Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting Need help with recurve feather contact

Hey guys, was hoping somebody has seen this before and can help me out. I am getting a lot of wear to the outside of my shelf bear-hair rest. So much that the wood is showing wear on the edge and I am losing the bottom right feather frequently (shoot cock feather to the left).

I shoot split finger, 45# Martin Hunter. I’ve tried rotating nocks both direction slightly with no help. Doing it on 29” 500’s with 4”RW parabolic and 30” 400’s with 5” RW shield cut.

I’m just having trouble wrapping my head around how the bottom right feather can rotate ~100 degrees in that short distance and be rubbing the outside of the shelf??? Going to try LW feathers next to reverse rotation but open to any ideas while I wait on those to be delivered.

Try cock feather in and see if it goes away.

Its the archers paradox. Basically your arrows are not the correct spine to clear the riser. Those 500 should be close but you need to play with either length or point weight. The least expensive way to try correcting it is by playing with point weights. a heavier point will make the spine weaker and probably give you the clearance you need. You can also adjust your nock point up a little and experiment that way. I usually paper tune my bows. It will tell you if it's too stiff ir weak, or if you are nock high or low.

Here's a video that explains paradox. It's a pretty neat phenomenon to watch in slow motion.

Tag for further reference.

Going to try raising my nock point. I was thinking about trying cock feather in and up as well, but hope I’m not masking a problem by doing that.

These arrows paper and bare shaft tune just a skoosh weak. They are 29” 500 with a 50gr weight added to insert and 125 gr head. Whole arrow is right at 500 grains. I’ve tried going up and down 25 grains on the head.

Sounds like you are on the right track. Just remember it's not an exact science. They may show weak but it could be leading you down the wrong rabbit hole. That's half the fun of traditional IMO. Experimenting and finding what works.

One other trick I almost forgot about; Get a can or 2 of the spray on white foot powder. Spray the back of your arrow including your fletch up to maybe 6" in front of the fletch. Let it dry and then shoot it. Anywhere it contacts the bow will leave a white mark on the bow and rub off on the arrow. Just make sure not to over do it on the spray or you end up with a cloud of foot powder in your face. Ask me how I know.

Oh and if you are right handed the LW feathers may make all the difference. I missed that in your first post.

Good luck!

Thanks for all the help. I haven’t done a contact check with powder yet, that will be next. I just increased brace height 1/4” and raised nock from 1/2” to 5/8”, getting bundled up to go outside and shoot and see.

Sounds like maybe a false reading from a crash.

FWIW I gap my shelf and sideplate for quill clearance. See lots of folks running rug rests w no gap.

With that my cock feather isn't 90 degrees. My arrows.... more like the right hen is around 12 oclock.

Run 4" parabolic, helical a offset.

I get no outter shelf contact.....have set up all my recurves this way the last 20 yrs. Widows (modern and old metal riser), Hoyts, Samick.

Run cheapo Velcro for sideplate and shelf.

Well ended up raising nock height to 3/4” and much better arrow flight. No more tail kick coming off the shelf. No fletch casualties at that height, will keep shooting and see.

The old BW tune vids show bare shaft, then fletched w shaved feathers to where quills only, then full feathered.
Don't see the need for the shaved intermediate step, but maybe some do.

Do you have a part of a toothpick under the rest? It raises the arrow just enough for good clearance.

Sounds like the knock height adjustment did the job though.
Good shooting!

When you bareshaft tune make sure you aren't getting a false weak from the arrow bouncing off the riser. If your arrow shows weak add more weight and make sure it gets weaker and use less tip weight to make sure it shows stiffer. If you are getting a false reading changing tip weight won't show hardly any change.

You also have to be able to shoot very consistently to bareshaft tune properly as any inconsistency will show up dramatically and screw up your readings. If you can shoot well enough and tune well, you should be able to group bareshafts at 40 yards. I've seen guys bareshaft at 5 to 10 yards but if you will move back, you can see the curve of the arrow flight better to determine weak or stiff.

I fought with this years ago. Shot in front of an old school bowyer. He showed me I was plucking. He adjusted me rather than the bow. Problem solved. Poor back tension for me leads to a pluck every time.

Bare shaft shooting will show you a lot..
Remove fletching and replace it with wraps of tape of the same weight as the feathers that you removed.
Start at 10 yards and go back.
Look fir consistent arrow flight. If it repeatedly flies tail right, the arrow is too stiff. Set nock height first.
If not consistent, then it is you and you are not ready to try tuning.

have always enjoyed anything Byron Ferguson writes , videos or films great man with a bow ! i preferred 4 fletched on my arrows then i did not have to worry about cock feather placement. thanks for posting this video. Pete53

I like Byron Ferguson. I've met him several times at shoots but never shot with him as he wasn't competing. He is more of a trick shot artist than target shooter. Rod Jenkins in the vids 3 rivers put out is my favorite instructor. I was lucky enough when I was competing that Rod was a friend of a friend. Rod taught me more at the practice targets in a couple hours than I learned in years from other's advice.