Lighted Nocks and Animal’s Reaction?
Equipment
Contributors to this thread:
If an animal is not facing away from you and can see the lighted nock heading towards them. Do you think that has any effect on their reaction (jumping the arrow or ??) once they see it?
How are they going to see the back end of an arrow that’s coming right at them??
I guess you could take a few shots at a spot 18-24 inches away from your phone and review the film (shot in slow-mo would make sense).
But I would be pretty surprised if there's much there for them to see, even given their sensitivity to movement….. Most probably only ever see that once….
They’ll hear your noisy vanes and BH way before they catch a glimpse of a lighted Nock, on the back of your arrow, facing away from the animal, hidden by your vanes. Lol :)
“Do you think that has any effect on their reaction (jumping the arrow or ??) once they see it?”
No. Plus I highly doubt they see the arrow, lighted nock or not.
Light the nock and let it fly, only good shot placement should be your main concern young fella.
scent
I've been questioning what they hear or see for decades....and critiquing every case.
I've had Squirrels and a bobcat at long range that I know didn't hear my bow go off but either saw or heard my arrow.
Out of all the big critters I've seen shot with an arrow, maybe a couple picked up the arrow at the very last split second....but if they moved, I'm convinced it was due to a combo of bow noise and them catching my movements.
The bow noise will get there 4x faster than the arrow.
"I've been questioning what they hear or see for decades....and critiquing every case" Me Also bow noise mostly and arrow/broadhead/feathers noise at times . Not lighted nocks
FWIW…. I don’t think anybody has looked into this as extensively as Rick Barbee, and he has experimented with things like slapping a couple of two by fours together, deliberately shooting at something 5 to 10 yards away from the deer, etc.… He is pretty obsessive about quieting his recurves, so I don’t know how his sound levels might compare to you compound guys… But he is a huge advocate of non-vented broadheads and relatively small, soft plastic vanes as being the quietest possible option. He is absolutely convinced that dear react primarily to the sound of an arrow coming their way, and he is shooting at jumpy, Texas deer, generally near feeders, because that’s how they do it down there…
He also shoots a lot of hogs. I don’t think he has ever once mentioned lighted nocks as being any kind of an issue… but he definitely uses them for hog hunting at night.
I have never tested what can be seen with a lighted nock. But I have tested a number of vanes and broad heads.
There are definitely vanes and broad heads out there that are very noisy in flight.
It would have to be facing you and standing behind you to see it.
I’ve used lighted nocks off and on for many years, and I’ve shot mostly vented broadheads and almost exclusively feathers. I won’t debate whether these are more or less noisy or whether animals see the lighted nock approaching. But I’ve not seen animals react to the sound or sight of these.
There will be a hole through them before they can make a decision on a lighted nock, unless you're shooting too far.
I don’t think it makes any difference as long as you're wearing expensive camo, have really good scent control clothing on, applied a liberal supply of scent control spray, have adequate face camo on, you’re shooting a single bevel, two-blade fixed blade broad head, you’re shooting a 600-grain arrow, and last but not least, you’re hunting a "Red Moon". With all that going for you, a red lighted nock isn’t going to make any difference.
Pretty sure this one didn’t see anything…but a black sleep.