3 under

[snowplow]

I have heard 3 under takes a higher nock point. If so, why?

Also, 3 under seems to be louder. Either in reality or just in my own ear as I shoot the bow. Why? (Or maybe I didn't have a high enough nock point?)

Intuitively (to me) it seems like it would be the opposite. Just wondering what you guys think on this.

[Diamond Paul]

I am only playing around trying to learn three under at this time, but here is what I have learned about this.  I might not word it as well as I could, but here goes.  You are pulling lower and so activating the bottom limb more than with split, which tends to move the nock down at full draw relative to split finger, and so the nock needs to be higher at rest.  There is more of an imbalance in the limbs, is another way to say it.  ILF rigs with tiller adjustment allow you to go to zero or even negative tiller to compensate for this, or you could have a bow built this way.  I've shot ILF at zero tiller with split and it works fine that way, too, so a bow built this way would work for both, and be quieter shooting three under.  What it amounts to is that you are changing the tiller somewhat when you pull from different places relative to the nock point, but to some degree all it takes is a nock adjustment to shoot a split tillered bow three under or a zero tillered bow with split.  Having the tiller made or adjusted to some ideal for you and your style of shooting results in the quietest shooting bow for you, but just about any bow can be shot either way with the nock set properly.  There might be some noise difference, but my wood bows are tillered split and I don't really notice much when shooting three under.  I think the quality of the release has more to do with it than tiller, in my opinion.

[Gil Verwey]

I tried 3 under many times and this year I am committed to sticking with it.

All of my bows sounded like I was dry firing them when I shot 3 under. Because of that I stayed split finger. A Tradganger told me try something which worked for me. I placed a small piece of tape on the middle joint of my ring finger. This forced me not to put too much pressure on the string with my ring finger. That worked for me and now all my bows are quiet shooting 3 under. I only used the tape to isolate the problem. Once I knew what it was I just made sure I used very little pressure with that finger.

[mahantango]

X2 on the ring finger. I shoot all of my bows ( a lot) three-under and only one longbow is zero tiller and notice no difference in noise level. I put very little weight on my ring finger which is something you should pay attention to whether you shoot split or three-under. As far as nock point, I run about 1/8" higher than I did shooting split.

[McDave]

X2 on what everybody has said. If you left the nock where it was for split, the force of your draw would be exerted lower on the string when drawing 3 under, thus bending the lower limb relatively more than it bent with split. The objective is to have the limbs recover from the shot at the same time.  If they were recovering at the same time when you shot split, the upper limb would recover quicker if you left the nock in the same place for 3 under.

However, you don't really need this theory.  What you need to do is to shoot a bare shaft and adjust the nock until you get level to slightly nock high flight.  If you do this, you will probably see that the nock will have to be placed 1/8" to 1/4" higher than it was when shooting split to get the same results.

If you have a good release, you will also be able to see that if you put most of the pressure on the index and middle fingers, you will be able to achieve level or slightly nock high bare shaft flight with less of an upward adjustment than you would if you exerted more equal pressure with all three fingers.  Gil puts tape on his ring finger.  I consciously hook my index finger and just rest the other two fingers on the string prior to beginning my draw.  During the draw, the other two fingers take some weight, but not as much as they would if I hooked all three fingers prior to drawing the bow.  I also think this results in a quieter bow.  I don't like having a nock point 7/8" above square.  Whether this makes any real difference or not, I don't know, but it bugs me. Getting the pressure off the ring finger has enabled me to drop a 7/8" nock point to 5/8", for some bows I have tested.

I have never been able to get reliable bare shaft results for 3 under unless I have a nock point above and below the arrow.  I use tied on nocks, because the thought of having two metal nocks on the string scares me, and I have enough mental problems shooting the bow without adding any more.

[GreyCrow]

Great read, thanks for the knowledge.

[Morning Star]

McDave is spot on.  I've invested a lot of time switching to 3 under this year and my experiences mirror his.  The finger pressure thing has been the toughest for me, but I'm getting there.  Will have to try the tape trick.

[Scitty]

Yip same here, gonna have to try the tape. Thanks for the insights gents