following manufacturers to produce the best fletching and adhesives:

I get left-right grouping. What causes this?

This is primarily caused by hand torque. There are two things to check:

Tight hand grip — If you are gripping the riser during the shot, this will cause left-right groupings.

Tight Biscuit fit to the arrow — A loose fit between the arrow and the biscuit is desired. With the arrow mounted on the bow, you should be able to see daylight over the top of the arrow. If the arrow completely fills the hole, then you will need to adjust the biscuit open by removing it from the bracket and spreading it open a little bit. Then reinstall the biscuit into the bracket and try again.

My arrows make noise during the draw, how can I quiet them down?

There are many types of arrows on the market. Some are more quiet than others. Here is what we know about making an arrow draw quietly through the rest:

• Carbon arrows with a smooth finish are the quietest. Trophy Ridge arrows, with their Silent Slide™ Shaft Coating, are the quietest arrows through the Whisker Biscuit. Other carbon arrows will be noisy at first, but after shooting them many times, they become less noisy. You will find that even the noisiest arrows will become very quiet after several hundred shots.
• Shafts can be smoothed slightly by rubbing with very fine steel wool.
• Large diameter aluminum arrows (24XX-25XX) are very noisy. They are very sensitive to dust and abrasion.
• Camouflaged aluminum arrows are noisier than solid color arrows.
• If the biscuit fits tightly around the arrow, the noise will be substantially increased. A loose fit that allows light to be seen over the arrow when it is mounted on the bow will give the quietest and most forgiving setup. You can spread the biscuit open slightly to increase the opening.
• Applying silicon to the arrow shaft sometimes reduces the noise.
• Keep the biscuit clean. Wipe the arrows prior to use. Avoid contaminating the biscuit with waxes, dirt, dust, target material, etc. Avoid using dry powder type waterproofing as it is abrasive and will increase arrow drawing noise.
• Check that the biscuit is square to the arrow. Sometimes a noisy setup can be cured by pushing the top of the biscuit towards the bow string a little with your thumb. Paper tuning the bow will help optimize the rest position and can decrease draw noise.
• Make sure the arrow is not pressing down on the rest with excessive force. If you are using nock sets above and below the arrow, they may be too close at full draw. This can cause more pressure on the bristles and increase draw noise.