Is tapering shafts worth it?

[Matabele]

Hi all,

Just finished tapering a couple of shafts last night, using the drill and sandpaper jig that came from TradGang, worked really well!

But the difference in taper is hardly noticeable, its a Laminated Birch shaft that went from 11/32" to 5/16"....does that small reduction really make a difference in flight or fletch clearance? Any thoughts?

Thanks!

[John Scifres]

I definitely see better performance from my non-centershot selfbows when I taper shafts.  

For a centershot recurve, it doesn't seem to matter at all.  It does improve arrow balance by moving the center of mass forward but that is more easily accomplished by using a heavier head.

[Matabele]

Thanks John!

[Bjorn]

I use them; they seem to shoot better-and that's what counts. I have done them by hand; but generally send them to Ted at Raptor-he does them way better-and even taper both ends if you ask.

[varmint]

I would much rather shoot a tapered shaft than a parallel shaft.They sem to fly better to me wether bow is cut to center shot or not.

[JRY309]

On wooden shaft I prefered tapered shafts.They always seemed to fly better and recover from the paradox better and give alittle better FOC.But I would shoot parallel with flu-flu's.

[Orion]

What John said.  However, you can get parallels to shoot well out of non-centershot bows.  Folks have been shooting parallel wood shafts for ages.  Keep in mind, too, that all aluminum and most carbons are also parallel.  In short, parallel works.  I shoot both.  Tapered do seem to recover just a tad quicker, and I like the fact that they move the FOC forward, but I don't like losing the 20-30 grains of weight that tapering takes.

[macbow]

I don't think the flight of the arrow improved for me. I've always had somwe trouble with finger pinch (split finger release) so tapering to 5/16 let's me use a smaller nock and thus less finger pinch.
Ron

[Kingstaken]

Anyone can get any arrow to fly from any bow. That being said, I prefer tapered shafts over parallel.
Whether it's in my mind as a few say or not, they just fly that much better to me to make a difference.
Four fletch parabolic really shoot great.

[Fletcher]

If you look at most old target and flight arrows, you will notice that most all of them are tapered, with many of them barrel tapered and footed.  All this work was done by hand and if they were willing to put this much effort into an arrow, there must have been some benefit from it.  I've been tapering the fletch end of my shafts for several years now and believe it does make a difference.  It helps with FOC and the lighter tail end seems to help the arrow recover from paradox quicker, both points made earlier.  It seems to me that the taper is similar to tiller on a bow and perhaps helps the arrow to bend more evenly.

One of my next arrow projects will be to full length taper some shafts and try them.  I will probably have to refigure my spine needs and such, but I'm very optimistic about the potential results.