I've been, when I have time,( I travel for work) making wood arrows from boards. I have been shooting them for a few weeks and I'm doing ok with them. I have spined them primitively and they are relatively close to each other. Mass weight is very close on all as well. I was away on a trip for about a week and I got a chance to shoot last night. It wasn't going well at all. I finally went into the house and grabbed my carbons. Man do they fly great and group well. Now I'm starting to question whether to shoot the carbon and give up on the home made woodies for now. The season starts in early september and I'd like to start shooting broadheads soon.
I'm thinking of throwing in the towel on the woods for now and shooting what I know works for this season and then get back to the wood after the season. Hopefully I'll have a better spine tester by then
have you shot them bare shaft? if not, pull the feathers off a couple and shoot them. if your shooting is all over the place, then it sounds like they're not spined correctly for your bow.
what wood are you using? are they fairly straight grained, or is there a lot of runout?
you may have to give up on that particular set of arrows, but don't give up on wood! if tuned correctly to your bow, you'd be amazed at how well you can get them to fly.
my guess is that the spines of all of the arrows you're making are way off from each other...i can't imagine getting a bunch of shafts from the same few boards being spined all the same...or even close. i'm no expert in that field, but i just can't imagine nature working that way.
Well alternatively you could buy some premium shafts from a place like sure wood that you know will be very close in spine and weight while you get a better tester.
Maybe your wood arrows still have a high moisture content and that is keeping them from flying well. I have noticed that arrows made from boards need to dry for awhile after being made into dowels even if they are made from well seasoned boards.
What MO Bow said. If you bare shaft tune them, you should be able to get them to fly just as well as your carbons.
And if you can't get the homemade ones to work for you, get some cedar from Wapiti, or fir from surewood like Jakeemt said.
If it's too close to hunting season though, do the animal a favor and shoot what you shoot best until you get the woodies figured out.
Shoot what you are confident with. It's all about the mental confidence. Play with the woods in the off season and shoot them when confident.
If you want to shoot woods, I'd suggest getting some good shafts from Surewood. Pick your best shooting wood arrow and get it spined or send it to Surewood and have it matched. I would also suggest paper tuning that arrow to see just how close its spine matches your bow.
I can understand wanting to make your own shafts, but I suspect you are realizing that it isn't as practical as we'd like. It takes a LOT of shafts to match up a dozen.
AS SAID ABOVE...
Recheck the straightness
Paper test em
Tune each arrow individually while paper testing.
See how your groups are after that.
I've been using sapwood poplar. I have no idea what the moisture content is. I'm sure it's high. It's awful humid here in the summer.
Thanks guys. I think I'll stick with the carbons for now until I have more time to mess with the wood.
You are almost certainly far from matched on spine. It's to be expected even when they all come out of the same board. I make some from boards but so far they are only used for stumping and small game. For big game I buy matched POC.
tuning may help a little, but the fact that they don't match means that you cannot depend on all of them matching your tune.
If you want to shoot Wood this year you ought to get a set of shafts matched for weight and spine. Otherwise, stick with the carbon.
Just my opinion.
Shoot the Carbons and you probably won't go back to wood.
I would shoot whatever you feel confident in. When a deer steps in front of you in September, Lord willing, arrow spine is the last thing you need to be thinking about. Theres plenty of time to mess around in the off season though!
Of course you'll go back to wood,apparently it's in your blood.
I made alot of arrows this year. I am totally new to all of this, so Im no expert, I just love making arrows.
The suggestions above are all good. heres my 2 cents.
1. the orientation of the grain is important to spine. if you were to cut a self nock in an arrow, you would cut across the grain( so it wouldnt want to split) the grain should go the same way even with a glue on nock. when checking spine orient your arrow to test for side to side strength, not up and down(porpoise ing)
2.Have different weight tips available to quickly test ideas and theories.
3. If you have a real screwy arrow, try shooting it with the cock feather in. Im not sure what it tells you. but some of them like it.
After making a charge of arrows and making a new favorite bow. I really started focusing on form and picking up really good stuff from the form forum. The more I worked on form the worse I shot!lol(I hear thats common)
I realized that I had 12 different arrows with different spine,tips,feathers, nocks paint ect. It made for a beautiful bouquet, but told me nothing of my form.
I finally went and bought some arrows made for my bow and me. they shoot nice. now when I build an arrow I have some thing to compare it to.
I would (and do) hunt with the carbons and play around with wood in the off season.
Thanks everyone. I've made the decision to shoot the carbons for the upcoming season and mess with the woods during the off season.
:thumbsup:
If you bareshaft wood start close to the target and move back. They will break if you start too far back and they are off in spine. You should be able to see if they are starting to go nock right or left when you are close. If they fly fairly straight then move back a couple of yards and repeat.
I'm sure there's some reason for it ie. trying to be more traditional etc. but I don't know how anyone can go back to woodies after shooting carbon. I'm shooting 675 grain carbons and they don't warp, break or bend if I miss, I can't bring myself to ever go back.
"Primitively spined" could be a real issue; sounds like they may not really be that close in spine. Also don't know what woods you've been using, and the weight of your arrows - might be on the heavy side. A spine tester and a spinner (to check straightness) will be a huge help in matching your arrows.
Try a set of premium, closely matched wood shafts or arrows, properly spined for your bow, and I think they'll fly every bit as well as carbons. Find the specs you need, and you can then build your own to match them, if you want.
And I just went up a few posts and see that I'm saying much of what Monterey said.
Only you know what you want to get out of your archery journey. Do what feels right. Just remember that this trad thing isn't supposed to be easy, if it we're then they'd be no reason to be messing with stickbows at all...compounds and rifles would make alot more 'sense'.