Nock tuning

[Nick Forster]

I have just spent a couple of hours shooting Bare shafts at a boss.
Santa bought me a new set of ace's this year, lucky me! I had heard about knock tuning but had never done it before, I will never again buy a set of shafts and not do this again.
I set my bow up and warmed up in the normal manner, I then shot a couple of dozen arrows fletched ACE's to see my grouping at this range (15m 6 arrows 50mm dia group consistant)
I then bought out my new packet of ACE's and split them into two sets of six. leaving 6 in the tube I shot six arrows at the boss what I found was that I had a small group of three arrows and three arrows were loose from the group by about 2 -3" I then shot the three arrows which were loose again to the same result leaving the grouped arrows in the boss I then rotated the nocks on the loose arrows 90deg this was done while the arrows were in the boss and shot them again I found that one of the arrows came into the group and two stayed out leaving the grouped arrows I then then rotated the nocks again untill all the arrows were in the group. I then pulled all the arrows and started the process again this time the group size was about the same as my fletched group earlier but I found that, I still had a couple of arrows which were a little loose from the group I repeated the above process again, but only turned the nock a little way this improved matters and my unfletched group was smaller I then put these arrows to one side and did the same with the second six arrows ensuring that the flew to the same area as the original group again I found that there was 3 arrows loose from the original group my second set of six were tune into a group about the size of a 2 pence piece This set I have maked up as 1 - 6 and the second six as 7 to 12 with 2 arrows which were hardest to tune into the group as 11 and 12.
What I have found interesting is my unfleched arrows now fly tighter groups consistantly than my fletched both sets are identical in weight and spine but my original set were not tuned this way. This exercise only took about 1 1/2 hours and I think it was time well spent.
I have a set of socx arrow wraps also from santa but I am not sure now if i will fit them or not incase they make a difference, your views are appreciated
Nick

[Old Bloke]

You have stummbled upon the secrets of the *Pro's*! It is a fact that not all arrows are spinned the same in the same place on the arrow. By turning the nock (and hence where the arrow rests against the pressure button) you can find a common spine contact point. What you have done can be done dynamicaly (shooting) or by using a spine checker which is done statically. When purchasing new shafts, all should be tuned together and shot bare shaft.
One extra thing you could do once all are grouped is to change the nocks! You might find this equally interesting...this too takes about 1.5 hours and does your head in. But then the benefits are huge...like getting GMB and shooting for G.B.

Well done, very few outside of the top G.B. Elite are aware of the issues concerning arrows/shafts and the importance of nock tuning...give yourself a very big pat on the back.

[archer]

Originally Posted by Old Bloke

You have stummbled upon the secrets of the *Pro's*! It is a fact that not all arrows are spinned the same in the same place on the arrow. By turning the nock (and hence where the arrow rests against the pressure button) you can find a common spine contact point. What you have done can be done dynamicaly (shooting) or by using a spine checker which is done statically. When purchasing new shafts, all should be tuned together and shot bare shaft.
One extra thing you could do once all are grouped is to change the nocks! You might find this equally interesting...this too takes about 1.5 hours and does your head in. But then the benefits are huge...like getting GMB and shooting for G.B.

Well done, very few outside of the top G.B. Elite are aware of the issues concerning arrows/shafts and the importance of nock tuning...give yourself a very big pat on the back.

i diidt know this till i did the personal course at lilleshall in oct last i will be doing this before the outdoors season with my arrows

[Zippo]

Wow this is very interesting. Now I really want to try it out. But the thing is, if you only have one set of arrows, how do you do it?

And another question. If you have a new set of arrows which your bow is not yet tuned to, how do you do it? Fletch them up, tune the bow, and then strip the fletches?

[King Custard]

Just a point of interest Nick -
I'm assuming that any arrow that left the group during this process was generally a left/right wanderer.....or did you notice any difference in up/down spread for turning the nocks?
Gotta try this out soon as possible- as much as I've read about it, I've not tried this...and it sounds far less ' loony overkill - rubber ducky ' than giving new shafts a bath to see which way they 'float' ( another method in Simon Needhams book...as much as i know 'bathing' can give you a reasonable guide - Your way sounds far more dynamic.
Smart work! and thanks for writing this one up!

[WhitehartFB]

This and the nocks as OB said really do make a difference another tip if you are prepared to take this much care of your arrows and matching them up is to clean the inside of the shaft with a pipe cleaner sometimes there is quite a lot of muck inside.

When shooting the bareshaft it is also a good idea to shoot at a distance where you are normally assured of tight groups and be honest about how good a shot was otherwise this will drive you potty and scew up your results.

Finally during the season it's worth doing the same with your fletched arrows things change over a season and this way you will find any rogue arrow that has started to refuse to group it might only be half a colour different but that could be 24 points over a FITA. Target plot or any software that allows you to plot arrows and identify the arrow number is good for this.

[geoffretired]

This very interesting stuff. To some extent, I can say I have noticed similar results/effects with my own arrows. However, I am a bit unsure as to why.
I am not saying it isn't to do with the spine of the arrow being different at different positions round the circumference. Could there not also be the nock alignment issue at work here too?
I have rotated the nocks of arrows by 180deg, and brought them into the group. However,in that case, the arrow shaft has stayed in the same orientation with the bow/button. I assumed from that, the change was brought about by the nock and shaft being better aligned one way than the other.
By keeping the nock the same way round on the string, and rotating the shaft, is it possible to eliminate the change in nock/shaft alignment?
Some nocks, fit more tightly in one position than another, could a loose fit, or tight fit, cause the arrow to land out of the group?

[Des]

Great thread Nick!
I've heard about this method but must admit to not doing it properly in the past, way to inpatient maybe! I have just got a new set of darts for the outdoor season so i'll definitely be doing this. As for wraps, i would be tempted to try and nock tune again with the wraps on before fletching, as it's also recommended to bareshaft tune with a bit of tape to account for the weight of the fletchings.

Old bloke, you said to try changing the nocks once they are grouped. Do you mean change them for new ones, could you explain further?

[Nick Forster]

Originally Posted by King Custard

Just a point of interest Nick -
I'm assuming that any arrow that left the group during this process was generally a left/right wanderer.....or did you notice any difference in up/down spread for turning the nocks?
Gotta try this out soon as possible- as much as I've read about it, I've not tried this...and it sounds far less ' loony overkill - rubber ducky ' than giving new shafts a bath to see which way they 'float' ( another method in Simon Needhams book...as much as i know 'bathing' can give you a reasonable guide - Your way sounds far more dynamic.
Smart work! and thanks for writing this one up!

The loose arrows could be anywhere out of the group in my case though they were never lower but slightly higher was not uncommon. What now interests me is, if you are bare shaft tuning and have not nock tuned your arrows in the first place how can you guarantee where the bare shaft should fly in relationship to your fletched arrows. the other thing to think about is your nocking point position after doing this exercise it is far easier to accuratly set your nocking point. ( Oh christ I have opened a can of worms ).

Old Bloke
more info on changing nocks please.
Nick

[Old Bloke]

One expects that nocks are all the same but alas not so despite best manufacturing process. Once you have correctly grouped the bare shafts as a group, mark each arrow at the nock end with the alignment of the nock using the *two half* weld line or some other indent/identication mark. You must try out your spare nocks so that they too group with your existing group by positioning them to the same mark(s), so that if in a shoot more than enough nocks get blown away, the spares you have, have been *tuned* to your arrows/bare shafts. It is time consuming but at least you will know that each nock is truely the same as another and as such can be sorted into matched groups and kept in seperate packets. Just one more variable checked off the list of so many.
Having just got a new bow and now new bowstring materials, I'm about to embark on intensive tuning to include all of the above. Might take about two weeks but all this was calculated in my planning for this year.

You might also want to consider putting a few hours aside each month to recheck all your tuning and keep a note book at hand to record what you do with the results of what you do. Not only the kit can change but also the archer!