Carbon Arrow Failed on Release

[Paul Mattson]

A loose fitting nock is a good indicator that the shaft is cracked.  Hitting a concrete wall will crack the nock end 99.9% of the time.

[blind one]

I broke the end of a carbon shaft by hitting the peg(spike) that was holding the target on the straw bale before. I was told that the force of solid impact flexed the shaft hard enough that when it flexed back the nock was coming out and cracked the end of the shaft.....Roy

[waknstak IL]

I agree with Badger on this one. A lot of times when you hit something hard the nock pops out and sometimes the back end splits. I'm not smart enough to know exactly why, but have seen it happen a lot.

[rappstar]

Thanks everyone for your input.  The concrete wall happened to be the thing that stopped my arrow.  The point is that something happened upon release and the suspect is the cracked shaft at the nock end.  

Nothing interfered with the bow itself during the shot (i.e. hit a pant leg or something).  I'm not a great shot but I don't miss my target by 8 feet and my bow doesn't torque the way it did on that shot!  

I was curious if this had happened to someone else and what might have caused the nock end to crack if the arrow hadn't hit anything hard in its life.  I was curious if a super tight fitting nock on the shaft would add stress during release and accelerate a failure.  

To Wingnut's point, the shaft was probably cracked before I shot it.

Thanks again everyone!

[ChuckC]

Not being funny here.  Look at your ceiling, did you by chance hit it with the top limb tip of your bow upon release ?  I have done it twice and the reaction of the bow is identical to what you described.  I have also broken nocks on release (also Beeman) and although it was a dry fire it did not do as you described.
ChuckC

[huntindad]

ChuckC that is EXACTLY what I thought!Bill