Douglas Fir Shaft ?

[Three Finger]

So I am planning on ordering some Douglas Fir shafts from Surewood. Just wondering if I should go with 55-60 or 60-65 spine. My bow is a Mohawk Sparrow Hawk longbow. 47#@28 My draw is 27 and I want to shoot 160g points.
What do you think.

[el greco]

That would be 44#@27.I think Surewood has a test kit.I would go with the 55-60, full 32 ",and if it is too weak, start cutting.

[RidgeRat]

I shoot a 64" 55# Tomahawk long bow. I have played with a number of wooden and carbon shafts in the past several months. My draw length is 27", so the peak bow weight is about 51-52+/-  I made up some 60-65 spine wooden spruce arrows and had some Carbon Express 250's. All had a too stiff characteristic ( I'm a lefty) so the arrows pulled a bit to the right (as I recall). For a righty it would be slightly to the left.  In the end I used a standard chart on wooden arrow spine and purchased spruce and Douglas fir arrows with a spine weight of 50-55#. I fletched with 4" parabolic feathers and a 125 grain tip.  Overall the arrows are about 28" give or take.  They fly straight. If there are shot placement issues it's me. So, in the end I would get shafts that fall within the range of your bow, understanding that shorter shafts will stiffen the spine as will larger fletch's.  If you get them to stiff then cut them and add a larger fletch your exceeding the correct range of your bow and they won't fly straight. That was my original problem and I corrected it by going with a 50-55# arrow.

[RidgeRat]

Oh yeah, test kit!  Good advice. By the way, I used the same arrows to hunt with and tip them with 160 grain ACE 2 blade broad heads, 4" para feather fletch's, overall weight ranges around 510-520 grains and they fly absolutely straight off the Tomahawk.

[pruiter]

Ridge Rat

Did u get the 250 carbon express to shot right, Trying to tune my 250  to a 55# at 28" longbow

[RidgeRat]

No, I went to the 150's. same set up, 4" feathers, 125 grain tips and they fly straight. The 250's were to stiff.   For grins, I got some carbon express 75s 9/32". This may sound crazy, but they fly even better off the 55# bow. Flatter trajectory and a smaller gap ( since I gap shoot, 3 fingers under). I saw several guys at the range I shoot at using the smaller diameter carbons. So I looked up the actual arrow deflections from the manufactures.  The 150s and the 75s and 90s are not to far from each other on the deflection charts. Believe it or not, I got my wooden Douglas fir, spruce (50-55# spine) and the 150s and 75's to all shoot straight. The only corrections I need to make is my gap. Lately I have been using the 75s.  They all fall into the correct weight range for the bow as well 5 grains per pound of bow weight (rule of thumb).

[RidgeRat]

Find the carbon express or Easton carbon arrow spine chart and cross check your bow based on your draw length and bow weight. That should give you the range of carbon arrow you should be shooting.  At a guess the 250 may be to stiff based on your bow draw, bow weight stats. You need a more flexible arrow, 150s or less.

[pruiter]

Thanks Ridge Rat

Think going to order some 150, Use the 250 for my 65 pd longbow
  250 shooting okay with 200 gr points, but the FOC is way out

[RidgeRat]

In the end before you lay out $85-90 on a dozen carbon express shafts, I think 3 rivers has a carbon express test kit that not to expensive.  Anyhow, I went thru this whole thing myself and final figured it out with some trial and error and chart review. Good luck!

[pruiter]

thanks, test kit a very good idea

[Knawbone]

55-60 should be about perfect  

[snag]

47#@28" modern longbow
plus 5# for modern longbow = 52#
plus 5# for FF string      = 57#
minus 5# for 1" lower than 28" on draw length = 52#
plus 7# for 35gr over 125gr point             = 57#
    (+ 1# for ever 7grs over 125gr pt)
                                             55#/60#
Probably find 28" bop will work for you.

[jackdaw]

shot some douglas fir from allegheny mtn. arrowwoods in my 47# holcomb....55-60 and papertuned em' for length.......really nice arrow wood....jackdaw

[Three Finger]

Thank you all. Snag you are a great help.Thank you