I saw a thread here recently about arrow flight being improved,shooting cock feather in. I have experienced this to be true with my set up also. The trouble is,,no one discussed why this is. It seems to me,if the arrow flies better,with the cock feather being in,is correcting something. What is it???

Page 5...next to bottom, I posted some pics

I dont know which thread it was

I tried this on both my bows, my dorado being cut past center, and my Barta longbow being cut to center. From my understanding when the arrow goes into paradox it flexes outward making fetching contact minimal to you shelf, this is if the arrows are tuned properly

With that being said your feathers can properly align the flight of the arrow faster by having 2 feathers on the opposite side of the shaft.

It's hard to explain without diagrams but I'm sure someone will draw something up sooner or later

I shoot with the cock feather in since I tried this, and I have noticed better flight and it almost seems like I get better speed.

When you shoot cock-feather out, the 4 o'clock feather (on a right-handed setup) has a tendency to catch the quill on the outside-edge of the shelf for some people.  I am one of those people.  Turning it around cock-feather in moves it out of the way.  I shoot cock-feather in, and it only improved my arrow flight.  There were no detrimental effects either, it was all win-win for me.

RW cock feather in...notice the odd hen in the "up" position.



LW...nocked normal with cock feather out. Odd hen in "up" position




RW..cock feather out. Notice hen at bottom of shelf...




Right hand shooter...shoot LW or turn cock feather in.

Way back in the early 70's, my Dad was lucky enough to get into a conversation with Fred Bear. One of the things they talked about was cock feather in, out, etc...My Dad says that Fred told him he tuned his bows with the cock feather out, but when he was in the field, he never paid it much attention on hurried shots. That prompted him to mess with it on the target range. It's sounds silly, sort of ancient 4th party information, but my Dad claims that Fred said there was no difference for him with regard to cock feather position.

If it is tuned properly it should make no difference.

QuoteOriginally posted by ranger 3:
If it is tuned properly it should make no difference.

ditto - Absolutely!

we shoot feathers because they fold up when contacting something...i think that cagey old bear guy may have been on to something...many people do not realize this but fred always rested the arrow on his hand which meant hacking up his own factory bows...i would love to just collect those bows...best tuning tip i know is add more point weight

having said the above i shoot cock feather up...try that orientation and see where the feathers will pass the riser

There is nothing "magical" about shooting cock feather in.  

It's a matter of fletching your arrows properly.

Your bow does not know what color your feathers are.

Think about it.

Cock feather in shoots better for me on my go to bow.  My fletching catches the rug just a touch with cocky feather out.  The setup is tuned well, but I may be doing something with my release...

I'm pretty sure Ken Beck from Black Widow advocates shooting cock feather in. He has a ton of experience and must've had repeatable results that led to that thinking.

Agree if your arrows are tuned, should not matter.

My pics were only to show feather placement when nocked.

That's what made the Super Slam arrow so popular, you could turn your nocks to adjust feather clearance.

I'm definitely not the brightest when it comes to arrow tuning, but when I shoot cock feather out, I get a high left tear. When I shoot cock feather in. I get a perfect bullet hole with no tears whatsoever. I don't have a clue why that is, but "in" works better for me.

It is just simply less fletch ( feather) contact. Which is a good thing .  Put on plastic fletches and you will see a compounded problem.

i have some super slam 2317's from the nineties and was sure that they would be too stiff for me to ever use...well at age 60 i am shooting 60+ pounds of draw weight at 30 inches and working on shooting more...nothing like a couple of dozen heavy spined arrows to give one the incentive to shoot more weight...i met a fellow from cody, wyoming this spring who is a neighbour of chuck adams and he asked if i knew who chuck is...i just showed him the picture on a super slam

Here's example of fletching    contact on my rest
  I would get the odd arrow going more left of the group turned cock feather in, groups     togther(anyone have another tuning tip    other than cock in)