Arrow "lub".

[Charlie Lamb]

I'm not really sure how to start this or for that matter what I want to say so I'll just get the keys moving and see what comes out.

I started this archery journey a looong time ago. As a boy in my teens I made my first set of arrows. They came in a "kit" from a place called the Kittredge Bowhut. There were 13  Port Orford shafts, 13 blue speed nocks, 26 gray barred feathers, 13 solid blue feathers, and 13 125 gr. field points. There was also a Fleetwood 3 feather fletcher (straight), a Fleetwood feather burner and a little pencil sharpener type taper tool. The "Fireside Special".

I loved those arrows and shot the snot out of them. They even sprouted Bear Razorheads for my very first deer hunt ever.

A couple of years went by and I joined the local archery club. My arrows improved with the bow I acquired to shoot the field rounds that were so popular at the time. They were 1816 Easton 24SRTX shafts and a beautiful silver as anodizing hadn't entered the arrow shaft manufacturing business yet.

They were the dickens to prep for fletching. Basically you had to scrub them with paper towels and Comet cleanser until the towel quit turning black. Then you had to rinse, dry and get them in the fletcher as quick as possible or they'd oxidize. Oxidizing prevented a good glue bond between feather and shaft and the feather would fall off after a few shots.

I remember one cool October morning while sitting in an abandoned tree stand I had found. As the light came up I could see little spots of white along the trail I'd followed walking in. While wondering what they were I looked down at the arrows in my bowquiver. To my horror I could see that easily half of the feathers on my arrows were gone. Mystery solved!

I climbed down and hurriedly collected the feathers and while continuing my vigil tied the feathers onto my arrows using thread I'd stripped from old hunting jacket. Yeah, I even had skills back then.

[wislnwings]

I had a similar experience in my inexperienced youth with aluminum arrows and fletching falling off.  I had no idea the shafts needed to be cleaned.  Out of the package straight to fletching jig and off to the stand.  After the sun came up I looked down and realized I only had 1 arrow that still held 3 vanes.  The rest had some or all missing.

[Charlie Lamb]

Anyway, years went by and I came to be the owner of a monster of a little bow. 69#@ 28" and way heavier than that at my 19 year old draw length of 30+ inches. Wood arrows were hard for me to find in that spine in those days and I knew I needed something more accurate for hunting.

#12 Microflite fiberglass shafts filled the bill for a while but still weren't quite what I wanted. That's when I rediscovered the Easton Aluminum. I was steered toward the 2219 size for my heavy bow. They were perfect. For the next 35 years they would be my goto big game arrows... with occasional forays into wooden shafts as I became aware of the availability of good quality high spine shafts.

For 35 years those aluminum arrows evolved with the advent of anodizing. Soft anodize economy shafts (gamegetter) and harder anodize XX75. On to different colors and patterns and all shafts were hard anodized. Shaft prep became a snap. Wipe them down with acetone and fletch.

 But the main feature that you could always count on was that a 2219 was a 2219 to the Nth degree. That consistency breeds accuracy.

Now the years went by and I was forced to lower draw weight and the 2219 was just too stiff. No problem. The 2216 fit the bill nicely and I shot those for years with the same dependable results. Yes, I dabbled in carbon shafts for a while and I liked them, but I kept coming back to the Easton shafts.

I didn't really become any kind of expert in aluminum shafts. Hell, I only used two sizes all those years. Enter the fall I took from a tree stand several years ago.

[Charlie Lamb]

The injury I sustained to my lower back really played hell with my shooting. Mainly my bow pulling strength, so I dropped bow weight again. Knowing that the 2216's would be too stiff for the now 49-50# that I could handle I looked at the 2018 size. I had a bunch of the from a buddy who had passed years ago. I fletched some up and they flew perfectly. I had my new arrow size and they were perfect weight wise.

Now here's where the light went on for me concerning my lack of knowledge of aluminum shaft dynamics.

I had a surgery that gave me a lot of relief from my lower back pain and with that my bow pulling strength started to return. I hadn't been real happy with the lighter weight bow. Nothing wrong with it per se it just wasn't what I'd become use to over the years.
I got out one of my old heavier recurves and started working.

At first I shot the 2216's that I still had laying around, but one day I felt like experimenting and put one of the 2018's on the bow. Wow!! I hadn't expected it to fly as well as it did. It was exactly the same weight as the 2216. Even my mongo Magnus I w/bleeder flies flawlessly. Oh yeah! I'm doing this.

   

[RGKulas]

I use silicone spray on a rag to lube carbon and alum shafts and a bar of soap that I rub on wood shafts to get them to slide out of targets easier.

[Charlie Lamb]

RGKulas... great tip. I was trying to be cute in the subject box of this thread.  "lub" as in love,with a Little Rascals Buckwheat twist. Sometimes a cute idea, ain't that cute. LOL

[RGKulas]

The fault is mine. I saw "arrow Lube" I didnt read it well.

[smokin joe]

I "lub me some arras" too Charlie. Any kind as long as they shoot well.

[Charlie Lamb]

I edited my  post above where I said the 2216 was heavier than the 2018. It's not. They are dead even at 586 gr. on my scale. The 2018's even seem to shoot straighter than the 2216. Live and learn. The 2018 seems to be a very versatile shaft.

[tippit]

Charlie,
Keep it up. I love to listen to your stories. Kinda reminds me of us being in Whip's Tipi

[M60gunner]

My first attempt at making arrows, 1971, was the Doug Kittridge kit. All blue shafts, yellow nocks, greybar feathers. Still have one arrow. I still use the little pamphlet that came with the kit when I forget about nock alignment.
 So far your path sounds much like mine except I never had those bare aluminum shafts.

[Cyclic-Rivers]

 

[Ron LaClair]

My arrow story happened in the later 60's. I had my new Super Kodiak with a 8 arrow Bear quiver slung on my back. I was riding my Honda Trail 90 to my stand. At one point I had to ride just inside the first row of a corn field. When I got to my stand and took my bow off my back I only had one arrow left in the quiver. I later found the other 7 strung along the edge of the corn field.

To make matters worse that evening a nice little buck gave me a shot at about 25yds and I shot right over his back. He jumped a little, looked around like...."what was that". I just sat there with my bow and no arrows. ….We learn by our mistakes. 

[Scott F]

If I ever get bored of reading Mr Lamb's stories or Mr LaClair's stories I am going to take the longest walk of my life, right down the middle of the closest railroad track...

[arrow30]

 

[R.V.T.B.]

I built my first ones in about 1970.  My dad ordered a bundle of 100 shafts, several dozen feathers, points and nocks from Herters.  The only store we bought any archery equipment from the whole time I was growing up. I remember painting and tapering those shafts with a pencil sharpener tool.  He had borrowed a six arrow fletcher from a co-worker along with a feather burner.  They really came out looking good and about 7 or 8 of the 100 arrows I made even flew half way decent.  See...  at that time I knew nothing about nock alignment with wood grain!

My brother and I shot them anyway and in about two summers went through that entire supply of arrows.  The farm was absolutely over run with ground hogs back then and we spent most of our free time lobbing wood at them. We actually got to know individual arrows....  the one with half the cock feather missing shoots a foot high and six inches left.

[Charlie Lamb]

Doc... I've still got gear with south Texas dirt in it from riding out the storm in Whip's tent. 

[Charlie Lamb]

R.V.T.B.... I did some business with Herter's as well. I tried their fiberglass (farbenglass) shafts and their aluminum ones as well. Didn't care for the Farbenglass at all. I'll still got some stashed away.

[Mighty Big Country]

Charlie, you put a smile on face.  You have a unique story telling talent.  We need to share a fire sometime.

[76Aggie]

Building arrows was one of the few things I did somewhat correctly from the start.  I started after some of my friends had already started and learned from their mistakes.  One of my best buddies gifted me with about a half dozen gamegetters.  He was proud of his new found talent and I was even more proud to receive the gift. The fletching promptly fell off after a shot or two.  He had no idea you had to prep the shafts prior to fletching and neither did I.  This was one of the few times I had the good fortune to learn from anothers mistakes.  Since that time, I have made virtually every mistake an archer could possibly make.