they break when another arrow (or a FOB on an arrow) impacts them coming in to the target.
It is a fine line that dictates when a Fob is going to stay in and do what it is intended to do and when it will pop off if it gets into a situation that might cause it harm. I was shooting groups and semi-not groups with Fobs when I first started, and I was breaking them a plenty. Till I was told That my nocks were too tight.
So I began testing different tightness of FOBs and found out about this fine line called WORKS/BREAKS. It you take a standard axis arrow and use a z nock without any alteration it fits in the arrow shaft TIGHT, tight enough that the sell a tool just so you are able to adjust the nocks. If you shoot FOBs with this kind of nock, if you hit anything at all with any stopping power, it will break the FOB at the small ring and probably find the big ring down at the target end of the shaft.
On the other end of the spectrum is the loose nock. If you take 320 grit sand paper and give the whole nock base area a good sanding , it will create a FOB that is so loose, that one of two things will happen. One is that the nock with stay with the string if you go to draw the bow and your full capture rest(like my Kaz fall away) has a hold of the arrow, but the arrow will stay in its starting place without moving. Or when you do draw and the arrow and nock comes back with the arrow, upon release, your arrow will fly down target with the FOB and nock coming off somewhere between the bow and the target. This will usually result in a lost nock.
The medium of this is a simple adjustment. I take a new nock and a small 1" piece of 320 grit sandpaper. I fold the sandpaper in half then open back up t set nock in the fold/ Now on the x nock there are two separate sets of knobs that give it the tight fit. I only VERY LIGHTLY sand the whole base, then move to the shaft end of the nock and sand a little harder about 1/8th " This will give the nock the shoulders to hold the FOBs tight, but allow the shaft to not grip so tight that it wont let go if it hits something.
I still have FOBss from my first tube that show little notched where I have hit previous shot arrow with FOBs and had the incoming FOB pop off. that is when you know that the nocks are just right. I have since shot groups and have had either one of two things happen. I either have arrows that have hit previous arrows with FOBs, where the shaft goes inside the first ring and the back FOB pop off. Or the incoming arrow will glance off the ring and not hit so close and the incoming FOB will still pop off. Either way, I still have not broke any FOBs in a long time.
I understand guys feeling that they are going to never get to the point where they are going to like them. like you would think that there is no way it would ever get cost effective to keep trying them if they keep breaking. But once you find the things you need to and you have answers to all the negative things, then It is something that can be trusted and believed in.
I am the type of guy that likes the challenge of someone saying "You cant' or it won't. I surely would not keep using them or keep giving them away to guys that want to try them, unless I felt they were nearly perfect in my opinion. Now I know my opinion is just that, MINE> and it my vary from everybody else’s but, I have confidence that if a person puts away their "love of what is normal and comfortable" and be willing to try "new" to the point where they try and overcome what they feel are the negatives, then they will have given FOBs an honest try, and that is all I ask when I give some away to try.
I am relative new to the sport compared to most of the others, but I have spent enough time fletching with vanes to know that the process of gluing and pressing vanes on arrows is a hit and miss process at best. now I know it got better as I done it more but there is enough vanes get stripped by other arrows hitting them, or they just lose adhesiveness, to know that the excuse that Fobs don’t last as long as vanes is just an excuse. A poor one to boot.
