# Setting Nock Points



## maldoror (May 31, 2015)

Where do you all suggest setting nock points? I have read everything from 1/2" above center to 1/8" below. 

Along with your personal suggestions, could someone explain the physics of why they suggest a certain point so that I might understand the principle behind it?

Thanks.


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## Dalton63841 (Oct 26, 2013)

Honestly, the best way is to just set a temporary nock that you can easily move/remove, and try shooting a few arrows with the nock point anywhere in that range, and see where it shoots best.

Different bows will shoot better with it in slightly different heights. Heck even two identical bows may prefer a different nock location, based on how the archer holds the string.


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## Thin Man (Feb 18, 2012)

Here's my standard approach assuming you are nocking below the nock point:

Cut little strips of masking or painters tape to wrap around the string as a temporary nock locator. This makes switching locations fast and easy as you experiment.

Use your bow square and set your first nock locator way too high - say at one inch. Shoot a few, observe flight, take notes. Then strip the tape and set the next tape at 7/8". Shoot, observe, take notes. Repeat with 6/8", 5/8", 4/8", 3/8", 2/8", etc.

You're looking for arrow flight that does not porpoise (wag up and down), rise, or dive. Somewhere in that range of nock locations you will observe the straightest flight to the target (taking notes is a good thing!). Place a temp strip back on that location, confirm that it is good, and go ahead and live with the temp nock for a few days to make sure that it is indeed ideal. Then you can go ahead and place a permanent locator on the string.

(The tape strips will last for quite a bit of shooting, so there's no downside to shooting this way until you are certain you like the location. If the tape starts to fail, simply place a new strip in place. I've had bows on the wall for months with tape as the nock.)

There are rules-of-thumb for grabbing a fast nock point, but even these vary from an average of 3/8" to 6/8" depending upon the shooter, bow, and type of arrows. I shoot mainly woodies, and my first-guess-on-a-new-bow default is usually 4/8" either off the shelf or off an elevated rest. That usually works for me if I just want to get shooting right off the bat without tuning.

Give it a whack. It's quite fast to perform, and you'll probably get better flight than simply picking a number out of the air. If this whole process drives you crazy, just set the point at 4/8" (or thereabouts) and live with that for a while as your shooting settles in and you begin to observe consistency in your shooting. Once you are somewhat consistent, observing different nock locations will present better feedback as you observe flight and target results during this experimentation.


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## Easykeeper (Jan 2, 2003)

I'm not sure what your experience level is but ultimately the position of your nocking point is an important part of your tune. If you are a bit experienced, bare shaft tuning is the way to go:

http://www.acsbows.com/bareshaftplaning.html

If you haven't been shooting for a while, shooting bare shafts will be frustrating since you need to be relatively consistent with your form. If that is the case, for split finger set your nocking point at 5/8" above level, if you are shooting three under, set it at 7/8" above level. These values are on the high side of what most split finger or three under shooters find after tuning, a little high is better than a little low.

If you end up with porpoising (up and down motion of the back of the arrow), an adjustment of your nock point position is in order. Thin Man laid out a pragmatic approach, bare shaft tuning will be more precise and also more difficult. Many people prefer to use two nock points, one above and one below the string to avoid any possibility of the nock sliding down the string upon release.

The reason you don't set up your nocking point so the arrow is perpendicular to the string is because usually one limb is working harder than the other. The center of the bow is usually close to the deepest part of the grip, so the arrow is going to be above that. Bowyers try to compensate with tiller, but most people still end up with the back of the arrow slightly higher than perpendicular. It is possible to end up with a perpendicular arrow after tuning, but most of us don't. A bowyer could give you a better description.


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## Hank D Thoreau (Dec 9, 2008)

Tuning for Tens has a fairly rigorous way to set your nock locators. I used it with my last setup and was surprised to find 13/16th the best. That was much higher than I had ever run before. I am setting up a new bow and will be running through the process again. 

http://www.texasarchery.org/BoardMembers/RickStonebrakerPages/TuningForTens/TuningForTens.html


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## Bowmania (Jan 3, 2003)

If you do what Thin Man suggests, you'll only see LESS nock up and down. When you go too low the rear of the arrow hits the shelf and it kicks up, making it look too high.

If you do what Easykeeper suggests you'll know when you're too low. It's the one of the reasons you should always start by comparing impact and not worrying about arrow flight. You worry about flight when you get to the ball park.

Bowmania


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## Thin Man (Feb 18, 2012)

Bow, 

I agree. 

The tactic I mentioned assumes a new archer, not ready for bare shafting, attempting to find satisfactory visual flight (that also flies straighter towards the intended mark) absent another set of eyes and tutelage, either for their initial nock setting or to modify a provided nock setting if flight and strike seems consistently poor after they have progressed somewhat into the learning curve.

I shoot split, and my set 'n' forget recco may indeed be a tad low for the 3U shooter ... an oversight in my stock thinking there.


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