[Ansteorra-archery] "No nock" or "nockless" APD's:

[ironwyrm at juno.com]

Greeting Combat Archers of Ansteorra,

A while back we did say we would continue to experiment with using the
combat arrow APD's in order to find some solutions to overcoming some of
the problems associated with them, and it would seem we may have found a
answer to the rate of fire problem.

Using both old style balder & UHMW heads on 1/4 inch fiberglass shafts
with GT APD's we discovered that if you do not bother to set the nock of
the arrow in the string but place the arrow nock under your string up to
the APD, fix it against string nock point, insert your thumb into the APD
against the bow string and shaft of the arrow, with hand closed, use the
side of your finger to pinch the outside of the APD & string between your
thump and finger (in kind of a Asian/Mongolian style draw). Give it a
good grip and pull back (it might take a few tries to get it right so it
doesn't slip, but it doesn't take too long to learn) you use the APD
itself to draw the arrow against the string.

Now that you have mastered the grip use your thumb to rotate the top of
the APD slightly to the right (that's if you're right handed, left if
your are lefty), keeping the shaft against the string while resting the
upper string about a half-inch away from the shaft on the back of the APD
itself (this to clear the arrow rest, so depending on the bow it will
take a bit of adjustment).  Now draw the arrow back, and release to let
fly at your target.

It will take a bit of practice, but even the most bitter combat archers
in our group who said they were retiring due to the APD's were raising
their eyebrows and exclaiming "Hey, this could work!".

Once you have the grip down you can began to work on aiming and speed.
Using this method I think you will find that after a while the combat
arrows just seem to fall into place on the bow.  With another archer
standing behind holding the arrows I managed to get nine off the bow in
one minute and place all of them in a twenty-four inch circle at range
twenty to twenty-five yards after about thirty minutes practice.

So if you like and decide to use the above method this obviously means no
nock will be required on the APD'ed combat arrow anymore.  For
experimenting purposes I would suggest leaving only a quarter inch of
shaft exposed out of the back of the APD for the "nockless APD".  This
does met the requirements for the APD's and we only experienced a little
distortion of the APD itself from the string (the tube bent inward about
one-eight inch where the string was pulled against it) in the scores of
firing them.  This can be countered by taping about a half inch of waste
GP to the outside of the APD to reinforce it where the string rest before
you attach it to the shaft.

PLEASE NOTE:

The "nockless APD" idea for combat arrows has not been approved by the
Kingdom Archery Marshal and he is hearing about it right now, just as you
are.  It is being offered as a possible solution to the rate of fire
problem we had encountered with the current APD's and will need a lot
more testing before we use it.  I don't even know if it has even been
suggested previously by anyone else?  Our archers just happened to notice
the possibility and explore it.

In hope of filling the sky over Gulf War with the "stinging rain of
Ansteorra"

I await your suggestions and comments,

Ironwyrm