Nock Tuning

Castle Oak 2

Six Pointer
Until this year I have never worried much about tuning arrows. Over the years though, I have noticed that one or two arrows out of a dozen just would not fly consistently and would perform especially poorly with fixed blade broadheads. I shoot Carbon Express Maxima Hunters-maybe that's the problem, just kidding. So, I decided to do some bare shaft nock tuning through paper of a couple of my problem arrows. What I found was quite surprising so I decided to strip some of my better flying arrows and test them. Just by turning the nock a few degrees, I would have an arrow go from shooting a bullet hole to a 1" tear. When it would consistently shoot a bullet hole, I marked the shaft/nock and refletched. Groupings with the nock tuned arrows shrunk to the point that I could consistently get 1" groups at 40 yards with field points and broadheads. I'm sure I'm behind the curve on this but since I'm bored to death I needed to do something. So, there you go.
 

Castle Oak 2

Six Pointer
Ha. No, I'm not a Ranch Fairy fan but because I'm laid up with this damn hernia I've had the time to fine tune my archery gear. There is a bunch of stuff out there. Nock tuning is not necessary with some of the high-end arrows. I've been testing some Maxima Red along side the Maxima Hunters and there is night and day difference in consistency. Until I started the nock tuning.
 

Buxndiverdux

Old Mossy Horns
Ha. No, I'm not a Ranch Fairy fan but because I'm laid up with this damn hernia I've had the time to fine tune my archery gear. There is a bunch of stuff out there. Nock tuning is not necessary with some of the high-end arrows. I've been testing some Maxima Red along side the Maxima Hunters and there is night and day difference in consistency. Until I started the nock tuning.
I assume you had the surgery?
 

Loganwayne

Ten Pointer
Ha. No, I'm not a Ranch Fairy fan but because I'm laid up with this damn hernia I've had the time to fine tune my archery gear. There is a bunch of stuff out there. Nock tuning is not necessary with some of the high-end arrows. I've been testing some Maxima Red along side the Maxima Hunters and there is night and day difference in consistency. Until I started the nock tuning.
kock tuning i would say is necessary for all arrows to perform at their best. you just see a bigger result from arrows with looser tolerances.
 

Castle Oak 2

Six Pointer
I have not had the surgery but the Dr. did his best to scare the crap out me in an effort to push me to have the repair. He did put me on restriction so, no weight training but I can do cardio that does not involve compound moves.
 

Triggermortis

Twelve Pointer
Contributor
I'd like to be able to say I could tell the difference if I nock tuned each arrow but I'm not sure I could. I have been, with the last 4 or 5 dozen I made up, fletching them with stiffest side up. Seems to me that you have to choose which way you want to go - stiff side up or nock tuned.
 

Loganwayne

Ten Pointer
I'd like to be able to say I could tell the difference if I nock tuned each arrow but I'm not sure I could. I have been, with the last 4 or 5 dozen I made up, fletching them with stiffest side up. Seems to me that you have to choose which way you want to go - stiff side up or nock tuned.

Isn’t that basically the same thing. Most people don’t have what it takes to find the stiff side of the arrow. All knock tuning does is aligning all the arrows spines the same on your bow.


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Triggermortis

Twelve Pointer
Contributor
Isn’t that basically the same thing. Most people don’t have what it takes to find the stiff side of the arrow. All knock tuning does is aligning all the arrows spines the same on your bow.


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I thought so. Otherwise, I suppose I would have to shoot bare shafts until they all are hitting identical and then fletch them up. The shafts that are purchased from Jerry at SSA are marked stiff side each one, so they can be oriented in the jig with stiff side up. Saves me a lot of shooting and aggravation.
 

Loganwayne

Ten Pointer
I think a lot of the aggregation comes from buying cheaper arrows and expecting them to fly great. I have some arrows that weren’t cheap but fletched from the factory and I shot them all maybe 2-3 times at 30 yards and had them tuned in to have them all flying together and grouping good


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pattersonj11

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Seems like a jig could be made to hold arrow on nock end and point end. Use a small ball bearing with a weight attached through it. As the arrow rolls, use a dial indicator to look at the deflection. When the indicator read the smallest number, I would think that would be stiff side up.
stiff side up and stuff side down may give the same reading in this example. Not sure, but I think this would work.

Also, if a person wants and can afford premium arrows, by all means spare no expense. In reality, there is very little difference in middle of the road arrows and the premiums.

it takes a truly great shooter to see the difference. I’ve had multiple folks go on about how much better they shoot with .001 straightness arrows and some specialty points and tunable nocks.....blah blah blah. Many of those people are wasting money. They can’t shoot good enough to see a difference.
 

pattersonj11

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
I have been out of the shooting loop for a few years now, but black eagle arrows were pretty thrifty and good quality back when I was shooting.

I had always shot carbon express but had a lot of fellow shooters going to black eagle. It was time to build a dozen so I tried them too. Great arrows.
 

Loganwayne

Ten Pointer
I have some Easton pretty high end arrows and then some grizzlystik discount arrows that I insert tuned and knock tuned and they fly almost as good as the eastons but with a broad head they do wobble a little more


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pattersonj11

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Arrow flight with abroadhead is like steering with a front and rear rudder on a boat. It’s tough and you have to be tuned really good.
I would imagine that the problem causing the wobble is that the arrow is not stiff enough. I don’t know your setup but almost every issue I have seen regarding broad head flight is either bow out of tune terribly or shaft not stiff enough. Too stiff can cause bad flight.....but too stiff is like being long in the trousers. Very rare to find too stiff.
 

Loganwayne

Ten Pointer
Arrow flight with abroadhead is like steering with a front and rear rudder on a boat. It’s tough and you have to be tuned really good.
I would imagine that the problem causing the wobble is that the arrow is not stiff enough. I don’t know your setup but almost every issue I have seen regarding broad head flight is either bow out of tune terribly or shaft not stiff enough. Too stiff can cause bad flight.....but too stiff is like being long in the trousers. Very rare to find too stiff.
its the arrow itself that has a small wobble still when i put it on an arrow spinner. both shafts have same weight and nearly same focs. both are 240 shafts. the grizzlystiks are some that came from their discount sale (either didnt fall in the weight specs, or were out of their straightness acceptance. .0001") i was able to cut them down myself and got most of the straightness back since most of it was at one end or the other but the 3" single bevel shows the wobble a little more than a field point.
 

pattersonj11

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
its the arrow itself that has a small wobble still when i put it on an arrow spinner. both shafts have same weight and nearly same focs. both are 240 shafts. the grizzlystiks are some that came from their discount sale (either didnt fall in the weight specs, or were out of their straightness acceptance. .0001") i was able to cut them down myself and got most of the straightness back since most of it was at one end or the other but the 3" single bevel shows the wobble a little more than a field point.

Is the insert drilled and tapped true? Sitting flush? I would look around that area. Used to be that 2-3 arrows out of a dozen would be culled when you shot them. They would consistently be flyers.

now it’s like 1 arrow out of 100.

may just be a cull arrow. Some you can’t fix, but usually you can’t find the issue.
 
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