Whats the heaviest wood arrows you have built? Do you have any pics to post.I just built some but dont have a scale to weigh yet I will guess about 600 grains.
I don't have any pics, but I've built woodies from ash that weigh around 750 grains. By the way, those little clip scales that 3rivers carries are cheap and quite functional.
I have some heavy purple heart shafts with 190gr Ribtecs that come just shy of 1000gr.
Hickory 775 gns-too heavy for me!
Killed a deer with a 730 grain Surewood last season, the heaviest woodie I've used thus far but most of mine are well over 600 at least.
I like heavy. :D
Ash shafts, 160 grain head, 28 1/2" length = 685 grains. Very quiet coming out of my 59# homemade Hill style longbow.
Mine are full length 23/64th POC with 190 Ribteks and come in at 675 grains on the three rivers hand held scale. Like wooddamon1, I find that little scale to be quite accurate and also easy to use.
857grn.. I made the arrow out of ash & a 4" piece of 2317 easton Alumn. The arrow was made to be set on fire and shot.
It was kool seeing it flying in the night sky.
Here's pics of the arrows my son makes and shoots. Their hickory shafts with his own handmade points. They run an average of 950 grains. The arrow on the left is made from rose shafting and weighs in at 900 grns.
(http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p314/longbowman_bucket/Arrow1.jpg)
imo, with woodies, it's too easy to get a really heavy 12gpp or more finished arrow. i prefer surewood doug fir these dayze - what great shafting and you can typically ask for heaver mass weights. couple the heavy wood with a nail footing or woody weight, add in a heavy broadhead and yer good to go.
Ash with 190gr homemade tradepoint 780gr weight total there or abouts.
(http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n274/JackSkinner/broadheads/JACKSPICTURES176.jpg)
Pass tru on antelope doe at about 18-20yards. Took best antlope buck the next year same arrow set up and selfbow, no picture
(http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n274/JackSkinner/broadheads/TRADEPOINTS010-1.jpg)
Also make hickory, maple, yellowheart, leopard wood arrows in the 800-850gr range. As well as hardwood footed poplar in the 650-750gr range.
As you can tell I like a little substance to my arrows.
I just shipped out 2 dozen 11/32" raw shafts that weigh on the average of 800 grains and are 30 1/2". So a completed arrow should be around 1000 grains depending on the heads. 1 dozen spined 90-102#, and the other dozen spined 80-89#.
I made some of the same teak shafts that were a little on the lighter side for one of our arrow contests, that finished out at 758 grains.
Purpleheart makes a beautiful and heavy shaft.
Nice looking arrows, Jack! I have made and shot Ramin wood arrows over 700 grains. Hard to get that wood anymore.
Going to have to get some Surewoods to try out.
My heaviest are 860-grain Ipe. And Man are they straight.
They are 29-inch shafts tipped with 160-grain Grizzly broadheads.
I ordered the raw shafts from Allegheny Arrow Woods.
They worked extremely well on two buffalo bulls. Serious bone-smashing, deep-penetrating, tough-as-nails arrows!
(http://i617.photobucket.com/albums/tt252/Rikhinton/Howard_and_I_in_Australia_low_res.jpg)
(http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u31/snag23/DSC00798.jpg)
These are some Sweetland Forgewoods in 80#-85# spine weight. They are cut 29" bop with 160gr tips for a total of 800grs. They aren't being made any longer.
I'd recommend Surewood Shafts also. Great weight, durability and just plain great shafts!
QuoteOriginally posted by Rik:
My heaviest are 860-grain Ipe. And Man are they straight.
They are 29-inch shafts tipped with 160-grain Grizzly broadheads.
I ordered the raw shafts from Allegheny Arrow Woods.
They worked extremely well on two buffalo bulls. Serious bone-smashing, deep-penetrating, tough-as-nails arrows!
(http://i617.photobucket.com/albums/tt252/Rikhinton/Howard_and_I_in_Australia_low_res.jpg)
Nice pic of You, the bull & Howard Hill...
QuoteOriginally posted by snag:
(http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u31/snag23/DSC00798.jpg)
These are some Sweetland Forgewoods in 80#-85# spine weight. They are cut 29" bop with 160gr tips for a total of 800grs. They aren't being made any longer.
Snag? They didnt sell those like 14 to a box did they so I could buy two? lol
Ive some finished 5/16 arrows that weigh 510-525 without a head on them yet. Assume they are Ramin since they were in my "old box of shafts" and I cant tell, lol. Ive shot em with 165 grain heads and going to try heavier.
SOMEDAY, Ill find a couple Sweetlands. Just gotta use them with some other old "stuff" I use hunting, at least once before I jump off this rock.
One for my "bucket list".
So nice. Thanks for showing those to us.
God Bless
What spine weight do you shoot SlowBowke? Might have a few that could be mailed to Indiana for fulfillment of one item on a bucket list!
I came across some Sweetlands a while back that were too heavy for me so I traded them. They were 30 1/2 inches long, 11/32 with a 10-inch taper to 5/16. My spine tester is only accurate to about 100#, and these were heavier than that. Raw shafts weighed 850 grains. Sealed, fletehed with a standard weight head, they would make into 1,000 grain arrows. Bill Negley writes about using forgewoods with these dimensions in his book, Archer in Africa. Wish I had kept them.
Mostly, I shoot arrows in the 600-650 grain range, though I did use 725 grain arrows for an Alaskan Moose I killed a while back.
Awesome shafts you had there Orion! That is what happens when you dramatically compress wood and make it much more dense.
Like you I shoot arrows that are around 600grs. This gives me 10+grs per lb of bow weight. This works for me. These are 11/32" Surewoods.
QuoteOriginally posted by snag:
What spine weight do you shoot SlowBowke? Might have a few that could be mailed to Indiana for fulfillment of one item on a bucket list!
A "polished arrow", indeed you ARE, Snag.
God Bless and continue to be as He has done.
Steve
Gentlemen and Ladies?
OT but there exists NO other place where the brotherhood of trad archers is equal to those of you on TragGang!!!
I try hard to be worthy of membership amongst you.
I DID offer some 1920 shafts to one of our own here but danged if I can find him now to fulfil that offer.. should you be him or recall the thread....HELP!
I just did the math on my DOuglas Fir arrows, and they average 575 grains out of my RER LXR pulling 46#, which equates to 12.5 grains per pound. They are quick and deadly silent.
My next thing to do is find someone close that has a chrono to figure out my speed just to satisfy my curiosity.
Weighed my arrows and they came in at 600 grains with 160 grain tips.They are cedar 80-85 spine and shoot great out of my 50@28 samick sage recurve drawn 28in.
I like Ramin wood and have used it for years now. All my arrows are in the 680-750 grain range for my 60-65 lb bows.
Note: one main reason why a lot of trad shooters do not like shooting real heavy shafts is due to "memory".....their own memory of how much flatter shooting their previous arrows were. When you start committing to shooting heavier shaft wts. you need to shoot nothing but those arrows for more than a month PLUS you need to do most of your shooting out in the field and different ranges because this will "erase" the memory of the flatter tragectory you had with your old arrows a lot faster. Worst thing you can do is to try and go back and forth between light and heavy in my opinion.
Raminshooter --------- RIGHT ON!
Absolutely, completely, and extremely logically correct, Ramin.
The ONE thing I get SO tired of hearing is that "lighter arrows are *more accurate*..."
SNORT!!
Whatever one wishes to call our "instinctive" shooting abilities, I have tried yet failed miserably to get through to many is that "yardage"..."trajectory"...."speed" are all totally ignorable factors with adequate practice.
Like a quarterback zeroing on a downfield reciever or an outfielder eyeballing home plate it all becomes automatic and , at least for me, making it more complicated than that by attempting to "judge" things only throws it all in the crapper.
The single factors needed are only to concentrate on the "spot" and go through motions that become automated themselves, time and time again.......and it all WILL come together.
Regardless if the trajectory is 4 inches or 4 feet, if the arrow hits the intended spot repeatedly.......THAT is "accurate" by definition.
So many I have discussed this with "think" (wont say much on that LOL) that they will "lose" accuracy due to the trajectory and as you have correctly stated, they would NOTICE such if switching back and forth yet in very little time that will no longer be noticable nor will hunting yardage be lost sticking to truely heavy arrows.
Pardon an old fart for being "wordy" but this is a life long subject I have attempted to hammer into many over the decades yet since it is not "measurable" and isnt spouted within advertisements.........they feel it cannot possibly be true even after helping drag deer after deer out of the woods with me and seeing the shots successfully taken.
Im no wizard of the traditional bow and not a targer archer of any kind but DO feel it is the growth of the longer range 3D shots that have spawned the supposed "need" for *faster* and *lighter*.
Target archery and bowhunting are like a bull and a calf........both chase Momma cow but for completely different reasons.
Neither is right for all and neither is wrong for all but the truly heavy hunting shaft has no close competer when it comes to quiet penetrating stability.
Most say my arrows are "rediculously heavy" and that is acceptable to me.......I just know that I fear NO angle of shot hunting deer other than the full rear "texas heart shot" and know my arrow WILL get to the boiler room through pure momentum.........even out of low 40s lb bows.
I AM SO DING DANGED EXCITED about getting a couple Sweetlands to hunt with Im flat out giddy!!!
They WILL have some competition from my current arrows but hunting with some Sweetlands and heavy heads will "make" my season......or seasons just that much more "oh so dang neat!"
God Bless and thanks. It's been interesting reading!
Slow
The heaviest shafts I have made were Ipe. The 11/32" shafts alone weigh almost 900 grains.
Dennis
So Slowbowke you never said how heavy your arrows where.I have no problem shooting heavy arrows and like watching them drop into the target.
Oops, Sorry. Mine have ran over 600 grains for some time and these Ive made for this season are 665-690 depending on the head I have on them. I dont recall what year it was that I shot anything under 600 grains but its been awhile and several bows back. lol
These are (assumed) Ramin and Tonkin cane, 5/16 and 9/32 diameter.
The ones Ill build from a few Sweetlands are yet to be started on but.Ill stick the end results in here also.
Bows are 43 and 42lbs that I also bought for this year, both from the 50s.
Before it was a 43lb Super K and some EFOC carbons and some woodies running 630-650 but got rid of all carbon shafts and also sold the Super k and went "earlier" this year for bows and broadheads as well, less concentration on the FOC and more on weight and diameter for shafts.
God Bless
My collection of heavy arrows consists of (all 11/32 tapered to 5/16, without point):
1. 5+ dz hickory 700+ gr
2. 3 dz ipe 700+ gr
3. 4-5 dz Durawood 900 gr!
Durawoods are super stable and strong, but they are laminated + resin impregnated wood. Not easy to find/get heavy spine and weight 11/32 shafts.
For target archery I use my lighter weight 850 gr arrows and 80#/29" Fox longbow...
Timo
SlowBowke, did you get those Sweetlands made into arrows yet? Wonder how they are treating you?