Bamboo!  They are very tough.  Many times I shot my bamboo arrows into rocks or steel plate but hurt notheing except flattened the field points.  The same situation the cedar arrows would shatter.  My 1916 aluminum had jammed the points and inserts into the shaft few times in similar situations.

Technically bamboo is grass    :D

I love hickory. A tough shafts that takes a licking and keeps on ticking. Although, I've been shooting a lotta surewood fir lately. Unlike a lot of the folks here, I've broken more than a few. But I shoot a 60+ longbow and have a good smattering of rocks where I stump. That said; they really are a dandy shaft.

Chris how are the rose shoots working, ya get any decently spined shafts? Shawn

Wow thanks guys. I had no idea their was so many options (I'm still fairly new). I'll have to do some research and find one that fits me. Thanks!  

Douglas fir !

Fir by Sherwood

POC and Douglas Fir, the first one smell good and the second one is heavier,best of both world!

I agree, love the smell of POC, heavys are, douglas fir, birch and ramin shafts, they could take a licking.

I have a supplier who used to have a lot of chundoo.  Now all I can get is 23/64 45-50's.  They do make nice arrows.  At $19 per dozen the price is nice too.

A lot of folks on this thread spoke to the durability of douglas fir.  I haven't had the same experience.  I've tried 3 dozen douglas fir shafts and honestly can't say they are any more durable than cedar.

I do love the straightness of douglas fir and how great I can get them to fly, but these days I'm favoring ash for it's weight and much greater durability over douglas fir or cedar. (This helps save some $$ during long weekends at Denton Hill).

Douglas Fir for me.

poc

POC for me,the one all others are compaired to.

Funny I was thinking of this all morning .. if you don't miss ceder is great.. but fir is tougher than any alum or carbon I have shot.. they deing , scrape up but are very hard to break... plus shoot well.

I Like POC and Doug Fir.  Never bought any D Fir though.  Ripped it and planed it from home depot lumber.

About POC durabioity.  I have always found it to be pretty rough and ready but an interesting thing, my son in law bought a dozen POC at bass pro and darn they are brittle.  He broke four in two days of shooting at a foam target in camp.

Makes me wonder what was different about them?

I started with cedar and found they stayed pretty straight but seemed to break easily.
I thought this was the norm at that point and didn't think much of it.

Then I tried ash. The ash is REALLY tough.
It's really heavy too. I liked it out of my 60# grizz with 200 grain points. The ash wouldn't stay straight for me. It became a pita. It was kinda fn shooting logs though..kaathump

Then I decided to shoot a lighter wt bow (45#) and I found the ash was just too heavy for it. It shot them fine and straight just really arced.

So I tried some spruce. The spruce are staying pretty straight. I've had to do hardly any straightening. A little more often than the cedar but nothing to whine about.
The spruce though no where near as tough as the ash seem quite a bit tougher than the cedar.

Also the spruce is nice light shaft that lets me get a decent amount of foc by just using a 200 pt.
Also, this gets me in about the 11.3grns/# sweet spot I like.

I wonder if the brittleness some of you experience is due to the finish that was applied? Personally I like poc for all my wood arrows just based on the straightness. As an alternate I like sitka spruce in lighter bows and douglad fir in heavier ones.

Ash

Most of my experience is with POC   I still have about 300/440 shafts left from my last big orders in the late 80s from Acme and Rose city  SO im set for a bit . I have also made arrows from Birch, Douglass , and Sitka   ALL good   but POC  just seems better . I have also been experimenting with Poplar  made from dowells at the local Home Depot/Lowes etc    HARD to straighten  in the beginning but usually stays pretty straight once done and made up.    SLIGHTLY heavier than POC and lighter in color. Takes stain well and looks nice when done. Holds up well when shot into rocks !!! :-)

Is ash heavier than Fir ?