Arrow Weight vs. Bow Weight

[benjiec]

This may be of interest to any newbe's to the trad game such as myself.  Last year was my first season of hunting with traditional gear, and I was fortunate enough to take 7 whitetails with my 55# Bear Kodiak Magnum.  However I was extremely disappointed in the arrow penetration I was getting.  After 14 years of hunting with a compound pass through shots were the norm.  After the season ending I got down to some serious home work concerning arrow weight and energy.  It turned out that the carbon arrows I was shooting were only weighing in at 7.2 grains per pound.  I had some wooden shafts that were 9.7 grains per pound.  I built some arrows during the off season 2213 XX75's and slid a 125 grain field point inside the shaft gluing it with my insert.  I also went to 150 grain Woodsman broadheads.  This gave me a 11.3 grains per pound ratio.  Friday morning I was able to take a nice big doe with a complete pass through shot.  I guess the weigh does make the difference.  How do you increase the weight on wooden shafts?  Cut them longer?

[JRY309]

I prefer arrows that weigh 9-11 grs. per pound with traditional bows for hunting or target shooting.A well tuned arrow will penetrate better then an arrow that is not well tuned being they weigh the same.And I like to use cut-on-contact broadhead heads,no expandable's or heads with a bullet point.To increase a wood arrow weight is to use a heavier spine to use a heavier head or you can try some ash or maple arrows.They are usally heavier then cedar,but wood arrows are so different.I've had cedar the same spine weigh 75-80 grs. heavier then the other set.

[benjiec]

I tried many different aluminum shafts during my "bare ahaft" tuning process and the 2213's at 29-inches shot perfect.  I was just thinking that if I'm going traditional, which I am TOTALLY hooked on it would be nice to shoot wooden shafts.  The ones I have are cedar 70-75 spine at 29-inches, and I actually had a shot last year that the arrow went through but was not a complete pass through.  Maybe I needed a couple of more swipes on the broadhead with the file.

[Bjorn]

To increase the weight of wood ask your supplier to pick out heavier shafts, raptorarchery.com will gladly do this.
Other times I buy larger lots of shafting and keep the heavy ones. Lots of people will gladly buy the light ones from me.

[Dr. Ed Ashby]

Benjamin, the easiest solution is simply to go to the heavier shaft woods, such as ash, birch or laminated bitch. Even heavier (and the toughest wood shaft I've tested) are the hickory shafts. Then there are those of purple heart. Even heavier? Try Ipe. And don't overlook hardwood-footed shafts cedar shafts either. You have a huge number of options available among the wood shafts.

Ed
TGMM Family of the Bow

[Jason R. Wesbrock]

With a 55# Kodiak and a 400-grain arrow you should have had no problem whatsoever blowing through whitetails. I'd bet you're shooting a lot more energy than my grandfather did for decades (42# @ 26", Dacron string, low-400-grain arrows) and he very rarely ever kept an arrow in a deer.

My first suggestion would be to bareshaft tune your bow. After that, if you feel you need a heavier shaft, load up more arrow weight and retune. But don't use a heavier arrow to compensate for tuning. I'm not saying that applies to you, but I've seen it far too many times.