New shooter. Moved from a 30 pound Samick longbow to a 50 pound HH Wesley about a month ago. Ordered the wrong arrows (500 instead of 400, with a 100 grain insert and a 125 point) so had to shorten them to 29.5" (I have a 29" draw) to get them to fly straight. Since then, the feathers have been striking my bow hand (just behind and to the inside of the first joint of my index finger) hard enough to draw blood.

Does anyone know if this is a form issue or an arrow issue or a bow issue or...? I don't really want to keep applying band-aids prior to each shooting session.

TIA,

Noel

Oh, and I'm fairly comfortable with my knocking point, but suspect my arrows might be flying just slightly knock low. I've been wondering if moving the nocking point up an eighth of an inch or so might get the feathers away from my bow hand.

When this happens to me it is often because of the arrow being too stiff and hitting the strike plate and kicking down and into my hand.  Also the nock point might be too low like you said.

.400 would have been way stiff for a 50# Hill even with a 29" draw length. Try raising the nock point like you said, and then just for fun try a much heavier point, like 175 or 200 gr.

If you are right handed you can shoot a left wing feather and that will help. I think 500 spine is fine.

Thanks all.

The arrows flew distinctly knock left until I cut them back to 29.5". I also wasn't thinking when I wrote that I was using 100 grain inserts. I would like to use them, but cannot go beyond 50 grains without the knock-left returning.

I bare-shafted a Gold Tip 400 with 100 grain insert and 125 point which flew perfectly when cut to 30" - that's also when I set my knocking point.

So I'm not sure what to do, other than perhaps order some new Gold Tips...

You might try a feather arrow rest to raise the arrow a tad.

Whenever I set the nock point a tad too low I get the same thing. Here is my thinking:

When you bare shaft tune, the back of the arrow occupies less space because there is no fletching. When you add fletching you are adding both weight and size to the back end of the arrow.

The added weight will slightly stiffen the arrow, while the added size will often cause too much feather contact.

Because of the above, when I bare shaft I want a tiny bit of nock left and a tiny bit of nock high. Then I add the fletch and check for contact. Usually things are just fine, but sometimes I need to raise the nock point a tiny amount.

I hope this helps a bit..

this same thing was happening to me with a new bow. I messed around with nock height and couldnt fix the problem. I was drawing blood every time i went out to shoot. I solved my issues by simply rotating the nock so that my feathers are at 12,4,8 as opposed to 9,1,5 like I was doing.  Just a simple suggestion. I hope ya get it figured out cuz those feathers can sting!

you might try dropping your brace height a bit or building out the side plate on the riser.  I shoot Axis 500 with 275 up front cut to 26.75" and they bareshaft just great.  You may be a bit underspined. Just my $0.02.

If you think your nock point is correct and are still hitting your hand then just build the shelf up a little. Works everytime. After building the shelf up you may need to readjust the nock point again slightly.

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Knock point to low. Makes you flinch every time you release.The arrow was flying pretty .It tore through paper knock high so I kept lowing  until it cut a bullet hole. Guess I went a wee bit to far.LOL

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QuoteOriginally posted by 9 Shocks:
When this happens to me it is often because of the arrow being too stiff and hitting the strike plate and kicking down and into my hand.  Also the nock point might be too low like you said.

X2. That was my problem too. Arrows were too stiff causing them to hit my bow hand. Changed arrows and problem was solved.