bottom hen feather wear

[bowmaster12]

ive been shooting cock feather out and i have extrem wear on the bottome hen feather i assume its from shelf contact (since i shoot of the shelf) ive read on the forums about shooting cock feather in i was wondering if there was another way of getting around the wear problem.  It doesnt affect accuracy but iy does wear the fletching out quickly could this be a nocking point issue?  thanks for the input

[McDave]

As you say, it doesn't affect accuracy, since the feathers were conveniently engineered to fold in when they contact the bow.  Black Widow recommends orienting the cock feather up, and having a hen feather slide into the corner between the riser and the shelf.  Fred Asbell taught us to nock the arrows without looking at them, as it was his feeling also that feather contact wasn't really that important.  So one possibility would be to just shoot with cock feather in and spread the wear around.

Assuming you are now shooting with your nock point in the correct position, you could raise your nock point a little (maybe 1/8"?) without hurting accuracy, as the feathers will stabilize the arrows quickly after they leave the string.  I don't know if that would solve your problem or not.

The only real problem with feathers, other than wear, is if you have quill contact, which will cause an arrow bounce and will affect accuracy.  You can tell if you have quill contact by trimming the feathers on one of your arrows back to maybe 1/8" and marking the edges with lipstick or something to see if you have any contact with the bow.  The arrow you trim will fly essentially like a bare shaft, so might be useful in the future for tuning purposes.

[bowmaster12]

as a first year shooter i have no idea if my nock point is set up correctly pro shop set it up arrow flight seem fin 6 arrows 8 inch group 15 yards not satisfied with group but should shrink with more practice

[McDave]

Do you have a bow square, and do you know where your nock point is set?

[bowmaster12]

no bow square have always done everythign on my compound by eye, the nock point on my recurve is just slightly above square

[McDave]

Probably would be a good idea to get a bow square and see where your nocking point and brace height is set.  They can shift over time as the string stretches or the nocking point slips.  Your brace height is probably already lower than it was set at the store, since strings stretch when new.  If you are happy with your settings, it allows you to reproduce them if you get a new string.  It would be difficult for me to change my nocking point if I didn't know where I started from.

Your nocking point was probably set at 3/8" - 1/2" by the store, since these are good starting points.  Your brace height was probably set at the bowyer's recommended height, or maybe at some arbitrary height, if the person didn't know what the bowyer's recommended height was.

Generally, most of us start from there and then tune using bare shafts or other methods to get really good arrow flight.

[Stick_N_String]

McDave gave some fantastic advice, one other thing that may be wearing your feathers out is the material that you are using for a rest.
I've always used a hair rug on my recurve's, have never had wear issue's. My buddy switched to using velcro on his longbow and has noticed his bottom hen feather wearing more than usual. I'll give him McDave's advice about cock feather up, I've never tried that before, I do shoot cock feather in on my recurve.
Daren

[bowmaster12]

thanx for the advice guys it sounds like it would be helpfull if I could find a pro shot that specialized in trad gear.  So far havent been able to find one in my area been going to just a "normal" shop been finding out there are alot of trad specifics in this gamesure having fun trying to figure them all out