Wood arrows?

[Red Beastmaster]

I shot wood for 20 years. Aluminum for the last 10. I recently got the itch to go back to wood and made up a batch of cedars.

Just saying it doesn't take an Olympic archer to tell the difference. Read whatever else you want into it but that's what I said.

[Captain*Kirk]

Originally posted by Red Beastmaster:
I shot wood for 20 years. Aluminum for the last 10. I recently got the itch to go back to wood and made up a batch of cedars.

Just saying it doesn't take an Olympic archer to tell the difference. Read whatever else you want into it but that's what I said.

Just curious...have you shot carbon at all?

[TRAP]

 

Wood is good. They can be made to look as exotic or as simple as the archer chooses. Well made wood arrows are in no way a handicap. Quiet, forgiving and pretty durable.

   

 

[TRAP]

Originally posted by Michael Arnette:
 

Originally posted by Red Beastmaster:


I shot my new cedars and my aluminums today. Cedar group 6"dia. Alum group 3"dia. It's like night and day.

This is why I don't shoot wood unless it's required in a tournament class...I don't care what others say. Wood is just not as accurate. [/b]

Pretty bold statement Michael.  I hope you've had some experience with well matched and well constructed wood arrows before making it.

Not all wood arrows are created equal. The real work goes into spine testing and weighing shafts throughout the process of building them. You can't just grab a dozen wood shafts from an archery supplier, glue some feathers on them and expect them to be as consistent in spine and weight as a tube that gets manufactured by a machine.

For the sake of making a living, archery "raw materials" retailers do not group arrow shafts in relation to spine and weight as closely as a custom arrow maker does.

[Chris Iversen]

I think it comes down to simplicity and traditional values. For me at least...

I am new to archery, and like another poster, I am madly searching for as much information as I can and find I am dwelling on minutiae. I have chosen "simplicity" as my new mantra, and I need to remind myself of that. I shot wooden arrows for awhile, but as a novice archer, I broke alot because I miss alot. Because of this, I am shooting carbon for now. Now I am obsessing on FOC and GPP, and I need to stop. Simplicity. Simplicity. Simplicity.

My plan is to go back to shooting wood once I get more consistent and significantly reduce the number of times I catastrophically miss targets (It's winter in Canada, and I have missed indoor 3D targets and hit the cinder block wall behind some of them). With carbon I get lucky sometimes,and they don't break. Rarely do I have the same luck with wood. Once I start hitting the target at least half of the time indoors, I will go back to wood.

Going back to simplicity and traditional values: Clay Hayes says something really profound on this subject in his "Untamed" film. Something along the lines of technology reducing the uncertainty in hunting, bit by bit, and if we aren't careful, we might just succeed in eliminating that uncertainty, and solving the hunter's problem. In my opinion as a hunter, why would I want to do that? That is why I choose to hunt with traditional equipment. I think many of us here share that same opinion.

I have gotten wood shafts with lots of flared grain that were a little difficult to gauge, those are called shoot aways, everyone needs a few.    I have also had two guys with Hill bows using heavy spined full length wood shafts that were hurling wandering air logs, that told me "wood arrows are garbage, look."  I had to agree, their wood arrows were garbage.   I let them try some better arrows for their bows, then they changed their minds and didn't know what to do with their arrows, they each had six out of the same dozen.   I told them cut them to practical length, put the heaviest hex blunts on them they could find and shoot them at pheasants.    They found that hunting Iowa pheasants with longbows and shoot away arrows is extremely addictive.   Now they are going for that perfect flying shoot away arrow.

[Red Beastmaster]

Captain Kirk,

No never shot carbon.

Red, don't get me wrong I have over 250 aluminum arrows or shafts that get regular use, 1816 (wife), 1818s and 1918s. I prefer the old sizes for longbows.  In my heavier bow days it was 2018s for the light bows, 2020, 2117s and dowel stuffed Microflite 12s for the big boys.

[Longtoke]

Originally posted by TRAP:
   

Wood is good. They can be made to look as exotic or as simple as the archer chooses. Well made wood arrows are in no way a handicap. Quiet, forgiving and pretty durable.

   

     

oh man, I wish my walls were decorated like that first picture.

Wonderful arrows and wonderful bows! Thanks for sharing.