CEDAR ARROWS

[Florida bowhunter]

have any of you ever bare shafted wood arrows, wanting to shoot cedar arrows out of my new widow...

[slowbowjoe]

I did... once. It wasn't pretty; easy way to break a shaft or two.
I know it works well for some folks, but I don't plan on trying it again anytime soon.

I suppose if you know your form is quite good, and you know you're close in spine to begin with, give it a try. Don't be surprised if a shaft breaks though.

[MnFn]

I have and have a set of test arrows- three different spined arrows (surewoods) for that.  I don't do that much of it lately.  Pretty much sticking to mid- fifties poundage bows and have a pretty good idea  of what I need.

Lately I have been following Black Widow's Ken Beck instruction.  Shoot a little further out and watch flight of arrow.  If it drifts left it is too stiff, if it drifts right, too weak. (Right hand shooter). Just seems easier.

If I can't tell,  either I have the spine right or I need to spend more time working on my form/ consistency.

I think if you do a search you will find the video.

[Bud B.]

I had the same experience as slowbowjoe.

A test kit cut to the length arrow you want with the point weight you want and with the type fletching you want is the best solution. If you like mid 50s bows, start your kit at 45lbs and go up from there with 3 arrows in each spine group, hopefully progressive within the group of three in each group. If you want a larger range, use just two arrows per spine group.

example:

46, 48
52, 54
57, 58
61, 64
66, 69
71, 74

Speak with an arrowsmith sponsor here. You'll be glad you did.

[Sam McMichael]

Most of my bows are 50 to 55#, and I have several batches of arrows in that range. Consequently, it is usually a matter of pulling out several arrows and seeing which one fits.

I have only bare shafted once with wood shafts and came away with the feeling of "Why bother?" It worked out that bare shafting only reinforced what I was thinking all along. Granted, there was a lot of trial and error in figuring this out.

[Cavscout9753]

Noooooo! don't let my beloved wooden arrows go down this path of OCD! Kidding.. (sort of).I don't bare shaft wood, or do much other than flight testing and maybe a little nock orientation depending on how confident I am at the target medium being consistent. There's some folks who know more about wood arrows than I'll ever learn, but I do know they are simple. Simple to tune, simple to break, simple to make. With any one of my long bows I just have to maybe adjust the brace height a little. After that, if an arrow is wonky then either it needs straightening, it needs reseating of the head, nock fit to string, or I flubbed something on my end. Test kit is a great way to go to nail down the spine if there's some variables like string material, center cut, elevated rest, etc. but they should be among the easiest to tune. Bear in mind, wood will never be as consistent as carbon or aluminum. Yes, there's straight shafts out there, and folks have managed to rummage through piles enough to get the weight very closely matched, and so on and so on, but wood is wood. Out of a dozen arrows that I can afford, on average, 1 or 2 will be stubborn children that need some special help, or just get relegated to the squirrel arrow bin. That's just the nature of the beast. Exceptions exist of course.

[rraming]

I do, start close 8 yards then move back, if you are way off it will break

[BAK]

I bare shafted wood long before I did aluminum or carbon.  I made up my own test kit with different spined shafts and different weight field tips.

As stated start out close so you don't break any.

[snag]

Just remember to hold that bow vertical and have an excellent release or you won't get the correct feedback.

[Shadowhnter]

I bare shaft for every wood im going to use. Its not a bit different then bare shafting any other material. I have great shooting cedars, and douglas firs for all my bows i own, and its as a result of bare shaft tuning them. If you can effectively bare shaft aluminums, you should be able to do the same with woods...there is no difference in process or effectivness.