Nock-Tuning; very important, don't forget it!

[Flying Dutchman]

So what is that???? Nock-tuning? Did good old Dutchie finally loose his mind?

No no no....

Today I made a major improvement to my set-up. Since a long time I was not quite satisfied how my arrows were in the pack after the shot. Okay, the flew great and I was hitting were I was looking at, but they were never straight in the pack. Always feathers left, point right. Not much, max 1 inch when papertuning.
This would indicate a too weak spine, so I went up 5 lbs, 10, 15, and still the arrow was not straight in the pack.

Sometimes this can be frustrating, even though you are shooting good.

Then I remembered something about the nock-fit on the serving of the string. I am the kind of guy who always said: "As long as they don't fall off, they are fine!" and never payed attention to it. However at a closer examination today I found that my nocks are very tight on the serving of the string. I sandpapered the groove, with a piece of sandpaper, two times folded. It was a 240 grid, just because it was laying there around. I sandpapered the nockgroove till the arrow, hanging down on the string, just didn't fell of.
I shot it. I couldn't believe the difference! The arrow was now very straight in the pack AND flying noticeable faster. Much faster. Judging with the eye I would say 10 fps at least.

I treated all my nocks this way. Taking care that the fit was in such a way that the arrows just didn't drop of, when hanging down on the serving. Just a very light hit of the finger would make them drop.

Tryed them all. My set-up was shooting much faster, more accurate, quiter and more forgiven.

I can imagine that when you have a very tight fit, this may cause the loud TWENG when the arrow leaves the string (read: nock plops out of the serving) some people are reporting.

So I really would recommend you to tune your nocks!

Any comments or  reactions after a field test are very welcome!

[KodiakMag]

Faster would make sense, since there is less friction requiring less force to remove the nock from the string. I also sometimes start shooting and notice my arrows doing something funny. I stop for about 10 min relax and go back. Mostly when I shoot I start to get tense during rounds and taking a break helps keep good form which means a clean release and follow through.

[smokin feathers]

your dead on a nock can make a heck of difference. I have had impact points on both my stick bows and customers wheel bows change as much as 6" just from going to new nocks and even from just changing colors of the same companies nocks especially with the tight little x nocks on axis,mfx and the new GT kenetics.

[tackhammer]

Very true. I found a ladys nail file(the one with the foam in it) works great and is cheap!

[Flying Dutchman]

A lady's nail file; that's a good one! Keep um coming....

[RM81]

Originally posted by tackhammer:
Very true. I found a ladys nail file(the one with the foam in it) works great and is cheap!

  Yep.  Works great!  You can get a 10 pack of files for a couple of bucks.

[pitt98]

I too use the lady's nail file with the foam.

[dragonheart]

I really do not like any "snap" to a nock.  Mercury nocks were some of the best but the quality has gone down hill on the plastic used.  I also use the nail file on bohning classic nocks and get rid of the nipples at the back inside the nock.  You want a "slide fit", with a tighht tolerance on the serving.  Just enough to hold on the serving with a small amount of pressure to release.  makes a world of difference.

[CAT22]

I made a post "tight nocks" a while back looking for suggestions on how to loosen them up. What a difference. accuracy and speed improvement. I also use an emory board instead of boiling. Amazing such a little thing unnoticed can make such a big difference.

[Shan]

I have CE arrows with the factory nocks. they were waaay too tight. I posted on here and was told to try the foam nail file trick....and it does work but for me it took a loong time to get the nocks to the proper fit. About 100 passes on each one. is this the case for anyone else?

I ended up using an older 8 inch bh file and giving it twenty passes. this produced good, consistent results.

[CAT22]

I just use an Emory board with a more aggressive grit instead of the foam ones. Much faster. I'll also dab a bit of vasaline on the serving as it's breaking in. Gives my newly filed nocks a little slip.

[Spectre]

I am blessed that a 6" mill file is the exact same width as my serving.