Nock high

[Buckeye1977]

Am pretty new to the tuning game but am having a little trouble with nock high on my recurve. I bareshaft tuned my longbow last year for first time and had no problem with it, maybe beginners luck. Recently got a kempf kwyk styk and started to bareshaft tune it. Got pretty close to what I wanted but not perfect. So I decided to try to paper tune and see what happened. Started at 6 ft from paper shooting my longbow. It was putting bullet holes in the paper nearly every time. Then I pulled out the recurve to try it and was getting a nock high tear every time. I started by adjusting the nocking point but would not get better no matter which way I went. Even tried some different point weights with no success. The only thing I can think of is maybe brace height which I didn't change but not sure if that would have any effect or not. What else could I try or what might be causing this problem? Thanks

[YosemiteSam]

I start at 3/8" and raise it a little each time until I get it where I want it.  A little nock high is fine with me but not too much.  I've gone as far as 0.75" above center.  If the shaft is diving down & hitting low after about 25 yards, it's good enough for me.  If it's diving within 20, I'll fix it.  Because the shaft can bounce off the shelf if the nocking point is too low, I've been told that it's best to start low & work up.  I figure if I get to 1" and it's not flying right, then I need to start over or check other variables (my form being the most likely culprit).

[Buckeye1977]

I started at 3/8 which is where I've shot most bows at and went all the way to about 3/4 but there wasn't much of a change if any. I don't understand why the recurve would do it but the longbow shoots perfectly. Maybe length of bow and finger pinch? Longbow is 62" and recurve is 56". I'm only drawing 26.5" if I'm lucky. Also have a double nock point on both bows also

[McDave]

If you shoot split fingers, and put excessive downward pressure on the top of the nock with your index finger, it will cause nock high.  The shorter the bow, the more likely that you will have this problem.  To avoid this problem, learn to pull with your back muscles, and set your drawing elbow at a height such that the downward pressure on your index finger doesn't occur.  This should put your forearm pretty much in line with the arrow.  Don't overdo it; you don't want your drawing elbow too low either.

[Buckeye1977]

I'm gonna try to work on that and see how it goes. I'm shooting with a tab right now do you think it would be any easier to keep some separation between my fingers and knock with a glove that might help?

[McDave]

They make tabs with dividers between the index and middle fingers for this purpose, but most people must not like them much, because I notice that they tend to take them off the tab.  Probably you should try a glove at some point to see if you like it better.  However, now that you are aware of this particular problem, I would imagine you'll learn to avoid it, as long as you also learn to use back tension, which seems to be the biggest key to success in archery in general.

[Buckeye1977]

Shot some this evening and was working on keeping the pressure off my top finger and my paper tuning got a lot better as long as I was concious of what I was doing. I believe the problem to be in the shorter bow but was able to get better accuracy with less finger pressure. Thanks for the suggestions. I think I'll be good as long as I keep practicing the same way til it becomes automatic. Thanks again

[Jack Denbow]

Nick the problem is the tail end of your arrow is slightly bouncing off of the shelf. You had no problem with the longbow because it probably has a narrow shelf. The recurve probably has a wide shelf. A wise old sage who forgot more about shooting the bow than all the rest of us will ever know addressed this. He said to build up your shelf about an 1/8" and no wider than the arrow and the problem will go away. He was right. I use a piece of the fuzzy part of Velcro for my rest.
Jack

[Buckeye1977]

Might try that sometime thanks!

[the rifleman]

I watched a video on youtube by Dewayne Martin I believe.  He raised his nock point up to about 1 inch and was still getting great flight with his broadhead.  I recently tried this and so far like it very much---my bareshafts definitely fly lower than fletched shafts, but it is not the case with broadheads---they go right into the field point group.  If you are looking for a closer point on this helps.