? for you wood arrow shooters and builders

[shortstroke 91]

I'll be ordering some wood arrows shortly and thought I'd get some questions answered before I do. I'm shooting a Tomahawk longbow #45 @28" drawn to 27.5 and looking for an OAL of about 29" and a finished weight with a 125 grain head somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 grains or a little less. Should I go with 5/16 or 11/32 and why? What woods make good arrows and which ones are the most durable? Anybody use hexshafts, they look really good to me, but what do I know? Thanks for any and al help. I know I'm asking for opinions and everyboy's got one.

[straitera]

Sent PM Brandon. Look in the archives & you'll find more than you want to read. I'd suggest you start with Ashby's latest penetration results. IOPnR

[AW]

I would go withe the 11/32 or 23/64 tapered shafts to get the weight up where you want it.

Arvin

[The Vanilla Gorilla]

I use 11/32 POC shafts, cut to around 29 inches. Maybe a hair more.  With a 125gr head, mine are weighing around 495gr with a completed arrow.  

I will soak them in watco stain next batch I make to get a bit more weight, though.

[SuperK]

Give Twig Archery a call.  My favorite arrow wood is ramin in 5/16.  It's a tuff, heavy wood that will hold up well.  Tell John what weight you want your finished arrow to weigh and he will get ya' fixed up. His prices are good and the quality is great.

[James Wrenn]

Order from someone that you can talk to and tell them the finished weight you want.They can match shafts to get you close.

[shortstroke 91]

I should mention these will only be target arrows.

[James Wrenn]

For target arrows you could go a lot lighter than 500gns.I would use 11/32 tapered for cedar or barrel tapered for spruce.The spruce is stonger so you could go with barrel tapered and use 70gn 5/16 points.Barrel tapered cedar breaks at the point too much for me.Call Paul Jalon at Elite arrows and he will fix you up with the best target arrows you can get. jmo

[Fletcher]

55-59 spine should do you well.  Diameter for most woods will be 11/32, altho you can get that spine and your 500 grains in 5/16 with ramin.  Ramin is a good arrow wood and tougher than most.  Fir, cedar, spruce or the hexpine can all be had with your specs.  Yes, the hexpine are very good shafts.

For target arrows, you could easily drop down in arrow weight to about 9-10 gr/lb (400-450 gr) for a little quicker flight and flatter trajectory.  Fir or Sitka Spruce would be my choice there.