Tuning with a lighted nock

[acollins]

I have trouble seeing my arrow in flight when tuning. I can't tell if it's fish tailing and so on. Will a lighted nock help to make the flaws in arrow flight more noticeable.

[Gooserbat]

I tried it it screwed it all up.  Only thing I can figure was the lighted nocks were about 2 1/2 time heavier and fit the string a little different.

[ranger 3]

Lighted nocks word great for tuning.

[Muttly]

Makes it a lot easier to see where it,s going, and how it's gettin there.

[Gooserbat]

Well maybe I need to try a different nock

[Flingblade]

I've never tried it but paper tuning works well.  The key is what is the arrow doing 8-10 feet in front of the bow and I would think that would be hard to discern with the naked eye even with a lighted nock.  Paper tuning has recently helped me isolate and fix flaws in form I didn't even know I had.  Having someone else watch the arrow from behind you and to the side is probably easier than trying to watch the arrow yourself.  I went through 20 or 30 sheets of paper but finally got the bullet hole tears I was looking for.  Good luck!

[TSP]

Battery-powered directional signals on the butt of your arrows aren't needed to bare shaft test.  I'm half-blind in one eye and even I can see arrow flight pretty easily at the close ranges (10-15 yards) where bare shafting is typically done.  

Not shooting when it's dark will help (doh!), as will using a light-colored backstop (white sheet or paper, etc.).  Also, even if you can't see well simply noting where the arrow HITS the target relative to the aiming point (left, right, up, down) tells you what it's doing, assuming your form is good enough to point them at the right place.  For a RH shooter flight/target hits will be left if spine is too stiff, right if too weak.  The opposite is true for left-handed shooters.  If arrow hits high then raise your string nock, hits low then lower the string nock.  

Pretty simple, no need to over-complicate it.

[katman]

"Will a lighted nock help to make the flaws in arrow flight more noticeable."

Yes,especially the last 1/2-1 hour before dark. but not necessary if you bare shaft tune. Of course if you plan to hunt with a lighted nock check flight with broad head and lighted nock in place, the extra rear weight MAY throw you off tune if your border line. Also cool to learn trajectory in low light with a lighted nock.

[Fattony77]

I won't chime in with an opinion either way on whether or not it would help with tuning, simply because there are so many variables that could either help or harm. I will, however, caution that if you decide to try them, you should pay close attention to how the nock fits on your string (important no matter what kind of nock you are using), before taking any of your results seriously.

In my experience (with GoldTip Trads), the Nockturnal brand had a much narrower throat than those of the Lumenocks. For me and my string, the Nockturnals were just a little too tight and the Lumenocks way too loose.

Good luck, and I hope this helps.  

[McDave]

If lighted nocks are a different weight than your regular nocks, I wouldn't tune with them.  From what I have read and my own experience, nock weight has approx 2X the effect on dynamic spine than point weight.  For example, if a 20 grain weight difference on the point is the minimum you would need to notice a difference in tuning, you would notice a 10 grain difference in nock weight.

[katman]

McDave, if he plans to hunt with the lighted nock then I would think it beneficial to tune with it.

[Don Stokes]

Tune with white (or other bright) fletching. Simple, no electronics involved, nothing to change later.

[trasher]

Most off my buddies having this problem are using tracers.

   

The tracer are so light in wight, that it doesn't matter and you will see the flight much better.
I wouldn't use lighted nocks for tuning.

[Shadowhnter]

Light colored fletching and nocks solve the problem of not seeing. Paper tuning also works great.

Bare shafting tells on itself as no corrective measures are involved. (fletching) Easy to see a shaft flying crooked at the target....

[Fattony77]

I will add that color(s) contrasting with the color of your target face, would be the most beneficial in helping you see the arrow in flight. So, if your target face is light colored, having light colored fletching wouldn't be very helpful, but a darker color might be (and vice-versa). I would also consider coloring the arrow shaft a 3rd easily seen color, That way when it's in flight, your eye is more likely to be able to differentiate between the point and nock ends, rather than just seeing 1 streak of the same color. For example, a yellow target face with an arrow that has a vivid green on the point end of the shaft and a red nock end should be pretty easily seen. Of course, you would have to be careful that however you add these colors that they don't change the weight enough to affect the tune, thereby making all of the effort useless.

Just an idea. Not coming from ANY kind of expert, just someone trying to be creative and help...

[Muttly]

Not shooting in the dark sounds great, in theory..
In practice, I live in SE Alaska, big chunk of the year it's dark when I,m going to work, dark when I get home from work. I freely admit that it,s easier for me to shoot accurately in the middle of summer when there's plenty of natural light.
Shooting with artificial lighting is part of it for me. Woods are pretty thick where I go stumping, a lit knock makes it a lot easier to track errant shots. It also shows up a bad combination pretty quick.
Every once in awhile, get a hankering to go shooting after dark, kinda nice to have a headlamp at that point.
Not complaining about any of this, actually pretty grateful to have what are quality problems, bows to shoot, a place to shoot, it really is all gravy after a certain point!