Woodie accident

[aromakr]

Take what "stumpman" say's to the bank, he's right on target. In the hay day of wooden arrow shafts all of the shaft producers split the bolts prior to cutting into squares for dowling. There is a lot of waste making shafts this way, a lot of material stays in the woods, instead of going to the consumer in the form of junk. Unfortunatly there are shaft producers that are more concerned with profits than a quality product.

A word to the wise, an old time arrowsmith and my mentor once told me beware of buying arrows that have the entire shaft painted. Paint hides the grain of the shaft, its a good way to sell inferior shafts to the unsupecting.
Bob

[VinnieB]

i had the same thing happen to me, but i was shooting a compound and carbon arrows. the arrow had a crack in it jus past the vanes. as i let it go it broke into two pieces and the back piece hit me in my forearm. it only hurt really bad. i just make sure i check all of my arrows now and i made the switch to aluminum.

[Adam Keiper]

Bareshafting wooden arrows is their kiss of death if they hit the target at an angle.  I've had many that broke completely on impact.  A high percentage also developed sinister cracks down their length, which were not readily noticeable.  I have no doubt this was the case with your shaft.  

Pay good attention to any shafts that don't go in the target fairly straight.  Also, if you hear any "tick" or "crack" when the arrow hits the target, look the shaft over well for it WILL have a split or crack forming somewhere.  In fact, you'd be just as well off just to finish it off over your knee.

[O.L. Adcock]

I've had several wood shafts blow up over my life time and most of those have been spruce. You guys that are damaging shafts by bare shafting, first it indicates your spine was way off to start with and you were too far from the target. Start close and work back with wood. Starting at 60 yards with "soft" surounding will work too cause odds are you won't hit the bale! Or skip the whole process and use wide broadheads, they'll tell you the same thing bare shafting will, possibly better.   ....O.L.

[Frank V]

I have also cracked & broken wooden arrows trying to bareshaft them. I believe what Bob said about bareshafting woodies. Frank

[Starkman]

I've been using the Traditional Bowhunter's Handbook as my guide for building arrows.  Conrad does illustrate  grain run-out, but I was wondering if anyone has photos of what is good vs bad.  My digital camera is broken or I'd take some pics myself.  I do want to add that I believe the supplier is a reliable source for spruce shafts.  I don't think it was a quality control problem, but error on my part.  How does cedar compare to spruce?
Bob

[Artur]

I may not know a whole lot about arrow building, especially where point weight affects apparent spine, but 160 gr for a point seems a bit excessive for a shaft spined at 60-64 lbs... You say the bow you were using is rated at 51#@27", and the shaft was cut at 28.5" as well. That means the shaft was actually bending quite a bit because of that 160 gr point.

See, the bowstring was forcing the shaft to move forward, but the weight out front of the shaft was forcing the shaft to stay put -- and the shaft had to go somewhere, and it seems to have chosen to go sideways, right into your hand. And has been said already: the fact that your shafts hit "sideways" on the target and several broke on impact says that something else is out of whack.

By the way, Killdeer, I have seen woodies break on release without first being cracked; Cedar shafting, new-made and **gently** flexed prior to launch to check for cracks. They were under-spined for the bow/archer combination by at least 10 lbs; spine-checked the "survivors" when the first one broke. The shaft has to be able to withstand the bending forces of "Archer's Paradox"; it doesn't have to be cracked to break apart on release, it only has to be too weak -- otherwise a shaft/point combination spined at 40# would be usable in a bow rated at 60#, even when that bow has a center-cut shelf. But you already knew that, I must assume.