Every paper tear book starts the same way. Tail high = lower nocking point. Tail left = move rest right. That's the textbook answer. It's also wrong half the time.
The tear is a symptom. The cause is upstream. Here's the bench answer for every pattern — the thing to check first before you touch the rest.
Bullet Hole
You shot through the paper and the only thing torn is the fletching slot. You're done. Move on to bareshafts.
If you got a bullet hole on the first shot from a brand new bow setup, be suspicious. Either the shop tuned it well or you got lucky. Repeat the test at a different distance. A real bullet hole holds at 4 feet, 6 feet, and 10 feet.
Tail High Tear
The nock end of the arrow is kicking up out of the bow.
Check first: Cam timing. A bow out of time gives a persistent tail-high tear that no nocking point adjustment will fix. See the cam timing post.
Then check:
- Nocking point height. Should be 1/8 to 1/4 high of square. Move it down 1/16 at a time.
- Rest height. Some rests creep down with use. Set with a level.
- Cable contact on launcher arms or rest cables. A cable rub or guide issue can pull the rest off plane.
Tail Low Tear
Nock end kicking down. Less common.
Check first: Nocking point. If it's not above square, raise it.
Then check:
- Rest sat too high.
- D-loop is twisted or asymmetric.
- Cam timing in the opposite direction of tail high.
Persistent tail-low after nock and rest adjustments often means a damaged fletching or vane interference with the cable or rest body.
Tail Left Tear (Right-Handed Shooter)
Nock kicking left. The most common tear and the most often misdiagnosed.
Check first: Spine. A weak arrow flexes more on release and the back kicks left for a RH shooter. The textbook says move the rest right. That hides the symptom. If the spine is wrong, no rest move actually fixes the flight at distance.
Verify spine with a bareshaft test. Shoot a bareshaft and a fletched arrow at 20 yards. If the bareshaft lands left of the fletched, your spine is weak.
Then check:
- Grip torque. Inconsistent grip pressure on the riser pushes the back of the arrow.
- Cam lean. A leaning cam pushes the nock sideways. Check with a string against the cams.
- Rest position. Move 1/64 at a time.
Tail Right Tear (Right-Handed Shooter)
Nock kicking right.
Check first: Stiff spine. The arrow isn't flexing enough and the back kicks right. Bareshaft to verify — bareshaft lands right of fletched means stiff.
Then check:
- Grip torque in the opposite direction.
- Cam lean opposite of tail-left.
- Rest needs to move right.
Stiff spine is more common than weak spine these days because of the heavy-point trend. People go up in point weight without going down in spine number.
Diagonal Tears (Tail High-Left, High-Right, Low-Left, Low-Right)
You have two problems. Fix the vertical first, then the horizontal. Fix one at a time. If you chase both, you'll never know which adjustment did what.
Vertical tears resolve faster than horizontal. So nock point first, spine and cam lean second.
Inconsistent Tears (Different Every Shot)
Your form is the problem. The bow is fine.
Inconsistent tears mean inconsistent inputs. Grip changing shot to shot. Anchor point moving. Punch-vs-pull release timing. Drawing through the wall differently each time.
Have somebody else shoot the bow. If their tears are consistent, you have form work to do. See the target panic post.
Fletching Contact Tears
Three small tears around the central hole, evenly spaced like fletching slots but larger and ragged. Your vanes are hitting the rest, the launcher arms, or the cables on launch.
Powder the rest and vanes. Powder-test by drawing and letting down a powdered arrow. Wherever the powder transfers is your contact point. Rotate the nock 1/8 turn at a time until clearance is clean.
The Distance Test
Always shoot paper at multiple distances. 4 feet, 6 feet, 10 feet. A real bullet hole holds at all three. A tear that goes from tail-high at 4 feet to bullet hole at 10 feet means oscillation, not flight, and your arrow is recovering before the rest tells the truth. Cam timing or nock height.
The Forge Side
The Forge has a tear diagnostic. You enter the pattern, the distance, and your setup. It returns the most likely cause weighted by your specific bow and arrow build. It's not magic. It's a decision tree that saves you twenty minutes of guessing.
The Rule
If two rest moves don't fix the tear, the rest isn't the problem. Go upstream.