Pin Nocks - Damage to Shaft Ends

Against my better judgement I was talked into puttin back the pin nocks on my Cartel Triples before shooting a full FITA last weekend.

My worst fears were realised when I had three arrows struck in the nock at 50m. The nocks shattered and whilst the pins themselves looked OK, close inspection of the rear ends of the shafts showed longitudinal splitting.

I don't normally use pin nocks as I find the nocks crack and spit quite easily but what surprised me was the damage this time to the shafts. The pins don't really protect the shaft end at all.

So I've gone back to my previous practice and that is that I cut the pin part off using snips, file the end flat and glue this into the shaft. Then I fit an outsert nock over the top. This provides excellent protection. I have had a couple of back enders which have caused the outsert nock to break but the aluminium inisert hasn't been harmed and more particularly the shaft end itself is quite free of splits.

I thought I'd pass this on for people to think about with their own gear. Hope it helps.

[Schme1440]

Originally Posted by timujin

Against my better judgement I was talked into puttin back the pin nocks on my Cartel Triples before shooting a full FITA last weekend.

My worst fears were realised when I had three arrows struck in the nock at 50m. The nocks shattered and whilst the pins themselves looked OK, close inspection of the rear ends of the shafts showed longitudinal splitting.

I don't normally use pin nocks as I find the nocks crack and spit quite easily but what surprised me was the damage this time to the shafts. The pins don't really protect the shaft end at all.

So I've gone back to my previous practice and that is that I cut the pin part off using snips, file the end flat and glue this into the shaft. Then I fit an outsert nock over the top. This provides excellent protection. I have had a couple of back enders which have caused the outsert nock to break but the aluminium inisert hasn't been harmed and more particularly the shaft end itself is quite free of splits.

I thought I'd pass this on for people to think about with their own gear. Hope it helps.

Did you glue your pins in first before the fita?
I have used pins for years and never broke shaft because of backenders. Since using pin nocks I have never had this problem. This is one of those areas where people have good and bad experiences. I dont know anyone (personally) that have every had such problems with pin nocks.

[buzz lite beer]

I can concur with schme, have rear ended lots of arrows in practice and in tournaments though using Easton X10's not Cartel Triples, smashed lots of nocks off and dented the pin beneath (filled resulting lumps down) without any damage to the shaft, (not compound bow use)

Well, sorry to tell you but it looks like it can and does happen.

Yes I glued the pins in first and I used brand new nocks. Perhaps I should have mentioned that this occurred using compounds which do tend to hit a bit harder than a recurve

In any event I posted it in the hope that it might prove to be a precautionary warning, not to start an argument about pin nocks. Take it as you wish.

[buzz lite beer]

No argument, you have had a bad experience with them, Schme and myself have simply stated from our usage of pin nocks have suffered less arrow damage when using them than conventional nock systems, and I can wholehartedly recommend both the in/out & outsert nocks as well, as they too reduce the number of casualties over conventional nocks, may I say your method of added security by using the shaft half of the pin nock is a very good idea worth a separate posting in the hints and tips section on its own merits

[Schme1440]

Well I think the fact that Timujin was using a compound at the time is probably the reason for different results. I was refering to recurve. I dont think that you could ever stop re-ending damage off a compound no matter what nock you use. Well I think a good statement would be

Recurve + Pin nocks = Less rearend damage
Compound + Pin nocks = No noticable advantage.

Fair?

Not a problem fellas. I wasn't having a go at you - just advising how it was for me and how it may be possible to mitigate the damage.

[Schme1440]

No worries. I thik my last comment summary is a fair interpritation on a wide range of experiences.

[OpaNL]

Here's 3 I could find, but there at least 4 more.
They come from my 400 Triples.. and all 3 were shot from a 55 lbs Merlin XT and hit at say 260 ft/s.
Without the pin nocks these arrows would have been RH's or ruined but not one of them was damaged in any way.



Can't imagine why it doesn't work that way for timujin.. but they work for me.

Opa

[Schme1440]

Originally Posted by OpaNL

Here's 3 I could find, but there at least 4 more.
They come from my 400 Triples.. and all 3 were shot from a 55 lbs Merlin XT and hit at say 260 ft/s.
Without the pin nocks these arrows would have been RH's or ruined but not one of them was damaged in any way.



Can't imagine why it doesn't work that way for timujin.. but they work for me.

Opa

You can quite easily file down the barbs and then reuse th pins.