The 8 Best Lighted Nocks of 2026

The least expensive way to put six light-up nocks in your quiver is this XHYCKJ pack. The size on this listing is GT, cut for .246 inside-diameter shafts, so check your arrows before you order — the line comes in other diameters, but what arrives here fits .246.

We keep a pack of these for practice arrows and for the shots we're willing to lose. The light fires on release, stays bright enough to follow the full arc in daylight, and holds on long enough that an arrow forgotten in the grass is still glowing when you walk back out. Pressing one into a shaft takes seconds, with no bushing, no glue and nothing to assemble. As cheap insurance against a lost arrow, that's the job done.

The screwdriver in the box tells you what the off switch is like: it's a hole you turn the light out through, not a tab you flip. Keep the tool in your quiver and it's a non-issue; lose it and you'll be hunting for something pointy on the walk back to the truck. Budget nocks ask for that kind of small accommodation, and this one asks for less than most.

The X nock fires on a piston-driven contact switch, and that piston is what separates a Nockturnal from the budget packs: the string drives it home and the light comes on, in weather that would fog a cheaper switch. It's waterproof, shock resistant, and goes from the package into the shaft with no prep, no bushing and nothing to assemble at the tailgate.

Twenty-plus hours of burn is the useful number. A shot at last light gives you a lit arrow through the evening and a nock still glowing when you come back at sunrise, and you're not watching the clock while you trail. Brightness is the other thing it does well — the green shows up in leaf litter, in grass, and against a target butt at the far end of the range.

It's a .204 fitment, which covers a lot of the Easton and Gold Tip shafts hunters actually carry, and it's the pick for someone who wants one dependable nock on each hunting arrow rather than a bulk bag for the range. Sealed construction is why we trust it in a quiver: no battery door, no assembly, nothing to lose in the dark.

The two seconds that decide whether you like a lighted nock come after the shot, when you're standing in the dark trying to turn the thing off. The Reikawa S has a switch you can work with a thumbnail — no screwdriver, no pinhole, no fumbling for a field tip — and that alone earns it a place here.

It's a .244 nock, the inside diameter of a great many of the carbon shafts bowhunters shoot, and it presses in without assembly. The light is bright for the money: it fires on release, holds a strong glow long enough to follow a pass-through, and the 48-hour rating is generous enough that you won't run one dry in a season of after-work sits. Blue is what this listing ships, and it stands out against grass and dead leaves.

The throat is where it gets finicky. On a smaller-diameter serving it can sit wide enough that the nock feels loose when you press it on, and a loose nock changes how an arrow leaves the string — worth checking before you commit a dozen shafts to one. Otherwise the S does what a hunting nock is asked to do: it lights, it stays lit, and it goes out when you tell it to.

Crossbow bolts aren't arrows with a different label. Their inside diameters are their own family, and .300 is the size that fits a lot of what people actually hunt with — Barnett's Headhunter bolts, several 2219 aluminum shafts, and a fair number of carbon bolts besides. This Reikawa pack is that size and only that size: six half-moon nocks, no bushings to sort.

If your bolt measures .300 inside, this is the crossbow nock we point people to. The half-moon throat seats on a crossbow string the way the factory nock did, the light is bright enough to follow a bolt's whole arc in low light, and 48 hours of burn means the one you left in the grass is still glowing when you come back with a flashlight. Six to a pack also means a lost bolt doesn't end your season.

Shutting it off takes a point. There's a hole in the side of the nock and you poke it with a field tip, a knife tip or the small driver in your kit — manageable, as long as the tool lives in your quiver and not on the workbench. Shoot a few at a target before you hunt with them, too: the plastic fork is the part that gives way when a bolt hits something hard.

Same switch, same 20-hour burn, same sealed body as the .204 X nock — the difference is the diameter. This is the S nock, built for .244 shafts, which is the fitment a lot of Gold Tip and Victory shooters need and the reason our premium .204 pick doesn't help them.

Twenty grains is the number that matters. That's real weight at the back of an arrow, and it shifts how the shaft tunes, so sight in with the nocks installed instead of assuming a bare-shaft tune carries over. Once they're on, the linear switch is bowstring-activated, the body is waterproof, and the light shows you point of impact as well as where the arrow ended up. Red is what this listing ships, and it reads clearly against green cover and dry grass.

Turning it off takes some learning: a knife tip or field point in the right spot, and after a dozen arrows it's muscle memory. What you get back is one of the most consistent nocks here at first-time ignition, which is the reason to spend premium money on three instead of buying six.

The slider is the part to watch. It's what turns the DEEPOWER on before the shot and what shuts it off afterward, and on a few of these it's also the piece that snaps — the light keeps working, but you're back to poking it out with a point. Everything else about this set we like.

That set is one nock covering four inside diameters — .204, .233, .244 and .246 — with H, S and GT bushings in the box, an external switch and 48 hours of burn. It tracks our top pick closely, and the difference we keep coming back to is consistency: the six nocks in a pack weigh close enough to each other that a quiver built from one set tunes alike, which matters more than the advertising suggests. Function has been solid, too — the light fires on release, the switch works with a thumb, and the beam is bright enough to pick an arrow out of short grass.

Pre-activating is the habit it encourages: click the slider on during the walk in, click it off if nothing comes. For a quiver that mixes two or three shaft diameters, that external switch is worth more than a brighter beam or a fancier package.

Six nocks, a switch you can work without a tool, and one of the lowest prices in this guide: the CosiComu S is the value pick for .244 arrows, and it's the pack we reach for when we're setting up a practice quiver rather than a single November arrow.

The switch is set into the body rather than standing proud of it, which sounds like a small choice and isn't: a flush switch doesn't get knocked off when the arrow passes through a target or an animal, so the light stays on for the part of the track where you actually need it. Battery life runs past 48 hours, and the green reads at distance in low light without washing out.

It's a .244 fitment with no bushings, so it goes straight into the shaft, and the light comes on when the string hits it. For 3D season, stump shooting, or a second quiver you don't want to think about, it does what the expensive nocks do, and it does the shutoff better than most of them.