Nock high and shelf wear

[xtrema312]

I have two issues with a new bow.  I always get nock high flight with my bare shaft.  I have been close to 1” high and down much lower.  I was getting some edge of shelf wear.  I realized I was too stiff and had gotten there because of false weak due to the edge of shelf contact.  I raised the nock point a little.  I found the arrow stiff so loaded up the front to get it back in the ball park.  I eliminated the edge of shelf wear with the higher nock set and weaker arrow.  However, I still had nock high flight.  I treid to move the nock down and the wear is back and still nock high.  I have gone weak and stiff all over the board.  I get good fletched arrow flight.  I can get the shelf wear to go away.  I can get the bare shafts to shoot with the fletched or a little weak.  I just can’t do all that and get a level or low nock flight out of my arrow.  I shoot split right hand with one nock set above the arrow.  I shoot cock feather in.  I get no feather wear.  Any ideas what is going on?  Should I try two nock points?  Am I doing something odd with my release?

[robtattoo]

I think you're overthinking it.

A) You get good fletched flight.
B) Bareshafts group with, or slightly weak to, your fletched shafts

That's all you're interested in! Move your nock back up to eliminate the shelf wear (although this really isn't a problem) & leave it at that.

You seem to be mixing 2 different tuning methods (actually, I read this a lot) You need to either go with the 'planing' method of O.L.s or arrow nock position, not both. If your arrows are grouping together, both bare & fletched, then you're good to go. With O.L.'s method, nock height would be indicated by your bareshfts grouping eiter high or low.

[Jeremy]

I agree with Rob.

Time to put some broadheads on a few arrows and see how those group in relation to your fieldpoints.  If there's a slight tuning problem that the bareshafts didn't reveal it should show itself with the BH on.

[xtrema312]

I was wondering if I should just forget the nock high thing given I was able to get everything but that working right.  It just always looks so high, and I have been able to get everything right on my other bow with hardly noticeable nock high flight so I thought I was missing something on the new one.  My other bow has a narrow shelf and is longer among other variables.  Also that one shoots an arrow with less FOC, and I think higher FOC could be part of it.  I think I will just adjust the nock up a little to eliminate the shelf wear and tuning effect of that contact then get on with some broad heads.

Thanks for the replies!

[xtrema312]

I moved it up and then got the idea to put some white electrical tape I have on the rest to see how change effects it.  I didn't rub it down over the side and left it flat with the edge hanging out over the side of the rest so if the shaft hit hard and down over the edge of the rest the tape would press down into the wear area as well as get marks on it.  I am shooting GT trad's and they have some texture to them so it doesn't take many shots to get some marks on the clean white tape.  I found as I raised the nock it got the marks to go away then they would start again, or I would get an arrow or two that would push the tape down. I would then pull the tape back up level and keep shooting. I replace the tape as I made changes.

I was getting sporadic readings.  Then I recalled reading something yesterday about using two nocks and something about flyers so I added a bottom nock set.  I also noticed that my arrow nock has a little snap when it goes on, but it slides easily on the serving when on.  My serving is halo.  I find it very durable, but it is slick.  I started playing again and got it to consistency leave just a light rub mark across the tape if any and no pushing down of the tape on the outside edge.  I shot a little while.  Then I noticed it started again.  I checked and the bottom nock had slipped.  I tightened it back up and continued shooting.  Problem solved.

I now have a little less nock high flight.  I even got a more constant group with the bottom nock used with the higher top nock setting.  I had noticed that higher nock location was giving me less wear, but less accuracy.  This bow is a 56” so that with my form could cause the arrow to slide down the string with the GT nock fit and halo.

I am not all that happy with GT nocks.  I broke two just today.  Any hit will break them.  I tried some Beman nocks and they slide on with less snap and and less slide when on.  They are also more durable and flex or split on hard hits rather than break off with any contact.  I think I will change out my GT nocks to Beman.