river cane in ia

[redneckrampage]

does anyone know if rivercane grows in central and southeast ia, i tend to spend alot of time on the des moines rivers, saylorville lake and lake redrock shooting fish in the summer, any help would be appreciated thanks

steve

[Pat B]

The climate is probably too cold for river cane or switch cane in Iowa. Maybe one of the Asian bamboos that could survive the cold.   Hardwood shoot arrows are tough to beat. Give them a try. You probably have red osier dogwood or gray dogwood and possible one of the viburnums. Privet, an exotic invasive, is very abundant in the South East and may extend to your area. It makes a very tough, hard hitting shoot arrow.     Pat

[redneckrampage]

another question, how do cane/bamboo arrows hold up shot out of a glas laminated bow or are they to much for the shafts, ive got a few bows ranging from my 45 pond root up to the 60 pound mahaska flatbow...i mentioned bamboo as a friend mentioned using the bamboo staking for shafting has anyone ever used it before and how does that hold up thanks for any more input, and how far north has anyone cut rivercane

[Shovelbuck]

I've built a bunch of arrows from bamboo stakes. I get the 6 footers from Home Depot. They are extremely tuff and durable, and a lot of fun to build.
As for holding up from a laminated bow, I'm sure they will. I've just got a personal thing  against shooting them from anything other than a selfbow. Kind of a "Man Law" deal for me.
  :D  


 

[redneckrampage]

howd ya guess i was wondering the home depot after getting off the graveyard, and that ive been pondering a finish it yourself kit from dryad,,,,yet another project to add to my list come bowfishing season