Weird shooting experience

[sveltri]

I decided last night that since elk season is upon us it would be a good idea to start shooting in my back-up string.  I know I have great timing.  Anyway, I put the new string on set the brace height and start shooting.  Knowing there will be some string stretch I did not add a string nock, figured I’d wait awhile.  I obviously have to just eyeball my arrow on the string and get what appears to be close and let em rip.  I was shooting tighter groups then I’ve ever shot, although there was some erratic arrow flight, not every shot but maybe 1 for every 4 arrows.  This goes on for a couple ends and really has me baffled, so I go in and tie on a nock at 5/8”, which I think gives me an almost perfect tune, all of a sudden my grouping just blows up.  This happened exactly the same way on another bow one other time.  Any ideas?

[Bladepeek]

I know what I would do. I'd eye-ball it again without the nock, check the groups and then measure that height. Might not be 5/8".

[Rob W.]

Three under or split? Double nock setup?

[sveltri]

I was shooting 7 arrows per round, I'd guess I had a variance of at least 3/8". Some arrows kicked nock high immediately telling me I was probably to low with my nock on the string.  Maybe I'll tie on two or three more nocks below and touching the one above to see if that tells me anything, removing them one at a time if it's definitely apparent that I'm nocked too low.  Maybe someone out there needs to replace a nock and can try this themselves.

[sveltri]

I've recently gone to two under, middle most pressure ring finger as little as I can apply.  Single nock setup.

[Rob W.]

Paper tuning will tell you about correct nock placement really quick.

[sveltri]

My arrows are tuned, I know I saw some tail kicking, but I don't understand the consistency at the POI.  I'm not trying to say I'm on to something here or that I'm gonna start shooting without a defined nock point, I'm just trying to understand how the grouping was possible.

[BigJim]

Question...If you are shooting two fingers under and don't have a nock, What is keeping  your arrow in place? Just a guess mind you, but sounds like arrow nocks may be too tight otherwise that arrow should slide up when you drop string as it would slide down if you only had one nock and shooting three under...or two under.

BigJIm

[sveltri]

Because my bow shoots 250 fps at 10 Gpp it's too fast for the arrow to move.  I'm just kidding, couldn't resist.  I'm positive my nocks are not too tight, I don't doubt they do move on the string prior to leaving the string.  Again I'm not saying this is the way to go, just trying to gain a better understanding of the groups I shot.

[Gordon Jabben]

I made a osage self bow and for it I made a sinew string.  This was a copy of an Indian bow from a museum so there was no shelf and I had to shoot off of my hand. The Indian bows I have seen don't have nocking points and I think if the arrow was nocked the same place the string would not last too long since it doesn't have serving.  Anyway the jest of the story is that I can shoot it surprisingly well without a nocking point but I don't know why you would shoot better without it.

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Arrows can move a  lot on  a string especially if the release is off.  That aside... I cant figure out why you would shoot better without the nock unless its Bum luck.  

How did your old string shoot with the nocks on it?

What I do for a  back up string is break a  string in and just when I like it the most I take it off and put it in a  ziplock bag for my Pack.  I put a  new string on the bow with the same measurements and get it to where I like it.

[sveltri]

Cyclic - I do the same thing.  I put the old string back on last night for a quick end of four arrows, group was really tight.  I guess I'll just chalk it up to a weird phenomenon.

[sveltri]

Cyclic - I do the same thing.  I put the old string back on last night for a quick end of four arrows, group was really tight.  I guess I'll just chalk it up to a weird phenomenon.

[Mike Mecredy]

When ever you put anything on the string, especially a thin string, things change and you have to re-adjust

[DanielB89]

Originally posted by sveltri:
My arrows are tuned, I know I saw some tail kicking, but I don't understand the consistency at the POI.  I'm not trying to say I'm on to something here or that I'm gonna start shooting without a defined nock point, I'm just trying to understand how the grouping was possible.

The grouping is possible because the fletchings straighten the arrows out while in flight, hence the arrows all contacting the target at the same angle.  

Not being rude here, but if your arrows aren't flying right, they aren't tuned.  When rob said paper tune, he didn't mean to check spine, he meant to check nock height.  

A "perfectly tuned" arrow will fly horrible if the nock is not in the proper place.