I was shooting with a friend today and he told me that I have the orientation of my arrows all wrong. I've been shooting with the c*ck vane at 12:00 and the others at 4:00 and 8:00. He told me that the c*ck should be at 9:00 and the others at, say, 1:00 and 5:00. He claims that they'll clear the shelf better and hence no induced vibration. "Tuning the nock" is what he calls it.

It almost sorta makes sense, but fletching becomes a little more complicated. My jig fletches at 12, 4, and 8, as do all of them, I imagine. If I lose a vane for whatever reason, I have to screw around with the alignment to keep the vanes at 120 degrees.

What're your opinions?

Depends on what type of rest you have. My Qt 3000 prong rest requires I point it down at 6:00. MY drop away works fine with it pointed up at 12:00.

so long as you are clearing your rest and the shelf what does it matter?
you can twist your nock to get clearance if needed. tuning your nock i always understood to be to get arrows to group together. say you have one that won't group with the rest of the group twist your arrow one fletch and try shooting that arrow again to see if it shoots with the group.
some people shoot all the color of fletches so if you have to twist your nock it does not matter. clearance is king and like was already said it depends on your rest more than anything, unless you have a real old bow that does not have a lot of shelf clearance then it will be different there also. and that would be shooting the vane "out". up down or out just make sure everything is clearing.

I neglected to mention that I'm shooting a circa '95 Hoyt Defiant with a whisker biscuit. The 5:00 vane barely clears the black fibers on the bottom.

I had a thought last night. I'd heard about sprinkling baby powder on the shelf and stabilizer to check for contact. Gonna do that today.

If one fletch is comming significantly closer than the others, something's wrong. WB type rests need to be square with the string so all fletchings hit at the same time. Are the fibers wore out? Also, your bow may not be in tune. There's a lot of info on paper tuning and walk back tuning available if you need help in this area. Otherwise, if you're not into doing your own tuning, you might want to take it to a pro shop or an experienced friend.

If you are shooting traditional (stick, longbow, recurve, etc.) and shooting "off the shelf", it matters....
If you are using a drop-away rest on a compound bow, it does not matter one single bit, provided it is tuned and timed properly.

I did some checking yesterday. I set the nock inside the bisquit and looked down the arrow. While rotating the arrow, I found that the vanes barely touched a spot on the moleskin that was glued to the shelf and up the riser a couple of inches. Bye bye moleskin. I nocked the arrow and took a good look. With the c*ck vane at 9:00, it looked like the 5:00 vane would be hitting the bracket that holds the bisquit. With the c*ck at 12:00, I saw no clearance problems at all. Granted, this was all in a static state; once the arrow leaves the string, I know it flexes. Without a high-speed camera, I have no idea what that arrow's hitting, if anything.

It's amazing what you'll see when you just freakin' look. :doh:

I did some checking yesterday. I set the nock inside the bisquit and looked down the arrow. While rotating the arrow, I found that the vanes barely touched a spot on the moleskin that was glued to the shelf and up the riser a couple of inches. Bye bye moleskin. I nocked the arrow and took a good look. With the c*ck vane at 9:00, it looked like the 5:00 vane would be hitting the bracket that holds the bisquit. With the c*ck at 12:00, I saw no clearance problems at all. Granted, this was all in a static state; once the arrow leaves the string, I know it flexes. Without a high-speed camera, I have no idea what that arrow's hitting, if anything.

It's amazing what you'll see when you just freakin' look. :doh:

I hate it when the scary simple stuff is staring you in the face and it takes forever to figure it out.