Dangerous Crossbow Mistakes: Part 2 - It's All About The Arrow!

Hey, welcome back everybody. This is gonna be part two of common crossbow mistakes that I have seen. And as promised in part two, we're gonna focus specifically on crossbow arrows and the types of issues that can be created by the arrow and the nock. So stay tuned. All right, everybody. Honestly, I think a lot of crossbow issues that show up both online, both in people's personal experiences, a lot of the stuff that I see in here, I honestly think can be attributed to the arrow and the nock. And we gotta pay special attention to how we load the arrow, what components we use, all of that kind of stuff, because this projectile right here is what is gonna take up all the energy from your high power brand new crossbow. We gotta make sure we're doing things right with the arrow. First and foremost, number one, we've gotta make sure we're shooting the right nock. So some crossbows can shoot multiple nocks. And if they can, great. Make sure you know what those nocks are and make sure you're shooting nocks that abide by your manufacturer's specification. Some crossbows require a proprietary nock. So if they do, you've gotta shoot that nock. Don't deviate from it. Even if you find a nock that's close to it, don't deviate. Make sure you're shooting exactly what the manufacturer recommends. If they recommend a half moon, shoot a half moon. If they recommend their proprietary one, shoot their proprietary one. Don't deviate from that, you guys, because if you shoot the wrong nock, you can have a nock failure. You can have the string jump over the nock or jump under the nock and create a dry fire situation where it's not propelling the arrow. Having the wrong nock can basically blow up your crossbow. As simple and as little and as cheap of a piece as that is, that is what interfaces this arrow to your crossbow, and if it's not correct, bad things can happen. Number two is now that we've got the right nock, we have to make sure our nock is fully seated against our crossbow string before we take the shot. Fully seated means it's all the way back. It can't go back any farther. There is no gap. We gotta make sure whatever type of arrow retention mechanism we've got, whether it's a spring, like a metal spring wire, whether it's a brush, whether it's something else, whatever it is, make sure that that is providing adequate pressure down on the arrow so that it's not sliding freely. Make sure it's not missing. You've gotta have one of those to keep your nock and your arrow pressed up against your bow string. What can happen is if you don't have the nock fully seated against your string, you are turning what should be a straight, just pushing force. The bow string should be making contact with the arrow via the nock and just pushing the arrow out the front of your rail. If you have even the smallest gap, even a gap that is small enough that allows you to take the safety from the safe position to the fire position, basically it takes the anti-dry fire mechanism where you can move your safety and you can shoot the bow. If there's a little bit of a gap there, you now turn that push force into an impact force. Even a very small impact force with how much load these crossbows have, how much power they have, you can do a lot of damage. You can break your nock. And if your nock breaks, it might cut your bow string, it might make your bow string jump again up or over, create a dry fire situation or cut your string and your crossbow unravels. That impact could push the nock and smash it into the shaft of your arrow and again, cause your string to jump or cause the back of the arrow that's now damaged to cut your bow string. You've gotta make sure you guys that that arrow is fully seated, fully seated against your bow string and confirm that it is with how well your retention mechanism holds the arrow. Make sure that before you click that safety off, before you squeeze that shot off, make sure the nock is fully seated against your bow string because that right there, honestly, I think is a big contributor to a lot of the problems that we see on crossbows and honestly, it's one that we might not even realize. Crossbow cocked fine, we loaded the arrow, we've been shooting fine and then all of a sudden, the crossbow just blows up and our arrow, who knows where it went. Maybe it just puked out a little bit, maybe it flew erratically, but all we know is now we've fired a shot and we've got an exploded crossbow. A lot of times, it comes down to first the proper nock, but also making sure that we're making contact and that nock is fully seated against our bow string before we shoot. Same kind of principles with the next one is just making sure whatever nock that you have, let's say like this Logics right here, that can shoot a half moon nock or it can shoot Killer Instinct's V-Track nock. Making sure that nock is aligned properly, making sure that we've got it, you know, this one right now with the odd feather going down, which most crossbows, most arrows, that's how it's set up to do. Making sure that it's in there properly and that it's not twisted. It's not, you know, to one side or the other, or we're not putting the wrong fletching down, we're not getting in a hurry and making it so, yeah, we might have full string contact, but it's not contacting at all in the way that the nock is designed to interface with the string. Make sure that that nock is not misaligned because the things that we just talked about, string jumping over or under, cutting our bowstring, damaging our arrow and making, you know, catastrophic failure, that kind of stuff, that can also come from not having the nock properly aligned on your bowstring. Here's a big one. Here's one that I don't think people pay much attention to. I know shooting groups is fun and I do it sometimes too in videos. And most of the time when I shoot groups, when I'm shooting at the same dot, I'm usually doing it at extended ranges, but you've got to really be careful, especially at close ranges. Crossbows, they can stack arrows on a dot, especially at ranges inside of, you know, 40 yards and in. I mean, they should be absolutely driving tacks. And what can happen is if you shoot groups a lot, you might not Robin Hood an arrow, but simply impacting even a little bit, the shaft, the nock and damaging it, even in a way that maybe doesn't look damaged, but shooting groups and piling arrows in and smacking them against each other, that can be a contributor to the next time you put that arrow in your crossbow and it's damaged. And now you fire that shot off and it takes that load. Nock could break, the carbon shaft could break. That happens, your crossbow is gonna unravel. The string is gonna break, other things might break. So you guys, you really, you really shouldn't shoot groups, especially at close range. Shoot at different dots, pick different aiming points. If you're gonna shoot groups, you really should do it at extended ranges where you are likely to have, you know, a group that is not, you know, something that's in like a nickel. Like you can legitimately shoot inside of 40 yards. Should be something if you're testing some stuff out at extended ranges where you're like, okay, I'm expecting this to be more like a whatever, baseball. That's okay, but just be careful and inspect the back of your arrows. And if you wanna just play it safe, a great rule of thumb would just be, don't shoot at the same dot twice, especially if there's an arrow already in there. And if you're trying to figure out what kind of grouping you're getting, if you really wanna know, like sometimes I do, put a target out there, put a paper plate on there, shoot an arrow, make a mark and just pull the arrow out and fire the next one and then you can measure a group. But if you sit there and you continuously pound your arrows with more arrows, you're gonna have something that is going to nick, break. It doesn't take much with how much load these crossbows, how much energy they have stored up on something that even has what might not even be that much of a noticeable defect. That can be the difference between a great next shot and a crossbow that's blown up and an unhappy customer. Next one, lighted nocks. Lighted nocks are great. I love lighted nocks. I really do, especially for hunting. And you do want to practice with lighted nocks. I like to keep these burned out lighted nocks as ones that I can practice with because the weight of the nock being usually something like 15 grains heavier, I have found, at least for a lot of the killer instinct and serious stuff, it does make a difference in how your arrow flies. But what I have also found is that lighted nocks are not as durable as just regular non-lighted nocks. I don't exactly know what material these are made out of, but what I do know is that you gotta pay attention to them, even if they're ones that you're practicing with or you're hunting ones. When you shoot them, just look at them. Look for damage. Look for, because they're clear, a lot of times you can see those little white kind of like stress marks and stuff on them as that nock begins to fatigue a little bit and might not show deformation and stuff like that, but it might show signs of, just like with other plastics, when you bend them and stuff, especially clear ones, and you start to see some of those white lines, that hazy type of look to them, if you see that in a lighted nock, chuck it. It's done. Don't shoot it anymore, because lighted nocks, they just don't seem to be as durable with whatever this material is to stand up to a whole lot of shots. So they're great to hunt with. They're important to practice with and know how they affect your arrow flight, but keep an eye on them and don't shoot them too much because they do seem to wear out faster than regular nocks, and they can be another situation where you shoot them too much and that nock breaks. All the things we talk about that can be a catastrophic failure, that can be a contributor, or that can be the cause of a bow failure is this guy right here, the old lighted nock. And then the last one I've got, very simple one. Making sure you're shooting the correct arrow length and correct minimum arrow weight. Don't deviate from that. Very simple. You can always go a little bit heavier, or a lot of times quite a bit heavier if you want to, and you can always shoot an arrow that is longer than the minimum arrow length. But don't go shorter, don't go lighter than what your bow is designed for. And back on the nock thing, this is the last one. Making sure you've got a good nock fit. So if the nock is so tight that you gotta like really pound it in there, that's probably not a good nock to shoot for your particular arrow shaft. You don't want to bulge that shaft. You don't want to create stress back there around the whole circumference of the arrow shaft, because again, you could be creating an area that is prone to failure, and if that fails on your shot, then your bow is probably gonna fail. But on the flip side of things, you also don't want that nock to be too loose. If that nock is too loose, imagine you're loading it, it's got some play in the arrow shaft. When you load that by firing the shot, if it wants to kind of bend or kick one way or another and create a little moment arm, that could also be the difference of a back end of your arrow failing and having something go wrong with your crossbow and not. So it should be a good snug interference fit. Like I don't have a number to give you guys, but it should be, you should be able to, if they're removable nocks like these ones are from Killer Instinct, or they've got little crushed ribs and stuff on them, it should be something that fits snug, that you can still rotate, but you know that there's an interference fit. It's fitting tight, it's fitting snug. There's not too much wiggle, but at the same time, it's not impossible to get out. That's what I'm looking for, making sure nocks fit properly. If something doesn't, you can try that nock with a different arrow, or honestly, the nocks are not expensive to you guys, especially non-lighted ones. Like if you need to get some different half moon nocks, get some different ones. If you buy lighted nocks and they don't fit, I mean, unfortunately, you might have to buy other ones, but it's not worth risking your entire crossbow over something like a nock not fitting properly. So I hope that helps you guys out. If you guys have questions, hit me up down in the comments below. If there's something you think I missed that other people need to hear, post that down in the comments below. And if this video helped you out, please drop me a like and subscribe if you haven't already. If you're looking for more awesome crossbow content, go ahead and check out one of these two videos right here. And thank you guys for tuning in. I appreciate it. Be safe, God bless, and remember, be a sportsman, make a sportsman.