Why shoot wood ?

[Stumpkiller]

Why shoot wood?

Never occurred to me to shoot anything else.

Why not shoot wood?

[Pine]

That's what I'm talking about .

[forestdweller]

Originally posted by Captain*Kirk:
Sure, carbon and aluminum both have superior qualities over wood. So do magnesium risers and carbon fiber limbs. Not knocking them nor those who choose to take advantage of those qualities, it's just not my cup of tea. I used to hunt with compounds once upon a time...I went trad to relax and smell the forest around me. Woodies and vintage bows just seem to fit.

I agree with you friend.

Carbons might perform slightly better and magnesium risers filled with lead might be more "forgiving" along with clickers, stabilizers, and other add on's but if someone is going to got that far why not just go all the way and shoot a compound?

I know one thing and that's that Howard Hill was a hell of a shot and he used wooden arrows they have to be pretty damn good.....

I'm of the opinion that the more natural materials you use in terms of shooting archery the more rewarding it comes because it becomes more difficult as well since you are starting to do it the way they did it for 2000+ odd years.

As an example anyone can shoot well with a modern Olympic recurve but hand them a one piece longbow or recurve and things are going to get really challenging for them without all of those crutches they are used to.

[Ground Hunter]

Carbon has no soul!

[Captain*Kirk]

Originally posted by YosemiteSam:
  Doug Fir and other woods require a disc sander & jig.  

Not sure I understand? Woodies do not "require a disc sander", any simple taper tool will do, though some are better than others...

 http://www.3riversarchery.com/traditional-only-taper-tool.html

What sort of jig? A fletching jig? All shafts require that, so no different than aluminum or carbon. Carbon & alum also require a dedicated carbide cut-off tool while you can use a coping or band-saw on wood.
Please clarify if I missed something, Sam...?

I was under the impression that Doug fir needs the disc sander, but I have been told that there are tools that will do a good job on the fir shafts.  One area hunter said, "all you need is a sharp blade and then don't force it."  He also said some taper tools work better than others.  I would like to get one of the taper tools that works better with fir, but I do not remember what kind he used.

[Brock]

I used a taper tool for douglas fir for years...i got a used woodchuck disc grinder a couple years ago...but still use hand held pencil sharpening style Tru-Taper more than not.

[meathead]

I have used a handheld taper tool on just about every wood arrow material and had fair to good results but for the past 5 or more years haven't tapered with anything other than a disk sander. There are never any just ok tapers with the disk sander. They all come out perfect every time.

[Captain*Kirk]

Originally posted by meathead:
I have used a handheld taper tool on just about every wood arrow material and had fair to good results but for the past 5 or more years haven't tapered with anything other than a disk sander. There are never any just ok tapers with the disk sander. They all come out perfect every time.

Not arguing the point, but I wouldn't consider it a requirement, especially for POC shafts. And an el-cheapo disc sander can be purchased from HF for roughly the same as a cut-off saw.

[Yewbender]

Here's one reason.....
 

Good luck making an aluminum or carbon look this good!

[hitman]

I love wood arrows, everything about them. A beautifully crested wood arrow and the feathers give them a certain mystic feeling as they are flying toward an animal. I have never met another hunter in the woods or on a range that didn't stop and admire my wood arrows. Animals hate them!

[Learner]

Originally posted by Westkyhunter:
I haven't been shooting wood very long myself. I got a wild hair to try some last summer after flinging a few cedars a friend had. I was blown away at the difference in them and the carbon and aluminum arrows I'm most familiar with. The thing is I'm on a pretty tight budget and therefore look for cheaper routes to the same out come or quality of the gear I choose without simply just adding it to an online shopping cart. I decided to go looking for a nice straight grain spruce board that I could hopefully reduce to some nice well tuned and deadly arrows. I won't go into full detail of building them however what I ended up with was five beautiful all natural wooden arrows on my first attempt complete with real turkey feathers which I two fletched with my own feathers from gobblers I'd taken myself. They turned out way better than I had ever imagined and were extremely close in weight and spine too! Their total weight came in at a smudge under ten grains per pound of draw. I skipped the field points and applied some razor sharp Magnus two blades on them. They literally flew like darts! I was ecstatic! They flew so good and were so quiet the carbons sat on the bench when deer season started. I had to hunt with these new to me special arrows no matter what. And hunt they did!! The first three of four whitetail tags were filled with these special arrows. No doubt in my mind no carbon or aluminum arrow could have performed any better or been any more lethal than these cheaply made fine tuned death rays!! I cannot believe I waited so long to give them a place in my quiver. There's something special about having one of these nocked on the string, bow held close, while tucked in a special little hiding place on the ground anticipating the arrival of a beautiful whitetail. It's hard to put those feelings into words. There's no way I'll ever experience those emotions with carbon or aluminum. That's why they'll always be special to me! They're soft to the touch, dead silent in the shot, and fly where I'm looking.  I've already got more made up and they shoot just as good.

[Learner]

Originally posted by Yewbender:
Here's one reason.....
     

Good luck making an aluminum or carbon look this good!

Beautiful!        

What stain did you use?

[YosemiteSam]

Originally posted by Captain*Kirk:
 

Originally posted by YosemiteSam:
  Doug Fir and other woods require a disc sander & jig.  

Not sure I understand? Woodies do not "require a disc sander", any simple taper tool will do, though some are better than others...

  http://www.3riversarchery.com/traditional-only-taper-tool.html  

What sort of jig? A fletching jig? All shafts require that, so no different than aluminum or carbon. Carbon & alum also require a dedicated carbide cut-off tool while you can use a coping or band-saw on wood.
Please clarify if I missed something, Sam...? [/b]

I am under the impression (maybe the delusion) that standard razor-blade taper tools dull too quickly on doug fir shafts & that they end up shredding the shaft rather than shaving it in nice flakes as happens on cedars.  The jig I mentioned is just a simple angle jig to set the right angle against the sander.  

Sounds like others here have had different experiences.  That is encouraging.  For those of you who use a taper tool (not a sander & jig), what taper tool have you found that works well with doug fir & doesn't require too frequent blade replacement?

[Captain*Kirk]

To be honest, I've only used POC shafts so I can't say how quickly Douglas Fir would dull a sharpening tool. Obviously the disc sander would be the better setup in the long run.

[Kevin Dill]

Anyone here remember Skyline or Treeline camo? The originator of that is a guy named Greg Haskell. Back in the '80s Greg once sat down with me and showed me how to turn a parallel shaft into a 9" back-taper using a palm plane and bit of sandpaper. I made a few dozen tapered cedars using that method and killed some deer with them.

Later I constructed my own tapering jigs and did back, point and nock tapers. I wouldn't say I loved the results, but I kept on killing game with no issues. I also bought a Woodchuck unit and found it to work well but of course only for point and nock tapers. I sold it after realizing I didn't need it.

About this time I realized it was simply better (in all respects) for me to know exactly what I wanted in wood shafts and order them cut to length and with all tapers completed. Any time I've ordered woods in the last dozen or more years it's been that way. I don't miss the sanding, dust and occasional screw-up I used to experience.