How do you decide where to place your feathers from the nock? How does it affect the flight of your arrow? I have always placed mine on the third line on my bitz.
Same here. Third line of my bitz!!
As long as you have room for your fingers and the feathers are not on the bow shelf you will be fine. Everyone has their own idea where the fletching goes. If it looks and works good foe you that's all that matters.
I have seen some that looked like there was 3" from nock to feather and some so close to nock you would touch the feathers. They all shot good.
BW Manual- Off the shelf put the cock feather at 12 o'clock. Do not recommend 4 feathers.
I use the 5th mark and like the feather to touch my nose as a second spot to verify anchor with
2" from valley of nock to back of quill, based on experimentation to determine optimal location for nose anchor on my face. This puts it on the 8th mark on the Bitz. I don't think it has any noticeable effect on arrow flight; however, a 5" feather will reach the shelf of a longbow braced at 7", so if you used longer than a 5" feather or braced lower than 7", your feather might actually go onto the arrow rest, which you might not like.
I locate mine so that the back of the feather just touches my nose at full draw-- this does several things-- it ensures i reach anchor, it ensures my head is on the exact same location Everytime, and it lets me know if im creeping.
Howard Hill had his at 3/4" from the throat of the nock.
I put mine as far forward as I can and still have the clamp fully hold the feather. I use 5.5" shield cut.
Ive been putting mine at the 3rd line on my Bitz clamp also...for like 27 years now. Never had any issues.