Spine weight ???

[oneraindog]

ok so i have this loose understanding of spine weight being the relationship between the force behind the arrow at release and the amount of flex in the arrow around the bow and through flight. about right?

so, how important is it to have the spine just right?

i recently went to an archery store to buy some new arrows and new limbs for my take down. i had been shooting a 45 pound bow with arrows rated for 55/70 lbs. the new limbs are 55lbs and the guy sold me arrows rated for 65/80.

his claim was that spine weight in a recurve is not very important. i am not qualified to question that but something doesnt seem right about that.

does bow weight need to match spine weight just right?

if i shoot the 65/80 arrows from the 45lb limbs will performance be adversely affected??

thanks for reading all of this. hope it made sense.

[Don Stokes]

Spine is important, no matter what style bow you're shooting. Critical, in fact. If you don't have the right spine, you can get by with field points if you're reasonably close , but it must be exactly right to shoot broadhead arrows well. His claim is bogus as you suspected, but the arrows may shoot well, because recurve bows need considerably more spine than the draw weight number. Arrow spine was originally based on self bows, and bows with more advanced designs need more spine than self bows at the same draw weight.

[oneraindog]

so if my draw weight is 55 the 65/80 spine arrows will do ok but the 55/70 spines would be better? or the difference will be negligible?

what about shooting the 65/80s from a 45 draw weight?

the thing is that my groupings are not tight enough to be a reliable gauge of what the differences would be but my worry is that as a beginner if things are off then i will be doing more harm than good as i practice.

[Don Stokes]

oneraindog, I suggest you try them both and see what happens. There are several things that can make a difference, like the length of your arrows and the weight of the points. If your arrows fly well without any obvious kick or wobble, you aren't likely to do yourself any harm in practicing. As you get better and more confident in what you're doing, you can fine-tune. This is a great site to get the information you need, and if you can make it to a local 3D shoot you can pick up lots of good information by rubbing shoulders with more experienced archers. Most traditional archers are very willing to help someone get things right.

[oneraindog]

good deal. thanks for the help.

[robtattoo]

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