Introduction
Legal Stuff
Program Basics
Equipment Data Entry
Goals for Equipment Performance Analysis
Printing and Scanning Targets
Arrow Grader
Bow Tuning Methods
The Analyzer
Analyzing Target Data
Putting it All Together


Congratulations, you are about to become a better archer! By using eXact Archery you can't help but improve your archery scores. This program is a step-by-step guide to bow tuning for continuous process improvement. What this program will do is show you exactly where your equipment is holding you back, and how to correct it.


The eXact Archery software is NOT shareware. Thousands of hours of design and programming costs must be recovered if we are to be able to provide upgrades and new titles. By purchasing eXact Archery software, you obtain a license for installation on one computer and agree to respect our copyright. You can use one installation, on one computer, for as many archers and as much archery equipment as you’d like.




The eXact Archery menu is the same as any other Windows program. You use the left mouse button to activate a menu item or press the Alt key and then the underlined hot key.

Help is only as far away as the mouse cursor or the F1 key. Hover the mouse for a second over most items in the program and a tool tip will tell you about that item. Click Help on the menu or press the F1 key to open the tutorial. If you run into a problem that you just cannot solve, send us an e-mail and we will do our best to help you.

Each item entered into the program is date and time stamped. This information is used to determine when you’ve made changes to your equipment relative to when you shot specific targets. In this way we can show you the effects of the changes you’ve made with before and after analysis.




Information about equipment and targets is stored in a database attached to the program. The eXact Archery Software includes menu options that will create and restore backups of the database for you.

In most fields throughout the data entry forms, once something has been entered into the database you’ll never have to type it again. When you enter a field, a dropdown box will appear with a list of previous values entered into that field. This ensures consistency across records in the database and is handy when you have a dozen identical arrows to enter.

The description forms contain information that does not change such as the ID number, brand name, and model.

Specifications are the properties of equipment that can change such as the draw weight or the tiller measurements of a bow, or the point weight on an arrow. Each time you make a change to your equipment you will create a new specification for that item so that subsequent targets can be analyzed and compared to targets shot before the change. In this way you can determine the overall effect the change had on each of four measures: vertical precision, horizontal precision, vertical accuracy, and horizontal accuracy.




Goals are set on the Bow Description form. The program is designed to work equally well for both the beginner, and the tournament champion, by using these goals.

In a nutshell, precision is a measure of the size of the arrow group in the target. Ignore the bull’s-eye for now, how far apart are the arrows from each other? More precisely, if you shot twenty arrows into a target, tossed out the worst shot and then drew a circle around the rest, the radius of that circle is our measure of precision, sort of. It's a bit more complex than that but we won't bore you with a discussion of calculating the square root of, the average squared deviation of each shot from the arithmetic mean... That's what computers are for. Suffice it to say, we will be analyzing your targets to see if there’s a 95% probability that the next arrow you shoot will hit within the goal you've set for precision.

We will analyze the precision of your equipment separately for the vertical and horizontal planes. We do this because different settings on the bow affect the group differently in these two directions. We’re going to use this to get your bow in absolutely perfect tune.

If you marked the average distance from the bull’s-eye for all of the arrows in the target, the distance from this mark to the target center is our measure of accuracy. How close is the center of the group discussed above, to the center of the target? Again, we will analyze this separately for the vertical and horizontal planes. This will be used to sight in your bow after we tune it.




Bow tuning targets are printed from the program. They have a one-centimeter grid on them that matches the grid on the analyzer form.

The best way to get your shots from the paper targets onto the Analyzer Targets is to scan them to a bitmap or jpeg file. After making some basic adjustments on the first target you scan, future scanned targets are automatically aligned with the click of the mouse.


You can see the data for your arrows and select the best arrows in your collection by using the Arrow Grader. With a click of the mouse you get a summary of the data for all of your arrows since the last change made to them, graded on a combination of precision and accuracy. Make this your last stop before going hunting, or to shoot in a tournament, no more wondering which arrows to put in the quiver!




There are three methods of basic bow tuning included in this program; bare shaft, paper and “fine-tuning”. We have created an interactive guide for all three of these methods to take the guesswork out of the bow setup process. Shoot per the instructions and then just click the target picture that most closely matches your results to reveal instructions on how to adjust your bow.


The Analyzer is a powerful tool used to track the results of bow tuning adjustments. In the analyzer you load shots into a target, and review the program’s analysis of that data. There are three ways to open targets in this window. Create a new target, open an existing saved target, or open combined targets.

Combining targets for analysis is an advanced tool for determining weaknesses in the setup of your archery equipment. Pre-configured target combinations and plain text analysis of the results are available with a few mouse clicks. The flexibility of the data selection process also allows you use your own analytical ability to theorize and test any combination of targets or equipment and look at the detailed statistical results both graphically and numerically.


Any target can be analyzed. You’ll find basic information about the target including the number of shots, group center and group range or spread as well as an in depth analysis of the shot data. Frequency analysis charts are provided and the raw statistical calculations are shown for those who are knowledgeable about statistical analysis. Plain English results of this analysis are provided in four areas: vertical precision, horizontal precision, vertical accuracy, and horizontal accuracy. At the bottom of the analysis window, the next step in the bow tuning process is suggested for you based on the results of the targets being analyzed.




Here is the step-by-step bow tuning process that will lead to more precise and accurate shooting.

1. Enter Equipment specs	Enter all bow and arrow descriptions and specifications into the database. Enter performance goals for each bow. Number your arrows.
2. Establish the baseline	Shoot each arrow at least a dozen times into it’s own target and enter the data into the program.
3. Select the Best Arrows	Use the Arrow Grader to pick out the best arrows to be used for bow tuning.
4. Paper Tune the Bow	Shoot a half dozen arrows through paper, analyze the tear, make the recommended adjustment, and retest. Repeat until you have a decent paper tear.
5. Shoot Another Round	Repeat what you did in step two using only the best arrows selected in step three.
6. Analyze Before and After	Use the Analyze Equipment Changes option to open the before and after analysis.
7. Fine Tune the Bow	Follow the “Next Step” instructions and work through the fine tuning process making only one very small adjustment.
8. Do It Again	Repeat steps five through seven until the goals set in step one have been met.
9. Increase the Distance	At this point you can move back or tighten up your goals and repeat the process to increase your effective range.
10. Monitor Performance	Continue to plot targets into the program and compare current data to previous results. This will allow you to track the stability of your setup. You will know immediately if a nock point or peep sight is slipping on the string, or vibration has caused a bolt to loosen on the arrow rest, etcetera.

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