how to know if knocks are too tight?

[Learner]

Please bear with this newbie question:

What are the symptoms that indicate that your arrow nocks may be too tight?

Thank you,
Frank

[Roy from Pa]

Erratic arrow flight. They should fit barely snug and should pull off with minimal effort.

[Learner]

Originally posted by Roy from Pa:
Erratic arrow flight. They should fit barely snug and should pull off with minimal effort.

Erratic in what way?:
-- "Not consistent" erratic?
-- Or trending as weak/strong spine, or high/low nock?

[Mike Vines]

When your arrow is nocked, hold your bow with the string up and arrow pointed down.  If the arrow stays attached to your string, your doing good.  If the arrow falls off, the nock is not sized properly for the string.  

Once you get the arrow/nock to stay on the string, lightly tap the string near where the arrow is nocked (not the actual arrow nock), and the arrow should release and fall down.  If after a light tap on the string and the arrow stays connected, your nock is to tight.

[Roy from Pa]

All of the above, but especially, trending as weak/strong spine, or high/low nock? . If the nock is too tight, when the arrow leaves the string, the nock end could be thrown into any configuration other than a smooth straight release off the string.

[Learner]

Originally posted by Mike Vines:
When your arrow is nocked, hold your bow with the string up and arrow pointed down.  If the arrow stays attached to your string, your doing good.  If the arrow falls off, the nock is not sized properly for the string.  

Once you get the arrow/nock to stay on the string, lightly tap the string near where the arrow is nocked (not the actual arrow nock), and the arrow should release and fall down.  If after a light tap on the string and the arrow stays connected, your nock is to tight.

Thank you for this tip.

But my question is to the problems which I would observe if my nocks were too tight.

In other words, assuming that my arrows were tuned correctly, and I am not torquing the bow or string, what arrow behavior would indicate to myself (or an observer) that my nocks may be too tight?

[Roy from Pa]

Well you couldn't get your arrows tuned correctly if the nocks were too tight. You may get them close but not close enough in my opinion.

In other words, assuming that my arrows were tuned correctly, and I am not torquing the bow or string, what arrow behavior would indicate to myself (or an observer) that my nocks may be too tight?

The arrow could fish tail or porpoise up and down. And it could change with every shot, and maybe once in a while it could fly straight.

What exactly are your arrows doing and are they grouping together?

[Trenton G.]

Maybe this is a dumb question, but how would I remedy a knock that is to tight? As far as I know, I can't buy bigger gold tip nocks, they all seem to be the same size.

[ChuckC]

I think if they are, you already know it.  

They snap on the string with a light "snap" sound, without having to hold the string in place with your other hand to get it on there, they hold in place by themselves, but come off fairly easy, they don't make a noise when coming off at the shot.  

The erratic flight, yup, but the only way I can think of to check that against any other reason is to alter or change nocks to make one fit well, then see if it affects the arrow flight.  

You "can" alter the nock, by bending, sanding etc, and we used to do that in the past, but I believe today's nocks are a bit more delicate and doing that now might be hazardous to you, your bow, and anything nearby (if it breaks and causes a dry fire scenario).

Another scenario, if you are able ( it is not difficult) is to reserve the string using a smaller diameter serving thread, heck, even using left over Power Pro fishing line ( I have used 100# test before) will make things fit better.

Just change out one nock to make it fit "right", and see if it does anything at all different.
ChuckC

[Pine]

Hold the nock in very hot water for a minute , then push it on the string a few times .
If it's very tight , put a slight twisting pressure on the arrow while you do that .
If you get them to loose , heat again and pinch with your fingers and start over .

[LBR]

Too tight will add noise and can throw a wrench in tuning.  Lighter draw weights seem to be more affected.  Some nocks are made to snap on tighter than others.

Easy fix, use the correct size serving to fit the type nock you are using.  I don't like altering nocks myself--you can weaken them and make them inconsistent.

Originally posted by Trenton G.:
Maybe this is a dumb question, but how would I remedy a knock that is to tight? As far as I know, I can't buy bigger gold tip nocks, they all seem to be the same size.

You can reserve your string with smaller diameter serving. There are many different string materials, all with different strand diameters. There are also different serving sizes from .019 - .030. You pick the serving diameter that goes with your string material to make the correct size for your mocks.

Edit: Looks like LBR and I were typing at the same time. I agree with him on not altering nocks. Seems like an easy way to make for a weak point that could end up in failure to me.

Bisch

[Muttly]

Dan Toelke sells a little tool for 8 bucks that seems pretty effective, takes off a tiny bit on the inside of the nock.
Had an issue with tight nocks, this seemed like a pretty easy fix.
If you make your own strings, reckon it,d be easy enough to fix. Unfortunately, I,m kinda challenged in the knot tying, knife sharpening side of the street.

[Learner]

Thank you all for the feedback.

I believe that most of mine may be a little too tigbt (this just recently occurred to me based on other threads at TG, hence my question here).

I don't have access to my bows this week, but I'll try modifying some nocks this weekend. I actually use Easton SuperNocks on my GT arrows.  These fit more snugly on my strings than do the stock GT nocks.

I've successfully "tightened" plastic nocks in the past, so I believe I could successfully make them looser.

[Mike Mecredy]

You should be able to pick up the arrow with the bow, but you shouldn't be able to pick up the bow with the arrow.

Make sense?

[Bowwild]

I'm much more concerned about too loose nocks..dry fire potential.In the old days we used to "bite them tight".  Of course us teenagers (and a bit older) did a lot of things that I would no longer do or recommend.

[crazynate]

I also use that nock tool for adjusting size. I learned long ago that it will effect arrow flight. Only takes a few mintites per arrow to get the size right.you can also use sandpaper if you want. Just go slow with that because once you take to much off your screwed

[Learner]

Originally posted by crazynate:
I also use that nock tool for adjusting size. I learned long ago that it will effect arrow flight. Only takes a few mintites per arrow to get the size right.you can also use sandpaper if you want. Just go slow with that because once you take to much off your screwed

That's actually the reason that I use a split-finger pull: if I shoot an arrow with a loose nock, or am experimenting with different nock heights (no nocking point), then I can hold the arrow at any given point on the string.

[Bladepeek]

If your nocks are REALLY too tight, you might experience what I did.

Was shooting at a trad shoot in Grayling and tried another man's bow. I shoot GT carbons and have all my strings served to fit them. He shoots woodies and his string is served to fit his nocks. I didn't want to take a chance of losing one of his nice woodies in the ferns and ground growth, so I used one of my arrows. At the shot, my arrow went zinging wildly off to the right (I'm a lefty). We were all a bit shocked, but then the other guy noticed my nock still stuck on his bowstring. That was a bit embarassing   :rolleyes:

[Terry Green]

I did not read all of the post or any of them really....if you're nock makes a loud snap more than likely they're too tight the last thing you want is your Arrow holding on for dear life as your strength returns to brace.

Lots of problems arise from this I'm doing spell voice command so I really don't want to get into all of the issues responsible for that but you want them slightly snug but not slightly tight if that makes sense and definitely not over tight big problems down the road