I've been shooting wood a lot lately. I have not shot an animal with wood for a long time. But I may do so this year. My question is this. We all know carbon is more durable. But are they really more accurate? Seriously I cannot tell the difference. Im talking about a set of well made wood arrows. Other than durability I am having a hard time remembering why I stopped shooting wood while hunting.
I spoke with a past World Champion the other day. He used wood arrows in a tournament and beat the "carbon guys"....I think if you have good quality wood shafts and they are made properly they can shoot as good as carbon or aluminum.
I've shot nothing but wood since the early '80s, accuracy problems are not with the arrows, but strictly with me.
Kinda what I'm getting at Snag. I mean is anyone really a good enough shot to be able to tell the difference? Again I'm talking accuracy. Not durability or anything else. I do know this. The first deer I killed with a recurve was killed with a wood arrow I made myself. He was just a small buck. That deer sticks out in my mind just as much or more than the buck in my avatar that I killed with a carbon. In fact I remember a bunch of critters I killed with wood arrows. And I cannot think of one animal that I killed with a carbon arrow that I would not have gotten with a wood arrow. I do understand that in the long run you will save money shooting carbon but just curious if that is the only real benefit. There is just something about taking an animal with a wood shaft you made yourself. Think I'm gonna go back to that this fall.
A quality set of wooden arrows will shoot every bit as good as carbon or alluminum.
How can you shoot around trees unless you use wood arrows :)
I love wood arrows.
It is just easier to get a good set of carbons. Once you know what your bow likes, it is easy to duplicate them. I still prefer wood.
We all "know" that carbon arrows are more durable than wooden arrows but don't tell that to my Douglas Fir arrows! Shot a stump a couple of weeks ago after hunting for "swamp chickens". The carbon arrow was trashed. The insert was pushed back into the shaft and splintered it. Shot the same stump with a woodie and the arrow just bounced back at me without the Ace Hexhead. It wasn't damaged at all. I'm still using it today.
As far as accuracy goes, get yourself some good, quality shafting that is matched to your bow and if you make a bad shot, check your form! When I do what I'm supposed to do, I can't tell any difference other than the wood arrows are not as loud.
Sooooo...if you want to shoot wood, have fun and enjoy yourself! Its all good! :thumbsup:
I certainly can't say that I shoot better than a wood arrow shoots.
I've been shooting wood again lately and when I do my part I can't tell any difference between shaft types. I just love wood arrows, especially the ones I make myself.
Yeah, I shoot good enough to tell the difference between carbon and wood, :laughing:
I use carbon because of time, or lack of it, as far as wood being more durable than carbon, this I have to see , not doubting anyone but I have shot rocks and not damaged my arrows. The trick is to use an adhesive that won't let the nock push back into the arrow, and or use an aluminum footing cut from an aluminum arrow.
I ve been shooting only for about a year,and only last month I discovered woodies.Much much better feeling and flight than carbons imho.
I love wood arrows, I build them myself and carbons too. As far as accuracy goes, I can shoot the woodies every bit as well as the carbons, I just enjoy building arrows, either type. I have done just about every type and style of fletchings and tips, and when you make arrows that really match your bow, they just sing.
I havent picked up my carbons since I made a matched set of Surewoods. I lovee wooden arrows and in my opinion you are not loosing anything by shooting them. Shoot what makes you happy. They are all good, wood carbon and aluminum.
If you can match the spine of a wooden arrow to the pound and keep them straight wood arrows are as accurate as any synthetic shaft. In my opinion the standard 6# group woods are sold in is insufficient.
Not to sound all boastful or anything but I can tell the difference.
I shot nothing but wood for 20 years and know how to make a good arrow. The problem is consistency within a given number of arrows. Wood is not a consistent medium. Never will be.
I tried aluminum 6 years ago and was blown away by the improved accuracy. Make a dozen arrows years later and they will fly just the same.
For now, I'm shooting aluminum for target and hunting. My woodies are getting shot up on stumps.
I shoot wood ,carbon and Alum. Mostly carbon and wood. I find it a lot easier to tune wood than any thing else. I foot my carbons on both ends for stumping.......I have broke more carbons stumping than wood [cedar,poplar,lam-birch and ash] I just love wood arrows....they just seem right! Carbons are consistent, but wood is good!
I think shooting is 60% archer and 40% gear. I have a ton of busted nocks,and a nice bunch of robin hoods to show how accurately functional wood arrows are. Wood forgives Carbon doesnt.
I am a strong proponent of bare shafting. As long as the arrow has correct flight, the material makes little difference in terms of accuracy. I started out in the '60's with cedar then went to microflites then to aluminum and then to carbon. Fiberglass was pretty tough but carbon has it beat. Any wood shafts I have had in the past were quickly made into tomato stakes.
It's possible to be plenty accurate with wood.
Still, there's a reason the bigger tournaments won't allow other arrow materials into the longbow class. Compare the scores between classes sometime.
I'm not saying there's a significant difference between aluminum/carbon and wood in terms of accuracy, but saying there's no difference isn't true, either.
It would be nice if someone would design an "Ashby-like" controlled experiment to see if we could develop a better understanding of this issue. We all have anecdotal evidence from which we develop our opinions - me included. (I just switched from wood to carbon and "feel" that my accuracy improved.)
There are just too many variables to make blanket statements:
Quality of the shafts
Tuning issues
Form, etc.
I think yankee summed it up well. I theory carbon is more consistent than wood, but how many of us have consistent enough form to tell the difference? Some might be able to tell, but I bet the vast majority can't.
The AVERAGE carbon shaft is straighter than the AVERAGE wood shaft, causing a lot of people to believe that carbon is more accurate. However, given equal straightness, I doubt there is any difference. A good set of woodies or carbons are as accurate as I am.
I guess what I see is that you can't buy your way into shooting a lot better by going with one shaft type or another. Yes, carbon and aluminums are consistantly straighter, no doubt about it. But can most guys see a big difference in performance...? It's like golfers who go out and buy the latest and greatest driver. Will they perform better...NO. They think they can buy a better swing. It's more beneficial to have them work on the swing than just change clubs. Now if it is a professional golfer, then yes they can tweek that driver and benefit from it. But you and I should work on the swing...or shooting form. It's like a guy once told me "this bow will shoot a lot better than I will ever be able to".
But no matter your choice it's just nice to live in America where we do have the freedom to choose.
There is likely someone here that can prove that one shoots more accurately than another but in my humble opinion, it is all in what you believe is more accurate for you. Shooting is very much a mental thing and you will shoot what you believe to be the best the very best you can.
Amen, Snag.
It likely depends on how patient you are and your skills at making wood arrows and how much you keep after them. I only shoot wood and my arrows are way accurate enough for me. It also depends on your definition of accuracy, target archery is way different from double lung at 15-20.
QuoteOriginally posted by JamesKerr:
A quality set of wooden arrows will shoot every bit as good as carbon or alluminum.
That is 100% correct.
They all shoot the same to me but wood is far more quieter to me.RC
I never stopped using wood. Been working well for me for more than 50 years. Of course, it's important to have well made, well matched wood. That's why I hand select the shafts and make my own arrows. Also agree with RC, wood is quieter. Can't beat it for looks either.
I read somewhere that carbon arrows recover from paradox quicker than wood and I believe they are more consistent than wood. I shoot Bemans out of my BW and wood out of everything else. A vintage Bear recurve or a longbow just begs to be shoot with wood arrows. I like both so please don't ask me to choose, however if I did the choice would be wood.
Ross
I love woodies they seem to be quieter and easier to tune with my shooting style. I don't notice much difference in accuracy but than again I am not what you want to call Hill like.
I guess when I read stories by Fred Asbell, T.J. Conrads and a host of others who have been around for a long time, and very successful and they still shoot wood!!! I guess wood is good enough for an old hunter like me who still tries to have a good season and always seems to come up short! :goldtooth:
In my 20's, all the "traditional" shoots pretty much required wood arrows. Well, being bull headed, I told myself "ain't nobody going to tell me what type of arrow material I have to shoot", and just stayed away from the shoots I would grow to love. (I shot carbons at the time) I carried on hunting with good success on deer and small game, but always knew something was missing.
Fast forward 10-15 years, every shoot I attend is any arrow material, and the funny part is all I make/shoot now are woods. Many small game and fowl have fallen to my wood arrows, I gave up big game hunting for 5 years for personal reasons, and I'm still on that elusive hunt for my first big game with woods. (I have done the barnyard hunts, but I cannot consider that hunting, more so would consider them shopping).
I have decided this year is my year to check that one of the list. My new Rancho Safari ghillie came today and now it's time to "season" it. Stay tuned...I think this is going to be a fun ride.
QuoteOriginally posted by RC:
They all shoot the same to me but wood is far more quieter to me.RC
This makes a lot of sense to me and is the main reason I want to try wood. I left my consistency freak back with my wheel bow days.
As I tend to think noise is a tuning issue, I wonder if different types of bows like wood better or carbon better.
If one puts a large enough fletching on any arro it'll shoot accurately.
If you really want to see if your wood arros are as accurate as your carbon?Then strip the fletchings off both and see how accurate you are w/ bareshafts.
Do they make arrows out of something other than wood?
I just love everything about wood arrows, maybe I put more effort when I shoot them because they are part of me. I get great pleasure making and shooting them. I'm going out to shoot some now.....
QuoteOriginally posted by okla bearclaw:
Do they make arrows out of something other than wood?
:biglaugh: :biglaugh: There ya have it!!
I really like wood arrows, and aluminums are ok too. Though I do use them on occassion I'm certainly not a fan of carbons, mostly because of their 'poor fit'. I simply don't consider them traditional in the way that the word means anything to me.
That said, it is my firm conviction that carbons outperform wood, all else being equal, when the objective is consistent accuracy at longer ranges. That's what they were manufactured to do, and they're very good at it. There, I said it. And I believe it. Despite zero fondness for plastic shafts I'll be honest about what they can do when the task is to repeatedly hit small marks at long ranges. They are better than wood arrows for that. But there's an irony in every point of comparison, and in this one it's that if an archer who likes the idea of traditional, chooses to never shoot a wood arrow and considers them inferior, then they will never know the difference between 'real' traditional and what today's consumer markets have caused it to become. Without feeling any connection with anyone who embraces that difference with a cold heart, I still can't help but feel sorry for them.