Bare Shaft & Nock Point

[Andy Lateer]

#6148

Maybe the shaft isn’t supposed to enter perfectly straight up & down? I’ve adjusted my nock point from 1/6th above 90* to 1/2″ and the best I can get in a block target is about 2 1/2″ to 3″ nock high. Looking for some guidance. Maybe thats where it should be, just need to know. Thanks for any help I can get.

[Stephen Graf]

#48317

It’s sometimes hard to get rid of a nock high arrow flight. You might try going even higher than 1/2 inch and see if that helps. Probably won’t, but who knows.

Sometimes adding a nock set below the arrow can help.

Some bows just won’t give even nock travel. It’s usually the result of a lower limb that is too strong. If you’re bow has adjustable limbs, you might try backing off the lower limb a bit.

And finally, you can get a high nock tear if your arrow is really under spinned. Try reducing the point weight a lot and see what happens.

That’s all I have, other than to say a high nock travel is not the worst thing in the world. You can still get good arrow flight and broad head penetration.

[David Coulter]

#50905

Steve, a question on the high nock. Shouldn’t the arrow come down into the target at the end of it’s natural trajectory? That would leave the nock a bit higher than line of sight. Thoughts? Thank you, david

[Stephen Graf]

#51343

Yes that’s true. I usually shoot a bare shaft at 18 or 20 yards to see how it’s flying. At that distance, the arc of the trajectory is pretty flat. You wouldn’t notice the nock being high.

Sometimes I step back to 30 yards, when I get thing working well, and shoot a bare shaft. At that distance, you will see the arrow nock high in the target from the arc of trajectory, as you predicted.

Some people say not to pay attention to the orientation of the arrow in the target. The only important factor is the orientation of the arrow with respect to the intended point of impact:

Left of dot = stiff

Right of dot = weak

Above dot = low nock

Below dot = high nock

I am not in this camp. I like to watch my bare shaft fly (sounds like a good title for a sexy song 😳 ) The observed flight, confirmed by the orientation of the arrow in the target, tell me what’s going on.

[Doc Nock]

#51455

For years I had a question about nock orientation for tuning and both Troy and Ed confirmed my suspicions.

NOCK position tuning requires a homogenous backstop/target to use nock orientation. for instance: In my bag target, filled with rolled up shrink wrap discards, the point follows the path of least resistance and may end up coming to rest pointing in whatever direction that is unrelated to flight.

A foam (or other homogenous) target, and one that hasn’t been shot to pieces, is the only way to get (according to those who’ve done more research on this then I) to have the arrow STOP with nock pointed showing flight and tune.

After that addition of target medium, I’ve learned thru Troys Tuning guide on Tuff-Head site, to really trust the nock orientation and TRoy, too, Steve, recommends once all is level and straight at 10-15 yards, BACK UP and WATCH the arrow flight…

Arrows can come out of paradox at 10-15 yards and land properly, but still nearly go sideways in flight at longer distances and recover to stick in target ok.

Flight is critical…and that again from the experts! And wouldn’t you know it…I had a dozen shafts sticking true blue and then backed up and could see them kick. Needed a micro cut to stiffen slightly and dial in at 20-25 yards…

Broad heads brought it all into perfect flight and alignment in the target. Now a fan of nock orientation in combo with “stepping back and watching flight” at longer distances.

[Andy Lateer]

#53867

I made my original post last Wednesday morning then left town to attend my granddaughters wedding, just got home. OK Steve I raised my nock above 1/2″ and started lowering it, at about 9/16″ above 90* they were entering just almost flat with just a slight nock high oreintation. All of this has been at about 12 yards. Sometimes I amaze me.:oops: But I did learn something. Never realized, nor thought about how stiff the lower limb was would impacting the nock point.:oops:

Now back to bare shafting, I’m moving much slower with these new shafts. All is well at about 12 yards so I’ll be moving back to see how they fly. Thanks to all for your input, it’s been very helpful.

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