I shoot three fletched arrows with the cock feather out.  I've noticed that my lower feather consistantly gets worn down and frayed.  And I recently got some new arrows and its been happening again already after just a week of shooting!  Is this a spine or tuning issue?  Should I do something with my shelf material?  I'm currently using a rug material.  What can I do?!  I'm also noticing the rear portion (part closest to me, the shooter) of my arrow plate is pretty worn.  Again, is this a tuning issue I can fix?  How?  Thanks for the help!

Try Cock Feather In, it might help. Just my 2 cents.  

Unless you are getting bad arrow flight, try "cock-in".  I and numerous others shoot this way.

You may need to adjust nock point to reduce wear, but it might be "normal" too.  How much shooting has resulted in this wear?  How are arrows (1) flying?, and (2) are they impacting askew?

Lots of possibilities that more information will allow some diagnosis.

BobW

If your using straight fletch, ya might try going with a helical. Playing around with right and left wing might just help you out. I shoot right handed and had some trouble with left wing straight fletch. Switched over to right helical and have not had any wear problems since....just something else to think about...Terry

For years I shot the same way and always had great flight but my bottom feather started fraying almost immediately. One day I turned it cock feather in.....not a bit of wear after a year and the same great flight!

Been shooting that way for over a year now....

If you have good flight, no big deal. I just change the nock every once in a while (aluminum arrows, rotating to the next feather) to wear on another feather.
If I shoot cock feather in, I wear the cock feather. Nocks are cheaper than feathers and you can wear out 3 feathers before re-fletching.
I'm cheap, if you haven't figured that out. But then again, most everyone on this site is.

I'm lucky I usally break or lose them before they get too worn.
 Do you have flight issues or just don't like the looks. I turn the ones missing half a feather or so into stumpers.
 You may have a little too much spine for the side plate wear issue.

Try your feathers set at 12, 4 and 8 oclock. It works great for me.

Thanks guys.  It seams that the fletch begins to wear almost immediately.  I have some arrows that have been fletched for two weeks and are beginning to show wear.  I'm gonna try shooting cock feather in and see how that works.  I've shot straight feathers, helical, smaller shields, larger shields, and parabolics.  Its been rather frustrating!  Flight has been pretty good, and any issues I've had I don't think are related to the wear of the feather.  But I still don't like seeing that sort of thing happen to my fletching!  The shelf of the bow is not radiused, which may also be a factor.  I think I'll be tinkering with something under the shelf material to give less contact between the arrow and shelf.

Mine do the same thing, but I'm getting perfect arrow flight with field tips and broadheads.  I just refletch about every 4-5 weeks as needed.  I did experiment with different shelf rest materials.  Some are more abrasive to the feather than others.

Have you bareshaft tuned ? I bet if you do, you may be way too stiff. If your bareshaft flies good then that means that you are getting no contact with the riser in the corner where the shelf and upper riser meet. When the spine is right and the arrow is in paradox then the arrow and feathers will be bending out and around the riser a little, and thus less feather wear. Others above are right too about cock feather in or 12,4, and 8 o'clock feather posistion. Black Widow recommends that too I think ??? Makes sense to me. If you are shooting carbon or aluminum with tunable nock it is simple to turn nocks and try different set ups. I shoot cock out, not sure why, jsut always been told that. I have done what redfish says and rotated to the next feather before too.

nocams

If you are shooting woodies and orient the fletching cock feather in the arrow rift on top will be pointing towards you instead of away from you. You would need to refletch woodies to keep the proper orientation of rift. This doesn't affect performance, it's just a safety concern should an arrow fail at release.

Tim

Mine always wear that  way too, but I hust keep shooting them. It doesn't  seem to affect arrow flight. I  just refletch that one feather as needed.

Thanks guys!  Glad to hear that I'm not alone with this situation!  I thought it was something I was doing wrong!

Bunyan, I'm with NoCams on this one. Excessive wear is an indication of too stiff and or nock set too low. Arrow nocks too tight will do it too. Cock feather in is a bandaid cover-up for a tuning issue that can be fixed.....O.L.

Yep,I agree your arrows could be stiff or nock set too low.I just wanted to add that another clue that is the problem is shelf material wear on the outside and belly edge.

I'll add there are poorly designed arrow shelves out there that complicates matters too by putting too much contact in the wrong places...O.L.

Thanks, OL.  The bow is a PSE Sable with a flat shelf.  So while its not a piece of junk, its probably not the most thought out design in archery manufacture either!  I deffinitely need to do more with arrow tuning and working on the shelf.  Its just so close to bow season to start messing with some of this stuff, yet I still want my set up to work flawlessly!  I suppose I can always change things back if they don't work out!