When I first took up archery, I was taught that the cock feather should always face away from the riser, or else the bow would deflect the arrow slightly and possibly tear off the plastic vane. What I was not told, until a year later by another archery instructor, is that when using arrows with feather fletchings, this is not an issue, since the malleable nature of feathers means that they do not cause deflection when the arrow passes the bow, unlike plastic vanes.
A few weeks later, when I considered attempting speed shooting but found that taking care to have the cock feather correctly placed slowed down the process too much, I put this theory to the test. What I was told about feather fletchings proved true: it made no difference which way the cock feather faced, since there was no notable deflection.
With this in mind, I am going to start working on blind nocking. That is to say, nocking the arrow without looking at it, but getting the arrow in place by feel alone, while looking ahead at the target at all times. This is, of course, how horseback archers would have to nock arrows. While it is not necessary in any other instance, it may well be helpful for speed shooting. A pointless activity speed shooting may be, but it might be fun nonetheless.
It might allow maintaining concentration on the target more easily, and for older eyes, stop needing time for the eyes to refocus on the target after looking so close up at the arrow. I might try that too. Thanks for the i do, and idea.
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