arrow experts"corkscrewing"

[Slickhead]

Made some new arrows up. Instead of cap wraps I took a small piece and went from the nock to the start of the fletching.

Wonder if this weight is causing my corkscrewing.

I remember experiencing the same one time when I had feather tracers on the nock end.

[Scott Barr]

Mm mm...  I use fur tracers with no effect on arrow flight.  Wonder if your FOC is marginal, assuming you already tuned for stiffness?

That is going to be real hard to diagnose over the internet!!!

Bisch

[Terry Green]

Where is your nock point?

Are these arrows larger in diameter than previous arrows that don't corkscrew?

Can you shoot a previous arrow and get no corkscrewing?

Are your nocks different?

Brace height same?

How tight are your nocks?

Do you nock under or over your nock point?

Can you show a pic of what you actually added?

[Bladepeek]

I got really anal lately about re-tuning my arrows - bareshaft, fletched field point and broadhead.

I normally use a long, 10" cap wrap. I weighed a bare shaft, then added the cap wrap, weighed and then added the fletching. That cap wrap definitely makes a difference and I have found adding a small weight at the nock end stiffens things up a lot more than a corresponding reduction in weight at the point. At least with carbons.

I would be willing to bet that if your previous arrow was flying ok, but toward the "too weak" end of the acceptable range, removing the majority of cap wrap made them definitely on the weak side.

If you want to find out, add some masking tape. and re-shoot them. I've started putting on my cap wrap and then adding masking tape to the bare shaft to duplicate the weight of the missing feathers and it seems to come closer to the real world.

[Slickhead]

Originally posted by Terry Green:
Where is your nock point?

Are these arrows larger in diameter than previous arrows that don't corkscrew?

Can you shoot a previous arrow and get no corkscrewing?

Are your nocks different?

How tight are your nocks?

Do you nock under or over your nock point?

Can you show a pic of what you actually added?

I shoot split fingers nocking under to np
nocks are all the same
Nocks are not tight
smaller in diameter than previous ones.
Only arrows I have (gonna peel off the cap wrap on one to test)

[Terry Green]

Ah...smaller in diameter...might want to wrap some dental floss under your nock so its just a tad lower...you might be 'driving' your shaft into the shelf.

[smokin joe]

And....
I will add that a smaller diameter arrow is actually closer to the side of the sight window than its larger-diameter cousin -- you have moved the centerline of the shaft over. You might need to add a tiny bit of thickness to your side plate to get back to where you were, We are talking the thickness of a piece of paper or of a business card -- kind of like the dental floss that Terry mentioned concerning the nock height.

Tiny variations at the nock end seem to mean a lot.

[Terry Green]

AND......

What Joe said.....  

[Slickhead]

Thanks
we'll see what happens
Terry, nice goat

[Hawkeye]

Preston, there's one more basic thing to check.

A couple years ago I had the chance to go on an out of state hunt for elk.  I practiced, concentrated, and was shooting the best of my life.  I was READY!

On the second day back in camp, I took a few easy 20 yards shots at a bag target. My excellent shooting was gone, and arrow flight was squirrely and unpredictable.  The nocks of the arrows were corkscrewing in a way I had never seen instead of spinning perfectly like normal.  Could it be the elevation???  Had my bow's tiller changed???  Was it gremlins???

I was flummoxed, and shot and shot trying to figure things out.  Finally, by switching point weight by going to the other broadheads I had, things were enough better that I felt I could still go hunting, but my confidence had taken a serious hit.

After the trip when I returned home, I went out shooting and the corkscrewing was worse again with my Judo points.  I checked my nock points, looked at the brace height...  OH NO!!!      

It was visually obvious that it was too low, and when I measured, it was over an below my normal setting.  How could I have missed it?

I had "wisely" replaced my string a month before the trip for safety, and shot the heck out of it while my practice was going so well. Had a little stretch early, then believed it had stabilized fully.

When I wound it back where it belonged, arrow flight was perfect again, and I was shooting very well.

Rookie mistake after 20+ years behind the bow, but I had to think the 1,200 mile trip, short nights of fitful sleep, and life at 9,000 ft for this Flatlander kept me from normal clarity.  DUH!

This is likely not you problem, but thought the story was worth telling to make sure no one else made the same, simple mistake!

Good luck getting things squared away...

[Terry Green]

Great Post Hawkeye....that too could be an issue....sometimes we need to just plug in the TV for it to work.

 

[Dave Worden]

A quick note to prevent Hawkeye's problem recurring.  A cresting ring around your arrows where the arrow meets the rest, or the belly of the bow or the front of the bow allows you to always see quickly and easily if your brace ht has changed.  I had a similar problem to Hawkeye once where my groups kept getting larger and larger.  Took a while but I finally found that my nock point had moved up a half inch.  Put the nock pt back, shot a bull's eye, shot again, hit the first arrow.  Problem solved.  While a half inch isn't so "little", little things certainly make make a big difference.

[Jim Wright]

Terry mentioned it with other potentials but the first place I would look is too tight a nock on the string.

[M60gunner]

Yes, please tell us what washes out. So far I have not had an arrow corkscrew, had them do other weird things but not corkscrew. Maybe if it was an alum I would say the arrow is bent but not carbons.

[Kelly]

corkscrewing or as we called it in the old days, porpoising is a nock point/brace height combo issue. Check and correct those and it will go away.

[little_feather]

Experienced the same thing today. Decided to "challenge" my brother and shoot at 40 yards. Good thing I did, because I doubt I would have ever seen how my arrows were flying at the shorter distances. Just checked my brace and I was under 8 inches. The sweet spot on my bear grizzly is between 8 1/4 and 8 1/2. Could this be part of the issue? Relatively new to trad... only started shooting this summer. Any insight is appreciated!