Three under, split?

[bear bowman]

I'm thinking of giving three under a try. Are any of you able to tune your bow for both styles or does it change your tune a great deal?

[McDave]

Generally you should be able to tune your bow for either style, but I'm not sure you could tune it ideally for both at the same time.  3 under generally requires a higher nocking point.  You might try a 5/8" nocking point, which might be a little high for split and a little low for 3 under, but okay for both.

[shedhunta]

Mostly just a higher nock point from my experience.  Bow is quieter for me with split but I just shoot much better 3 under.  Not to add confusion but I hear a lot of good about "2 under" lately.....

[bear bowman]

Thanks Dave. Shed, I'm not sure I could shoot with only two fingers.

[Friend]

Not in my personal limited experience and expectations.

[MnFn]

Not the same thing as you asked but I have a friend who shoots three under.  He offered to sell a really nice Tall Tines bow to me.  It is tillered  for three under. I shoot split finger.

I tried shooting it with the nock points set up where he had left them.  It shot just fine. Good flight, I felt good enough about it that I used it this fall. Maybe it fell into the parameters set by Mcdave, never measured, it just worked as is.

Curios now, I should measure it for future string set ups.

[monterey]

For a while in the '80's I was drawing split and then straightening the index finger out after anchoring.  It worked great with one particular bow of a light weight but strength was a problem with the heavier bows.  Ended up back to typical split finger.

I'm from the school that doesn't think there is a 3-under or split tiller--there's just tiller. All bows are tillered. Imagine tiller as timing. Like two doors slamming shut at the same time. That's what your limbs need do. Moving your nock point up and down the string or grip pressure will change the timing of doors (limbs) slamming shut.

Most bows are tillered at 1/8" positive. Some 3-under shooters like 0 tiller. I don't think that 1/8" over the length of the bow is anything simple tuning won't accommodate for fiberglass limbs?

For me a 3/8" high nock set above center works fine on most of my bows-I've shot 3-under for over 40 years. I've never noticed any difference in arrow flight swithing back and forth and I've never noticed any difference in the sound of bow.

I'm also conviced the reason most "trad" guys have to raise their nocking point higher is because they shoot arrows that are too stiff.

[Firstlight]

I have found that raising my nock point is all I need to do.  I'm currently at 3/4" above and getting good arrow flight.  (I do bare shaft, etc)

On a side note, when I switched to 3 under, last year, I decided to only shoot 3 under for 30 days to make a fair judgement on wanting to continue that way.

The 1st week my shooting improved.  2nd week, hit a slump and I disliked 3 under but I stuck with it.  After that, it  became clear to me that I was shooting better 3 under.

Almost a year later now and I'm happy I made the switch.  Have fun with it.

[mahantango]

Switched to three-under about four years ago after shooting split for over forty years, and I don't think I'd ever go back. Only change necessary was to raise the nock point about 1/8". I'm talking about twenty -twenty five recurves and longbows none of which are " tillered for three-under".

[passion for knowledge]

I shoot my #60 recurve 3 under and my #50 Holmegaard split.
Just seems to work for me.
Tried both bows both ways.
Results are what decide the choice.