Carbon Arrow Construction (calling all engineers and anyone else who knows what I'm talking about)

[5MilesBack]

I know that all of you guys aren’t doing it for the sake of doing it but It makes me wonder what is going on that so many folks have chosen to pursue this as a tuning methodology.

Just make sure it is understood as an "arrow" tuning methodology, not to be confused with bow tuning.

I can't even count the number of arrows I've shot that have needed some nock tuning. Well, I guess "needed" is a relative term, directly related to one's "need" for perfection. When shooting long range groups it's pretty easy to see if there are any arrows consistently outside of that group.......that's why I number my arrows. It's amazing how easily just turning that arrow on the nock can bring that arrow back into the group consistently.......or can make that arrow accuracy even worse. That's what the nock tuning is all about.......getting them all consistent. Then after addressing the so-called "fliers".......you can experiment with the other arrows that are "in the group", but not in the middle of the "X". With numbered arrows, it's pretty easy to see patterns.

 

[Colorado385]

Again, lots of good stuff here and thanks for everyone's input. I'm really trying to understand is the tradeoffs between this method and that, brittle vs. flexible, heavy vs. light, etc. when it comes to arrow construction. I've tested my fair share of shafts, lengths, FOC, fletching combinations and so on. I wouldn't be asking these questions if I wasn't OCD about this stuff and while I know that, within reason, I can just buy some good quality arrows and go at it, that isn't my style (nor is it yours if you took the time to respond to this thread!). What got me started on all of this was looking at new arrows and reading everyone's marketing. There's nothing wrong with marketing, I just realized that my knowledge in this area is woefully deficient so I appreciate you helping me bridge that gap.

PS: While I've never nock tuned I do keep a log in my phone. I number all of my arrows for a given setup and keep track of shots that felt good that didn't go where they were supposed to. If I get too many bad shots with a particular arrow I rotate the nock, make a notation and start keeping track again.

 

[wapitibob]

You can see nock indexing work with a hooter shooter properly bolted to a concrete slab. The bigger problem I see with carbons is the id to od concentricity being bad from the centerless grinding they do to bring the shaft into spec.