Hello. This is my first post here, so I'll give a brief background. I've been shooting trad bows off and on for the past 7-8 years, but mainly just casual target shooting, both backyard and at a couple local ranges. I started off with an old Bear longbow (don't recall the model name) at 51#@28" (somewhat less at my 26" draw) and a Martin X-200 at 40#@28". A buddy of mine broke the Bear trying to string it without a stringer a few years back and I traded in the Martin and bought a customized Howard Hill Wesley 70" at 48#@26", and later a HH Bobcat 62" at 30#@26" from Craig Ekin. These are my current bows.
I recently bought some Gold Tip Ultralight Entradas for the little Bobcat, just to see how I liked them, since I'd read and heard for a long time about the straightness and durability of carbon/graphite shafts (I've always shot cedar for the most part). I've been very impressed with both aspects of the GT arrows.
In any case, after several years of hunting only with guns, I've started looking into the possibility of taking game (up to deer size) with my Wesley. I'm thinking about going with some GT arrows for this purpose, but I'm not sure about the length I should start with. My entradas are 28" from insert to bottom of nock groove with 4" rw parabolic feathers and 100 gr. field points. My cedars for the Wesley are the same length, but with 5" barred shields and 160 gr. field points. Both shoot very well, but after reading a bunch of stuff here, it appears that not only do I have to worry about spine and OAL, in a hunting arrow I need to also look more at forward balance and overall arrow weight (two things I haven't been too concerned with up to now).
What I'm looking at are some GT Traditional Hunter shafts in 3555, with three 5" rw shield feathers, 100 gr. brass inserts, and 150 grain Woodsman heads (as a starting point). At 28" that would give me about 510 grains overall, including shaft, nock, insert feathers, and head.
I've been thinking, though, that leaving the shafts uncut or cut longer than 28" would give me a few extra grains of weight to play with, but I'm unsure how spine would be affected. Would the shafts be too limber at, say, 30-31"? I hear that in a non center cut longbow, less spine is desirable, so I'm taking that into consideration, too. The thing that has me confused, though, is how to put it all together and figure the math with my shorter than AMO draw length, since everything seems to be measured at 28". I know you have to test out arrows with each particular bow to get good tuning, but I'm just looking for a good starting point for now.
Any help appreciated. :)
http://www.bowmaker.net/tuning.htm
that should answer it
First of all, welcome to Tradgang. You will learn a lot here and make many cyberfriends to boot.
Leave the GT's full length or they will be way too stiff with your setup. They may be anyway if your bow is not center shot. You can add weight if you need to, but if you cut them to 28" you will need a lot of it. Length seems to be very critical on GT's. If you have to add enough weight to get them tuned, they will be pretty heavy for your bow. You may want to wait a bit as I hear GT is coming out with a .600 spine shaft. That would be much better with your bow. The 3555's are .500.
Also, work on your back tension. You may find that your draw increases an inch or so if you get proper back tension.
Hope this helps.
Those should work, but you'll have to adjust the length to get them tuned. Check out the link above to dial them in.
Jason
Thanks for the answers so far, and for the welcome. An excellent link, btw. :scared:
There is a new heavier light spine .600 or so deflection GT in the works.
I just found the thread on those. WooHoo! 600 spine, 8.3 gr. per inch, and 30 point something OAL. I believe I WILL wait and give some of those a try. Hope the wait isn't too much longer. :clapper:
The new Gold Tip .600 spine (woodgrain finish) Traditional will be named 1535. Last word is they may be available next week, not sure yet.
The are to weigh about 8.3 gr/inch, 30.5" long.
Like I think was said earlier - you may actually be close, but start with a full length shaft at your point weight an lop a 1/4" at a time off the back until you get it tuned. If it shows realllly weak, maybe a 1/2". Don't go fast or you can end up with a stiff arrow. Once you find the magic spot, they are great arrows for a good price. Enjoy.
Yep, definitely leave them full length at first. At that point weight, you may need all the length you can get to soften them up.
You may want to take a look at the CX Heritage 90's.
I have a 50@27 HH Halfbreed sleeve take-down that I shoot 35-55 GTs out of. I have to leave them full length and use a 100 gr brass insert with 250 grain points (125 steel adaptor and 125 gr glue on head)to get good flight. The sleeve take-down is probably a little less center cut than a one-piece HH, so that may partly account for the need for all the weight up front. Total weight comes out about 630 grains but they fly really well and hit hard. I seriously doubt you would need to trim any length off, and you may want to just wait for the .600 spine model.
Many thanks, Greg. I've decided to give both the 3555 Traditionals and the new .600s a try and see what I come up with. I'm gonna try the 3555s full length with the 100 gr. brass inserts and 150 grain Woodsmans initially and work from there. The .600s I hope to be able to shorten up a little (28" roughly), but we'll see how it goes. :thumbsup: