My new Bama longbow is in route to me and i want to get arrows ready,I sat in on Dr Asbys in Kalamazoo and would like to get a 650 grain wood arrow with EFOC. Looking in 3 rivers catalog weight of shaft is not listed. What wood has the heaviest GPI? Im open to all suggestions. Thanks in advance
Ed
Give a call to someone who can give you better service. Allegheny Mountain Arrow Woods can tell you the weights of what they have on hand and help you choose the right wood for your purpose.
Guy
Send Snag an email He really makes some nice Surewood arrows and they are heavy. He also sells tapered ones. They fly great and hit hard.
Snag is a sponcer on here. He will help you out.
QuoteOriginally posted by Three Finger:
Send Snag an email He really makes some nice Surewood arrows and they are heavy. He also sells tapered ones. They fly great and hit hard.
Snag is a sponcer on here. He will help you out.
X2
If you are looking for EFOC you will not be looking for the heaviest gpi wood shafts.
Get in touch with David (Snag) as recommended. I am sure he can hook you up with what you need.
Pat
I have some test arrows coming from snag with the same thing in mind.
According to Stu's calculator 75# spined surewoods with 190gr heads will weigh approx 625gr total with an FOC of 13.4%
Hard to get to EFOC number with wood. Not sure what # your bow is, but it is hard to get enough spine with wood to work with a heavy broadhead and get EFOC numbers.
I'll be interested to see what you come up with.
Pete
I have used laminated birch shafts in the past and heavy was no problem!! I believe they came from Allegheny Mountain and I loved them. Was pushing 700 grains with 125 snuffers!!! Might be something that would work for you with a heavier broadhead. Have had others say they had problems with fletching them according to the grain, we fletched them by the flex in the shaft and they flew great for me. A little heavy for the bow I'm using right now though.
Tater is right. If you want to front load a wood shaft, you don't want a physically heavy shaft to start with. Heavy spine, yes, but not physically heavy.
Petert is also right. Hard to get EFOC with wood because you run out of spine. When you start loading the front of an arrow, you need to add a lot of spine. If you shoot in the mid-50s or above or have a long draw length, you may not be able to front load your wood arrows very much because you won't be able to get spines high enough to accommodate it.
The best I've been able to do is about 19% FOc by using a 9-inch rear taper, hardwood footing and 175 grain head. Need 80# spine to shoot out of my 56#ACS. Have been able to duplicate that FOC by using an internal metal footing. But I can't find 11/32 cedar shafts spined any higher than 80, which I would need to increase the FOC more than 19-20% FOC.
Try Bamboo shafts.
Bamboo shafts are still pretty heavy. Mine are heavier than my POC shafts.
If you want 650 total weight you don't want the heaviest. You can state the weight you want with many suppliers.........about 435-450 total shaft weight should be your target to arrive at 650 including a 160 gn point. This allows for cutting and tapering the shaft nock, feathers, finishes etc. You can get Surewood Doug Fir in that weight and Cedar too-I'd go with the Fir.
Lam Birch, Hickory and Ash will generally put you 100 gns over your target of 650. As far as EFOC goes pick something other than wood.
Kye at Great Basin Foots just put me some real heavy weight together. These shafts are by far the best I ever seen! I have a new bow and she is real picky, so Kye put a mix bag together to test. His footed shafts are heavy and just a work of art. Bomb proof too. He has some in the Tradgang sponsor.
If you want EFOC go with carbon arrows...
If your bow is not cut past center, you'll have no trouble finding shafting stiff enough to point load wood arrows.
I easily shoot 250 grain points out of a hard shooting 57# Firefly using only 70/75 Surewood shafts, but the bow is 1/16" shy of center, and therein lies the key. That and Woody Weights. :D
Another Firefly at 51# is well tuned for 220ish grain points using only 60/65's, again it is cut to center not past.
Arrow flight and penetration with both those rigs has been impressive. As mentioned above, if you are striving to bump FOC you want light shafting, of adequate spine, heavy shafting works against you unless you're only concerned about total arrow weight.
EFOC is doable with wood shafts, but it is a bit of a challenge. As has been said above, EFOC requires a light, stiff shaft and heavy point. So far, the best I have done is 21.6% with a 630 gr arrow. Those arrows are Sitka Spruce shafts, about 12 gpi, 28" BOP and 70 lb spine with 50 gr lead up the nose and a 190 gr VPA Terminator. I shoot these from two of my bows, a 53@26 Pronghorn TD and my 55@26 Robertson LB. It took quite a bit of tuning and trial and error to figure it out, but I really like the results. I'm continuing to work with these and will be refletching with some smaller fletch to see how that works. They are 3x5" helical now.
Ed, give me a call and I'll help as much as I can. Depending on your bow weight, arrow length and depth of cut, you can at least get close.
I bought some Ash shafts from Allegheny Mountain when I was a Kzoo. I've only made up one so far (I'm going to taper the rest), and so far I'm happy. With a 145 gn point, it comes out at 735 gns. Should work fine on moose.
I looked at the laminated birch shafts, too. Probably should have grabbed a dozen. Looked like they were a bit heavier than the ash.
I also bought some Woody Weights. You should be able to get the FOC up there by adding them to your arrows. They come in weights between 75 gns. and 200 gns.
Lots of good advice. If I had more info. I could check and see what I could do for you in the appropriate spine weight for your setup and tip weight.
The arrows that snag created for me are 75-80 and the finished weight with 125s are all right around 635gr. And they are some tuff arrows!
Lots of great info here. I'm looking forward to experimenting!
Pete
I used the aluminum adapters to add 45gr. It turned a 70lb spine into an arrow that I could shoot out of a 60 LB longbow without centershot. Now I can change heads in the field.