How did old cultures tune arrows?

[locohunter]

I have to believe that any society that relied on hunting to eat, also hunted in groups, together, helping each other to secure meat. Ambushes, sneaks, more than one arrow from numerous hunters at once, and from different sides of the animal.  No doubt their gear was treated with the same care we give today, and some were better than others at getting good flight, getting close, all the above.  As an aside,  I am a meat hunter, and want to bring game home, if it is a "trophy" well, that is icing on the cake, but not the focal point of my time in the woods or in the desert where I grew up. I would love to hunt with a group, day after day, and eat after cooking it up with the group.

[Pat B]

When I make "primitive" arrows I only check spine to find the stiff side and that side goes against the bow. The natural taper of cane and hardwood shoots, their weight forward and I cut mine long(30" for my 26" draw)all add up to a more forgiving arrow. I have made very few "primitive" arrows that don't shoot well out to hunting distances. I don't think it is me the master arrowsmith(not)that makes them all fly well. I do think it is the natural taper, weight forward and extra length that helps. Heck, the shafts don't even have to be dead straight. As long as the point and nock line up and the arrow spins true it will generally shoot well. If not it becomes a wall hanger.

[Bud B.]

Originally posted by Blueridge:
I've been doing mission work with the Maasai tribe for the last 5 years. On one trip we went to a Maasai market , where they all get  together and trade and sell. I was watching an old man, "The Weapons Maker" making bows and arrows. He was trimming and sizing arrow shafts. I picked up one of the shafts and sighted down it and straightend for him. He stopped what he was doing and watched very intently as I worked getting the shaft straight. When I got it straight I handed it to him and the sighted down the shaft. He gave me a big smile and handed me a dozen more, we both had a good laugh. He could not speak a word of English and I knew how to say "hello" in Maa, but we could speak through archery! It was a great feeling to experience that. I have a bow set;arrows, quiver and bow. It is very old , I would post pic's but not sure how to do that if someone could post I will send them.
These guys are accurate out to 40+ yards and they do use poision, they even have practice tips.

Email me. I want to see and I'll post.

Thank you for sharing.

budnstefb at aol dot com

I made a sourwood shoot arrow a few weeks ago. Nice natural taper. It was 32" to BOP. It spined at 71#. Around here I'd bet sourwood, dogwood, and cane were their choices. After a while, they could do it repetitively with close tolerances and feel it was right, I believe.

Good discussions here and good reads.

[BWD]

Originally posted by mike g:
I read one time that the English Archers at any givin time had at least one arrow that they named, and when it came time for a precise shot, they would use that arrow...

A Billy Baroo arrow.  

[Fattony77]

I believe I read (here on TG) that the fletchers of Europe/England used to make the arrows to match a particular archer/bow's needs and then paint the arrow according to the archer's family crest. Hence the term "Cresting" an arrow. Which made for easy identification in the field.

[3arrows]

Were not as smart as we think we are,a lot of common sense has been lost just in the last decade.Howard Hill made up a bunch of arrows and shot them at the target,the ones that hit the bull went hunting.

[Pat B]

Bud B. sourwood is my favorite shafting. I like it even more than hill cane. You can scrape the bark off of sourwood right when you cut it. It will rarely check. I have cut sourwood in the winter, scraped it and placed it under my wood stove for a day or two and made an arrow from it.
 Because of the natural taper that 70# spined shaft should shoot well from a 60# bow and the added 4" (32"/28")will reduce the effective spine by almost another 20#. Some of my sourwood arrows will shoot well from bows 45# to 65#.

[CRS]

Originally posted by 3arrows:
Were not as smart as we think we are,a lot of common sense has been lost just in the last decade.Howard Hill made up a bunch of arrows and shot them at the target,the ones that hit the bull went hunting.

This is the approach I would/have used when dealing with shafts of unknown origin.

Grab a bunch of shafts and shoot them.  Sort the  shafts that shoot from the ones that do not.  Tweak as needed.  You can  go as type A on them as you want.

[halfseminole]

The Asian way of making arrows is very, very old, and it seems we still ignore its lessons.  Most older cultures with bows changed from short, tall feathers to long low fletching quite a while back.  So did many First Peoples.  But we still keep using a style mooted by our forebears.  Tanged heads could be tuned over a vast range-everything from adjusting the tang length to grinding the sides to shimming it with brass, horn, or bone.  To me they represent the pinnacle of development, but they were tossed for a series of glue-on or screw in heads.  I'm trying to bring them back.  

They did so much of this so different from us.  Maybe we should examine going back to their methods.

[SCATTERSHOT]

One thing that hasn't been brought up here, is that if you look at a spine/deflection chart, you find that as a shaft gets stiffer, the amount of deflection between shafts gets less and less. Maybe they just shot stiffer spined arrows than we think they did,  and the actual spine didn't matter so much. I'm pretty sure they weren't shooting aspirin tablets, either.

[Bud B.]

Hey Pat, I gave that arrow away to a guy who gave me some wing feathers. He'll never shoot it and I never did  :(  I wanted it as a mantle piece. He was going to mount an arrowhead on it that he had found. I have more shoots though  

[Brock]

Originally posted by CRS:
 

Originally posted by 3arrows:
Were not as smart as we think we are,a lot of common sense has been lost just in the last decade.Howard Hill made up a bunch of arrows and shot them at the target,the ones that hit the bull went hunting.

This is the approach I would/have used when dealing with shafts of unknown origin.

Grab a bunch of shafts and shoot them.  Sort the  shafts that shoot from the ones that do not.  Tweak as needed.  You can  go as type A on them as you want. [/b]

yep seems every dozen or two I make...there are always those that are a little straighter, spin a little smoother, and fly a little better where I intend them to go with no differences in spine or weight....just something about how it all comes together.  I will mark them or number 1-12.....and shoot the couple in the MIDDLE of the pack for practice and carry the rest in the woods for hunting.....always pulling 1, 2, 3 for my first arrow...saving 10, 11, 12 for small game....even though the differences in impact may be minute and more attributed to changes in my form or release...but still I do it....and think others do as well.  

[Caughtandhobble]

These folks hunted for a living. I am sure that the good information was passed down from generation to generation. I guess in the beginning someone had to use trial and error, but as time went on the less thought went into making the perfect setup. The one thing that I am certain of is they did not have trad gang to help them achieve perfect arrow flight.  

[Pat B]

Do a test...go cut some shoots and build a few arrows. I'd bet before you know it you can do it. I did! When PA Magazine first came out there was an article in the first 3 issues called "arrows, 101" or something like that. Look up that article and give it a read. It sure is great to know I can do it all myself.

[RETARMY06]

This "how did the primitives" do it? is a lot like music. A classical musician with years of training and a degree in music theory should theoretically be able to play circles around a barely literate blues musician. It's three chords at most - how hard can it be? Yet few musicians can get this authentic sound/feel. It's because it's something you have to do everyday for your whole life without really thinking about it. It has to be part of your body/heart/soul to work.

[atatarpm]

In the book Comanche Summer the Comanche practiced until the could hit a target the size of a red rubber ball at 90 yards. They may not have called it spine nor anything else we call tuning but I believe to do that they must have known a lot that is lost to us today.
It is also said that Chief Winnebago could put 11 arrows in the air at the same time.
I agree with Threearrows we have lost many somethings over the years past.