wood or aluminum arrows?

[Kip l Hoffman]

If you want extreme accuarcy, shoot aluminum.  If you want quiet, shoot wood. If you miss with wood it does sound a bit more natural when it goes bouncing off trees and other stuff. Not admitting that I ever missed, I preferr to call them warning shots, but looking back to my younger years, I some times got a second shot with a woody miss.  Never can remember getting a second shot with aluminum.

[Lunar-Tic]

I'll put a Surewood Douglas Fir shaft at the top of the list for being straight and tough as hell.

[luvnlongbow]

If you want extreme accuarcy, shoot aluminum. If you want quiet, shoot wood.

Well said.

[David Yukon]

Like others, I like wood better... That said I hate to brake them... So aluminum is to me, more durable and more "accurate". But I have to get some SureWood chaft to try out i heard only good thing about them!! I shoot a lot of cedar, and they seem a little fragile. I have some Grizzly stick carbon arrow that I like but they are not undestructible.
I think aluminum is the cheepest and toughtest arrow to shoot... but the loudest!!

[Benny Nganabbarru]

Yep, no shaft can handle Northern Territory stump shooting like wood (especially Douglas fir). Wood takes hard impacts much better, in my experience.

[Osage61]

For me, it's wood. I was given some aluminum and they fly great etc etc. But I look at myself as a "son of Mother Nature" not a guest. So when I go looking for Her offerings, I stay as close to traditional as I can; and that includes hiding behind dead fall and in the deep grass and right down to my wool shirt, hood, sash, etc. Wood for me.

[David Mitchell]

Osage61, neat avatar picture. I see what you mean.

[Night Wing]

I've been shooting aluminum arrows out of my recurve bows for the last 46 years. I don't care for the skinny diameter of carbon arrows and when it comes to wood arrows, they aren't durable enough for me and not uniform in weight for a dozen arrows.

As for quiet, when I shoot a 637 grain 2117 aluminum arrow out of my 42# recurve with a 12 strand Dyna97 bowstring, the bow is whisper quiet upon arrow release and the bowstring doesn't have any string silencers attached to it.

[Don Stokes]

All wood isn't created equal. POC is soft and fragile, but my yellow poplar hardwood arrows are tougher than the aluminum I used to shoot.

[Stumpkiller]

I'm also wood only.  I enjoy full tapering them with a razor plane, working in the nock and point tapers, cresting and fletching them.  Can't say I enjoy dipping them (the smell is a little potent).  But the smell of working the cedar itself is right up there with fresh ground coffee.  Mmmmmmm.

I throw a lot of arrows into stumps, and I destroyed my aluminum arrows in short order and never looked back.  I also found wood to be quieter in drawing.

I have no doubt aluminum gives better performance.  But then a .30-06 gives better performance than my feeble bow, so that's obviously not the point.  ;-)  We all have our quirks and preferences.  I prefer wood.

[snag]

I've experimented with metal, carbon, and wood. Wood arrows shot out of a wooden bow is just the way it was meant to be....for me.

[JEJ]

Sounds like a lot of you will understand this. For shooting at the range or 3d targets, working on form, etc. it's aluminium. They are easy to cut, straighten, can take a beating, weigh the same, easy to tune, etc. I am a better shot (not a "good" shot, but a "better" shot!) because of hours spent with aluminium. But about a month before the first frost I switch, and when I walk out of camp after whitetails, my broadheads are on the end of some beautiful cedar arrows. Can't explain it, but that just feels right for me.  

[LimbLover]

Originally posted by NY Yankee:
There are so many people who just don't understand why a person would want to shoot wood arrows when you can just buy carbons and yada yada. Truth is most of them don't have any understanding of wood arrows. All they know is that they have heard that wood arrows warp all the time. The remainder are folks who have used wood arrows and either don't have the time or just plain aren't interested in the building and care of wood arrows and would just rather buy them done or mostly done. since you mentioned wood or aluminum, I'd say start out with aluminum, perfect your form, and then start building wood arrows for your self. Only then will you understand them and can make a clear decision for your self on which is the better product.

1+ I've got experience with all three. Wood isn't nearly as inconsistent as people say and it is WAY more durable than people give them credit for. I spent 3 days putting a blunt-tipped cedar through the kind of hell that would have busted at least 5 aluminum arrows.

Wood is also a very forgiving shaft, naturally heavy, and much cheaper once you start collecting the tools and what not for them.

I also think that there are a lot of folks who do not understand how to spine wooden arrows. I used to think I would need a 55# shaft for a 60# longbow at 30". Thank God I talked to someone first but I bet a lot of people take the leap like that and then complain about bad flight.