About this time each season, my deer hunting areas become completely void of deer. I have access only to "fringe" areas near the main woodlots. The deer herd up in areas that I cannot hunt and a quick walk after a snowfall this time of year will reveal no deer tracks at all. My late season deer hunting generally occurs when I can travel downstate to greener pastures. Until Then I go after squirrels!
Squirrels in my opinion are not much fun with a gun...but they are a blast with a bow. They are a very underrated game animal and are one of the few left that has not been subjected to commercialization that most big-game animals have had to endure. I often use carbon shafts for big game but this is too costly for shooting squirrels so here is what I do.
First I start with a dozen wood shafts spined correctly for my bow. Parallel wood shafts are what I normally use but in this instance I am using tapered Sitka spruce shafts that I have had lying around for a few years. You can use whatever wood you like best. Cedar is the easiest to straighten and takes a stain the best. But I really like Sitka spruce because I like the weight in the spine I need. The first step is to straighten the shafts. I use either a round screw driver or the roller tool that Ace Archery makes. Both work great. Place the shaft on a glass table or other hard surface and find the crown. I look for light showing between the table and the shaft.
Now turn the shaft so the crown is up and hit it with the screw driver or the roller tool. Only hit the crown. Do not do the whole shaft, as doing so will only transfer the crown to the opposite side of the shaft.
Once the shafts are straight, the next step is to stain or paint them. Paint/stain the WHOLE shaft. We are not looking for pretty here guys. What I'm looking for is visible so that I do not lose too many arrows while shooting at tree rats up in the tree.
Think about the obnoxious guy that was dating the girl you had a crush on in high school. Now make your arrows just as obnoxious. I use blaze orange because there is nothing more visible in the woods. I typically use plain old Rustoleum spray paint. MAKE SURE you do not use marking paint. It won't work. But for this batch I used a blaze orange stain made by True North Arrows. You can get it from 3-Rivers Archery. The picture above shows a bottle of the stain along with a shaft with one coat of the stain. After a few coats it gets much brighter.
Paint, or spray the entire shaft blaze orange. Trust me...you will not lose an arrow when the entire thing is blaze orange. I rarely do. Even if the arrow goes under leaves or grass, if you walk up near it...a sliver of blaze orange under the grey/brown leaves will jump out at you. Get the dozen shafts stained and then let them dry for hours. Below is a picture that would seriously piss-off my wife. It's some recently stained arrows leaning up against the patio door to dry. Luckily she's not on Tradgang. Keep it a secret guys. It's guy code.
After the shafts are stained...I put the taper on the nock end if they are not already tapered. In this instance, the shaft I am using are already tapered on the nock end. The picture below shows putting the taper on the nock end if the shafts you bought are not already tapered. Since I only make 3 dozen or so wood arrows a year I used the cheap pencil sharpener type taper tools. Works fine for me. Note the picture below.
After I have the nock taper on I will glue the nock on.
Make sure you correctly orient it to the grain of the shaft. Below is a picture depicting this.
Once the shafts are straight, stained, and the nocks are glued on it is time to dip them. Some guys do not dip them at all for squirrels and I used to not do so either, but I have found that since my arrows are blaze orange in color and since I rarely loose them...its best to just go ahead and dip them. By dipping them you will have to spend less time straightening them (more on this later) and they are much more durable.
As far as what to use to dip them in...in my opinion Daly's Profin is the best. It's not the cheapest and there are certainly cheaper products you can buy, but nothing works as well as this stuff. It dries clear...hard and is extremely durable. Also it requires no thinning and always goes on the shaft evenly without any bubbles. Water based clear coat cannot compare to this stuff. This is the best. When you order it, make sure you buy twice the amount required to fill your dip tube. This way after you have done enough arrows you can just add a little to the dip tube at time.
I cannot say enough good things about this stuff. I'm not a real arrowsmith so take my opinions with a grain of salt! The picture above is a can of Daly's Profin.
For dipping I just use this inexpensive tube that you can buy from most traditional archery dealers. (See pic above). I only make maybe 3 dozen wood arrows per year so this works just fine for me. Put the Dalys Profin in the tube and let it set for awhile to make sure there is time for any air bubbles to escape.
Once you are ready just dip each shaft individually. Grab it by the nock end and push it into the tube until the entire shaft is covered. Now just slowly pull the shaft back out and let the excess clear coat drip back into the tube. Once I have done this, I just hang the arrow by the nock end to a clothes pin on a line in my basement. Place a piece of cardboard under the line to soak up any residual clear coat that drips off. Below is a picture of arrows that have been dipped the first time hanging on a line in my basement by clothes pins. Works great.
Ok, so now the clear coat dip has dried overnight. I like to dip my arrows at least twice with Dalys Profin and often 3 times. Before I go to the next dip, I will lightly sand the shaft with steel wool to remove any residual bumps that may not have dripped off the shaft. However with Profin, this step is often not needed.
Here is a little tip I learned from Bob Burton of Whispering Wind Arrows. Before you go on to the next dipping stage...take a few minutes and straighten the shafts again. Do this between each dipping. The clear dip coat keeps the moisture out which helps the shaft resist reverting to its original state. If you straighten them again between each coat of dip they become straighter each time and will remain so. It works and is worth the effort. By the time you put the final dip on you will have very straight shafts that will be resistant to warping.
Topic: How I make effective small game arrows. (Read 995 times)
