Curious woody bare shafting result.

[A Lex]

I've been shooting nothing but wooden arrows for some years now, and thought I understood wooden shafts pretty well, but I had an interesting thing happen this afternoon.

Just making up a new set of woodies and I thought I'd check the tune with a bare shaft from the new lot. All shooting was done at 15 yards in my shearing shed (no wind) into a new big round hay bale.

The new arrow shafts are the same wood as the old set, Douglas Fir, same spine, 73-75#, same length, 29.5", same point weight, 160 grains, yet the new shafts bare shaft noticeably weak. Too much nock left.

Strange I thought, so I stripped the feathers off one of my old set and bare shafted that. Just ever so slightly weak, perfect, exactly how I'd want a bare shaft.

Tried them both side by side numerous times with exactly the same results, the new shaft was noticeably weaker.

So I checked both bare shafts on my Ace Spin-Spine Tester, both 73#.

I  weighed them, the new one is 30 grains heavier.

I measured the diameters, the new ones are on average 10 thou thinner.

Anyone else experienced anything similar?

If I have to trim a little more off the new set thats ok, I've got a bit of wriggle room. I'm not concerned about it, I'll simply tune them to what they need, I just found it interesting.

Time permitting, tomorrow I might bare shaft a couple of others out of the new batch and see if it's just that particular shaft. It might end up as a flu-flu.

Best

Lex

[kevsuperg]

Wood is wood. I just think it's a natural phenomenon.
 Hard for things that are a natural material to be consistent, the main reason I switched to carbons.
 Maybe something to do with the density of the new shaft vs old
 If you can ,nocks not glued on yet, I would try rotating the shaft a degree or two , this way and that or flip it 180* for a few shots , see if that's changes anything  keep your grain properly oriented.
 Good luck

[dnovo]

I've been making and shooting wood arrows longer than I can remember. Several years ago I thought I'd mess with bare shafting. Results were less than satisfactory. I don't think you can use just a single wood shaft. No two wood shafts are exactly the same. 2 shafts that are exactly the same as far as spine, weight, diameter may not shoot exactly the same.

[Roy from Pa]

Wood is tuff to bare shaft.You would be better off fletching the arrows and paper tuning them for good arrow flight.

[Jackpine Boyz]

Agree with Roy.  
I'm just starting to transition from carbon to wood this year.  Ideal would be to group them by spine then shoot each one and note if its a little weaker or stiffer and try to get a group of similar grouping arrows for each set up.  With a dozen arrows I have about half that are good for hunting/target, a few that are good for stumping and small game, and a couple for tomato stakes.  I don't hunt past 20 yards so a good fletching and a slight cant keep em flying good for me.
If you flip the arrows over for self nocks, or rotate the glue on nock style you may see a difference as well.  It is the DYNAMIC spine that is causing the differences despite the spine readings you are seeing statically.

[flyguysc]

[/url] [/IMG] I shoot wood shafts and perferr them over any other arrow material available. Never tried bare shaft tuning wood,just tune to the bow with feathers,cut,add point weight etc. and I do not see how it could any better. I shoot the DF tapered shafts from Surewood.

[Orion]

I agree that wood shafts are difficult to bare shaft.  I don't do it.

However, the fact that your new arrow is 30 grains heavier means (at least in theory)  that it will take a little more spine to compensate for the heavier weight, or, the tendency will be to show weak (if you're right on the margin of tune).

That being said, I doubt 30 grains difference is enough to show much of an effect.

[snag]

No problems with bareshaft tuning if done right. You aren’t canting your bow, are you? Same point weight? Consistent release? What is your bow and it’s specs?

I ordered a dozen Surewoods at one spine, Liked them so much I ordered an 2nd dozen.  My first dozen a 10 grain variance, the second dozen spined the same and had a 10 grain variance just the same weights as the first dozen.  They must have a file or something to be able to repeat an order that close.  To get 30 grains different they must not have gone to a file.   Out of curiosity, I just weighed and spined the ten in my back quiver, they are 27" bop with 160 grain heads 538 to 542 grains and they static spine 62 to 64 pounds.

[flyguysc]

Their consistency(SW) from one dozen to another is amazing. I have purchased the Premiums only, approx. five dozen and I'm one happy customer.

[Tedd]

Been thinking about going back to wood also. Ideally I'd like to the have wood/carbon interchangeable and hitting the same. (I think the only way I can do that is by using AD tapered carbon for the carbon arrows. They match closest in flight and diameter for me)
So I have been digging up all kinds of wood arrows and bare shafts this week. I do bare shaft test them. I find wood responds easily to weight and length adjustments. As long as you have shafts in your correct 5lb spine range they are easy to cut or change weight to get good bare shaft flight out to 15-20 yards. (I wouldn't try them at 35 yards like I do with EFOC carbons!). I also find wood to be the most forgiving and accurate. I ordered a doz 75-80 douglas fir this week.
I also ordered 6 grizzly stick tapered carbon because I am an arrow junkie - which has nothing to do with this post!
Tedd

[Terry Lightle]

Been bare shafting woods since 1985 when Ken Beck walked me through it,works for me.
Terry

[LittleBen]

I've never had trouble bare shafting wood arrows. The biggest reason I switched to mostly carbon, is I don't have to tune as often because the shafts just last so much longer.

[A Lex]

Thanks for the feed back guys.

I love shooting wood shafts, and have shot them exclusively for the last 8 to 10 years I guess. I've taken things from Bunnies to Buffalo with wood.

I know wood is wood and it can have limitations and variations, but I'm not concerned about it, just found it interesting as I've not seen it before.

I've always bare shafted wood and never had a problem (after learning to srart close to fhe target

[Sam McMichael]

As has already been said, "Wood is wood..." Identical shafts are not identical at all. In my mind, bare shafting wood is often not particularly critical. If the arrows tune well with feathers and fly true, that is good enough. HOWEVER, that may not be necessarily true in the rain. In wet weather, a shaft that is naturally well tuned will probably fly better when the soaked feathers flatten out. Since I just don't hunt in the rain, you can easily see why I don't worry much about it.