I may as well come clean and reveal my bias; I prefer to use brass nock sets above the arrow to locate my nocking point. Though I have hunted with them on and off, I have never been comfortable with a bowstring nocking loop. It just takes me too long to load my release. To its credit, the loop does improve serving life and top shooters insist it promotes better arrow flight. In this column, I am going to set my bias aside long enough to compare and contrast the many styles that archery hunters use to establish their bowstring nocking point.

Crimp on nock sets and a rubber eliminator button are a relatively heavy combination. Adding weight to the center of your string decreases your bow's efficiency slightly and results in reduced arrow speed (up to five fps).

Specialized releases designed for use with nocking loops have a short distance between the trigger and the jaw or jaws and eliminate the need to change your bow's draw length when using a loop.

Down Pressure
Down pressure is the slight downward press of the arrow on the arrow rest during the draw and while at full draw. Whenever the center of your release aid is below the center of the shaft, the string goes across the arrow's nock at an angle and this torques the arrow, which in turn applies downward pressure on the rest.

Allen Conner, one of the world's best archers, likes a little downward pressure on his arrow rest for all his shooting. According to Conner, down pressure produces more consistent arrow flight because it forces every arrow to correct the same even if there are slight variations in the arrows themselves.

Those in favor of a system with no down pressure feel that centering the arrow in the nocking loop improves arrow flight because the shaft makes less contact with the rest as it speeds forward. They feel they can eliminate inconsistencies in arrow flight by focusing on their arrows and removing or fixing those shafts that don't group with the rest.

Testing done by Steve Johnson using his Hooter Shooter shooting machines suggests that Allen Conner has the best approach for the average archery hunter. Steve noticed that he can improve his consistency by increasing the amount of time his arrow shaft slides along (and is guided by) the rest.

If you plan to use a drop-away rest then you should be looking for ways to produce some down pressure and then set the rest so that it drops just in time to clear the fletching. In this way, you will provide the maximum amount of guidance to help stabilize the arrow before it is on its own.

Regardless of the philosophy you adopt, there are several options available for attaching the arrow to the string and each has tradeoffs.

Crimp-on Nock Sets
My typical setup includes two brass nock sets crimped onto the string above the nock. Below the nock, you place a rubber donut sometimes called an "eliminator button" to cushion the nock from the release aid. And below the eliminator button you attach your release aid.

You should also over-wrap the serving where the release contacts the serving using some kind of protective layer. I've used strand material from an old bowstring and it works just fine. You can also use a small diameter serving material that pulls snugly down into and between the wraps of your string's primary serving.

Pros and cons: With the brass nock set option, the release head is placed well below the centerline of the arrow and presses firmly into the bottom of the nock. This creates plenty of downward pressure on the rest. For this reason, some archers don't like using the setup with a drop-away rest because they feel it produces too much down pressure. However, I use it all the time with drop-away rests and don't have any problems with arrow flight.