Anyone use unstained cedar shafts for hunting? With all of the fancy arrows being shown and made, I'm just curious if anyone uses a basic shaft, with no stain, just clear coated.

I have a few,probably about 8 left of 2 dozen.Mainly used just for plinking around the yard anymore tho......

I have sold many plain jane arrows.  I shoot them myself mainly for testing of points.

I like the natural wood look, but went through the trouble of applying a natural wood color stain.  Seemed like wiping on water. Can hardly tell it's been stained, just brightens up the natural color a bit.

I use them when I plan on punishing my arrows, like frogs on rocky banks but to me lifes too short to shoot plain arrows.I have a blast making em purty.

I figure I should shoot my best arrows at any game animal dumb enough to get close enough for me to take a shot.

One of my many unstanined small game slayers...



Yeah, I agree with everyone who says a stained shaft looks prettier. That much is true. But I really do like the visability offered by most unstained woods...

A clear coat  with a white washed crown make a nice arrow.  I use minwax white wash stain on the crown before sealing with a clear water based poly. With white feathers this makes a good looking arrow that is pretty simple to make.  It is also highly visible and easy to find in the weeds.

The native americans believed that you dishonored the animal if you killed it with equipment that wasn't the best you could make.  

Last Arrow

       Could you post a picture of the arrow you described it sounds neet and i may try it on my next shafts.

Steve,
I glued up a dozen this past summer with no stain and hunted whitetails in the fall.  I agree with the other guys in that this makes for a very visible shaft out in the woods...maybe a little too visible for my liking.  I also have some unstained "Ravens" made by Raptor Archery.  This is a beautiful arrow..you can view them on their web site.  Great thing about making wood arrows is if you don't like them, you have an excuse to make 12 more!!

Good luck.  Scott

I use unstained, clear coated POC shafts for practice and stump shooting.

Actually my wife prefers the look of just a sealed shaft and cloroed feathers, she says they are prettier than all dressed up. I have several dozen of them. Shawn

Just made a couple dozen, clear, no stain. The kids are shooting them. I like the looks of them. I may do my next like that, maybe with just a simple crest.

Steve

Stain the front and leave the back unstained instead of crown dip. Crest or not they look pretty good.

I stained my first batch of  ash arrows. After that, I've never stain another batch. I like the Saxton Pope look of natural wood  arrows. I like to use wild turkey and  goose feathers  because they are natural. I like  to  put more time into shooting  than arrow making.

I really like Douglas Fir shafts unstained. Likewise Red Oak. P.O. Cedar "pops" nicely with stain-kinda plain without. Ash really is beautiful stained. Poplar makes great arrow shafting but unstained it is quite bright and stained brown it looks little better than a long skinny turd. Sometimes I get rad and stain shafts red yellow or blue-makes them more findable.

Jim Uh... I'm sure Pope made plenty of plain birch shafts but to quote him..."we paint arrows not so much for gayness but to preserve them from moisture and to aid in finding them."

I just rub some linseed oil on my shafts now. Prefer the look of natural wood.