AD HammerHeads..little advice please...

[Predator1]

On the issue of bareshafting, I think it helps. I don't shoot the Hammerheads but do shoot the trad lites. Upon receiving mine I started with a full length shaft and the weight of head I wanted and cut it down until it flew straight.

I was told buy a few that these shafts need no tuning and they were so forgiving I could just shoot them ful length, cut to length, 125's, 145's 175's and so on. Bull!!! I shoot a 55lb recurve and pull 27" and bareshafts shot terrible and I almost missed the bag at 10 yds they were so weak. I am a beleiver in that if I can get my bareshafts to fly good w/o fletching then my arrows will fly pretty damn good fletched and be much more forgiving. Having said that, I love my AD's!!! They fly awesome bare and fletched.

[joekeith]

I got some Hammerheads.  Didn't cut 'em, and they shot great out of my 3 recurves, 45#,55#,and 60#.  
 When shot out of my "new to me" Montana longbow, 60#, they grouped 4-6 inch to the right.  I thought that meant the spine was too weak.  I ended up calling Ted and asked him for advice.  He told me they weren't to weak.  He said they spine at about 100#.  He asked if I changed nock point, I said no, they seem to fly fine.  Then he asked what my brace height was.  I told him and he said it was too high.  I had it at 7.5", I had read it should be between 7.5-8.5".  He told me to drop it down to 6.5-7.0".  I didn't see how this would help, but I'm willing to try anything once,(almost).  
 Well to my surprise by changing my brace height to 7" the arrows moved right over to the bullseye.  I don't see why this worked, but it did.  I still haven't cut the length, and I only draw 27".
 These are some great arrows in my book.  And Ted sure was a bundle of knowledge and alot of help. I say give 'em a try, and if ya gotta problem ask Ted, he sure helped me.  

[MikeW]

Joe,
Did you bare shaft shoot them? Did they have a kick?

Ted sent me some stuff to play with, as soon as it gets here I'll keep this thread updated. I'm pretty sure I already know the outcome but I'll wait till I can prove it.

I hit a concrete/stone wall the other day with one at maybe 15 yards from a #54 bow, it bounced straight back 3'. I expected it to be mushroomed but there was no damage at all...tuff arrows for sure.

[joekeith]

I kept 3 unfletched, and they do seem to have a kick to 'em, but less with a good release .
Ted sent me some adapters and a 175 and 200 grn. points.  I'll have to try 'em out,..... but fletched they fly great.  
My wife even shoots them real well on her 30# LB from MadDog Archery, (a little plug for Mike).    

[MikeW]

OK Ted from Rapture Archery sent me some stuff to play with and this is what I came up with today. In all the photos the two fetched arrows have 100 grain brass inserts and a 125 grain head. The bare shafts also have 100 grain brass inserts and I tried 125, 145, 200, 250 & 300 grain heads with them.

What is not shown is all the playing around I did with brace height and with the nock point.
I braced the bow from 7" - 8" in 1/4" intervals.
I also moved the nock from 0 to 5/8" above. I did all this with 3 bare shafts all with the brass inserts trying to get ride of the right nock kick I was seeing in flight. 250 & 300 grains shot pretty straight. Everything else had a real nasty looking kick to it.

Bow is a 62" recurve #54@28" and I pull 28"
All arrows cut 29.5 BOP. 4 shafts have the aluminum nock adapter and 2 the standard nock.


125 Grain

145 Grain

200 Grain

250 Grain (258 actually)

300 Grain


Ok now here is a group I shot all with different heads from 125-300. 4 shafts have 100 grain inserts and 2 have the standard aluminum. This is at 15 yards and this is about the best I can shoot anyways. All of them fly perfect as far as I can tell and see in flight. Arrows ranged from 545 grains with standard insert and 125 point to 810 grains with 100 grain insert and 300 grain point.

Basically it looks like you can just put what ever you want on the front to reach your goal weight, fletch them and shoot. Ted told me these  spine at #100. My bow shoots #75-#80 woodies with 145-150 points real well and the Beman MFX 500's shoot very well bare shaft with front end weight ranging from 125-250 after that they shoot weak. These are defiantly stiff for my bow and it looks like it would take at least 350+ grains up front to get them to bare shaft group with the fetched shafts but put some feathers on them and they all fly just fine. I was out stumping the other day and missed and hit a concrete/stone wall. This was at about 15 yards, the arrow bounced straight back 3' I expected the point end to be mushroomed but there was no damage at all.
Tuff arrows!
I also was shooting a 690 grain setup in a foam hog. Talk about tuff to get out, they rock the target and sink deep. I got tired of trying to pull the things out. It wore me out.
Thx for the help Ted & nice arrows I'll be buying more soon.
   

[Ted Fry]

Great Mike , now as Curtis Keller would say " get out there and do a little piggy testing".