Looking for woodie building help.

[imskippy]

Hey guys I have a couple dozen p.o.c shafts I'd like to setup and hunt deer with this year. I've never used wood before so I'm looking for some info on suggestions of where to start.

Here's my specs. 62" recurve drawing 50# at about 27.5". The shafts I have are 50-55# p.o.c prefinished shafts. I plan on using 5" shield cut feathers right wing fletched right helical. I would like to shoot grizzly heads and was thinking the 190"s.

What are your thoughts on this setup? Thanks SKippy

[fingers]

Shoot one bare shaft with same weight head. If you can dial it in to have good flight then your in the groove.

[Orion]

The 190s might be too heavy.  I'm not much for bare shafting woodies, but can give it a try.  Likewise, fletch one or two and see how they fly with the heavy heads.  I think you might have to go to a lighter head or a heavier shaft, particularly if you're shooting a fast flite string.

[Fletcher]

Congrats on your decision to step up to wood arrows.  My guess is that you are going to be underspined, esp with the heavy head.  Cut a couple of shafts to 29", this will give you a 28" BOP arrows when tapered for nock and point.  Fletch them up and shoot the arrows with 125 and 160 gr field points to see which fly best.  If your 50-55 shafts prove too weak, let me know and I can send a couple of stiffer shafts for you to try.  Do you have the tools for making the nock and point tapers?

[imskippy]

Thanks guys. Yeah I'm experienced in the bareshafting methods with my aluminums but wasn't sure if the same applied to woodies. I was thinking the 190's might be heavy but with all this extreme foc talk and all I thought I'd ask. Currently I am shooting 1916's at 29" with 125gr muzzy phantoms and they fly great. When I bought these wood shafts I had a 45# bow and figured I'd go one step up so I could use a heavier head to get the spine I need. Maybe I'll just go for the lighter grizzlies. try the 125 or 150 field points first.

Fletcher: I don't have the proper taper tools at the moment but thought about buying or building a jig for my belt/disc sander like the one I've seen in 3 rivers catalog. I also have 2 dozen raw p.o.c shafts I want to make stumpin and flu flu arrows with but I'm not worried about those right now. Thanks for the offer on the shafts I'll keep it in mind. Worst case I'll go to the trad shop in my area,it's a hr drive to it. From what I hear they are the guys to see for gettin you set up.

Any more thought? What spine shaft you think I would need to run the 190's?  Thanks Skippy

[Fletcher]

The disk sander is the way to go for tapers.  The guide block that 3Rivers has will work very well.  You will have to rig up a stop, and adjust the block for a perfect fit for the nocks and points, but it's quite simple and does a great job.  A coarse paper in the 50 grit range works the best for tapers.

For the 190's, I recommend at least a 60-65 and a 65-70 may well be needed.  You can always start a bit long and shorten them until you get the flight perfect.  You don't have that option with too low a spine.

[MYSTIKBOW]

I was gonna jump in here Jason and offer my two cents but I see that Fletcher has got ya well taken care of. So far I agree with everything he has told you.  Good luck and have fun. Woodies are a blast to shoot and tuned properly will perform every bit as good as any other shaft.
Wait untill ya give hardwood shaft a whirl.
 

[imskippy]

Thanks again guys. Once again the infinite wisdom of tradgang shines through.

John, I've been drooling over the footed shafts I've seen floating around. I think a nice set with purpleheart would be awesome to match my bow. I think when I get my Zona Longbow I'm going to shoot nothing but wood out of it. Thanks again guys. Skippy

[cdworks]

ok i can tell you the 50-55 will be WAY too weak i shoot a 50# and have 55-60 shafts and had to cut an inch to get it to 200 grain field points (got some ribtek 190's coming to me for hunting season  :D ) i am afraid the shafts will be to short when i put the heads on. i need to cut a little off of em using 125grain field point. next time i make em i am goin to use 60-65 spine so i can leave em longer i like longer arrows. i pull 28" and with a 2" thick riser that only leaves 2" for taper and clearance