Move to 3 under?

[nightowl1]

Those who have moved to 3 under from split.. what did you do to retune your bow. Slide silencers, brace height, arrow changes?

I have played back and forth and just watched some of Rick Welchs stuff on youtube, got me thinking.

I tried shooting 3 under but the noise difference is definitly noticable, but I have never tried to tune it to 3 under.

All advice is welcome!

[Bear Heart]

You will probably have to change your nock height but not much else.

[Benny Nganabbarru]

What Bear Heart said. Although others have encountered dramas when making the change, I have not.

[Renaissance Man]

very often depends on design/tiller of the bow, some makers bows and some limb designs are extremely sensitive to that switch and you will in fact be shooting the bow out of tiller which will cause a certain amount of problems, directly related to length of limbs, shorter bows in my experience have more sensitivity to the change.

[Bigriver]

I have made the switch, maybe temporary, but all I did was adjust the nock point a little. I figured it would take more tweaking & have more noise, but not so on my set-up.

 I will say my accuracy has improved dramatically in a short time. My windage is almost always right on. If I do everthing right & the feather touches my nose, the arrow will be there.

[nightowl1]

Alright how about some more details...
do you move the nock up or down usually?

Both of my bows are tillered for split.. a 60'inch whisperstik and a 60' horne combo hunter
Can it do any harm to the bows if they arn't tillered right?

[DanDaMan]

You will have to move the nock up, how well it shoots determines how much.  I have my nock almost 1/2 inch high on most of my bows.  I have found that it really didn't matter to much what the bow was tillered for.  Any bow I order custom comes tillered for 3 under, but some of the other used bows I have shoot just as good and I cant tell much difference between the nock height.  A bow that is tillered 3 under should have a lower nock height than split, but I haven't noticed that in my bows.
Dan

[Manitoba Stickflinger]

I too switched one week ago and are experiencing the same issues. I am shooting great (maybe better than ever) and enjoy not having the arrow between my fingers. I have moved my nocking point up about 1/2 an inch on all my bows and needed to increase my brace height on my longbow by about 3/8 of an inch. The recurves brace height have stayed the same.

I am now into the fine tuning stages (bare shaft and paper tuning) and have not enjoyed the process. I seriously think it's not as easy to tune with 3 under. One thing I know for sure is that the bow is LOUDER no matter what you do to it. One of my recurves was quite easy to tune up and can shoot a variety of arrows right on the spot (bare shaft or fletched) with 3 under but is still louder than it once was with split fingers. Don't get me wrong, the bow is still quiet but noticeably louder than before.

Good luck....Ryan

[Quill Flinger]

I shoot 3 under, split finger & even Papa Bear's 2 under type style. Depends on the bow really.

Some bows are noticeably louder @ the same brace height. Usually have to increase brace height to quiet 'em down for 3 under. As well as moving nock point a lil higher.

How you grip the bow can also affect how it shoots. Some bows shoot better with even hand pressure while others shoot better with higher or lower hand pressure. Same with how tightly you grasp the bow. A tight grasp can lead to bow torque more easily than a light grip.

I normally only rough tune a bow/arrow combo until hunting season is near. But an untuned bow will be louder & may increase hand shock, vibration etc.

Normally for 3 under, my nock point starts about 3/4" above & may increase to as much as 1". Short R/D LBs tend to need a higher nock point than other bows in my experience, regardless of shooting style. Hope this helps a bit.

All the best! - Q.

[suzie_shooter]

not to steal the thread but i was messing around yesterday when shooting and tried 3under from my normal split. to my surprise i shot my best groups ever but i wasnt sure if i would hurt the bow by doing so. any input would be helpful.  i shoot an Indian Archery magnum hunter 52in. 50# at 28

[leatherneck]

My question would be this. I've tried this more than once and every time my arrows hit at the bottom of the target. So why would I move the nock point up? It appears like I would need to move it down. That is if you all are still using the same anchor point. Just asking.

Mike

[Quill Flinger]

Hi leatherneck,
  When you change to 3 under, the tail end of the arrow is the width of the arrow higher, approx. 3/8". With the same anchor point, same "point of aim", the arrow will hit lower.

  I shoot instinctively, & learned to "shoot the arrow", not the bow. So either I don't have the same experience, or I adjust without thinking about it. Mayhaps comes from experience, dunno.

   So I have to ask if you're gap aiming, or using some other method of aiming other than just focusing on a spot. If you are shooting instinctively, then with practice it will likely come around in a short time. Hope this helps some.

All the best! - Q.

[Quill Flinger]

Hi suzie-shooter,
   Nope, you cannot hurt your bow at all shooting 3 under. Some people use "string walking" as a means of aiming. This is where they will place their fingers on the string as much as an inch or even 2 below the arrow without harming the bow.

   Though I've always wondered how such a method would affect tuning & arrow flight with a broadhead. Never been curious enuff to find out though....laffs

Good hunting! - Q.

[ishoot4thrills]

Originally posted by suzie_shooter:
not to steal the thread but i was messing around yesterday when shooting and tried 3under from my normal split. to my surprise i shot my best groups ever but i wasnt sure if i would hurt the bow by doing so. any input would be helpful.  i shoot an Indian Archery magnum hunter 52in. 50# at 28

No danger of hurting your fiberglass laminated bows by shooting 3 under. Just look at the "string walkers" who shoot at various distances by varying the amount of distance below the nocking point that they hold the string when they draw the bow back. Sometimes they pull the string from several inches below the nock with no ill effects on the bow whatsoever.

Now, that may be a different story with solid, all-wood bows though. These bows could possibly lose their tiller, especially if they're not broken-in completely.

Doug

[ishoot4thrills]

Oops, Quill Flinger beat me to your answer, suzie_shooter, while I was typing! He's right on too.

[Onehair]

I have found that I can reduce the noise by a lot if I make a conscious effort to keep my bottom finger out of the shot. I also switched to a Dacron string and that made my bows quieter than split finger and FF.

[khardrunner]

I had the opportunity to watch/tape some high speed film a couple weeks ago and we noticed without the nock underneath the arrow would slide down the string 1/4 inch plus when shooting 3 under. We had some great shooters shooting and we saw it consistently. Apparently the having the center of the arc of the bowstring below the nock causes it to slide down. This can lead to some inconsistency for obvious reasons. We found this was negated when we placed a nocking point below the nock. I'm curious to see if some of you 3 under guys have had experience with this.

[R H Clark]

Yes, I tie on a second knocking point.The way I do it is to very lightly crimp on a brass nock and draw with an arrow.this allows the brass nock to slide to the perfect spot taking into account string angle.I then carefully mark the spot and remove the brass nock and tie on some floss.The floss will not interfere with my tab.

The one thing I didn't like about 3 under was that I like a fairly loose nock so was always paranoid about a dry fire.Also you are more likely to bump an arrow and loose it when shooting down from a tree stand.I've been shooting the Accunocks lately from 3Rivers so that problem is solved.

[Recurve50 LBS]

I learned to shoot trad with split fingers and shot that way for a few years. Then my buddy Bentpole suggested I try 3 under. After adjusting my nock and shooting 3 under my accuracy improved dramaticaly. I'm not saying that you or anyone else will have the same results as me but it's so simple to give it a try. If you don't like 3 under switch back to split fingers.