I want to shoot wood arrows!

[Luke Perring]

I have been wanting to get into Traditional Archery for years and am finally diving in. I bought a Spirit Longbow by Bryan Holley, 62" 49@28". It should be here Thursday. I am 30" draw. I really want to shoot wood arrows despite hearing the negative aspects, I figure if I'm going to go traditional then I should go full board with wood arrows, just feels right. What are the best shafts to buy? What spine do I need? Things I should know about wood arrows? Etc. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[legends1]

I sent you a private message,

[Terry Lightle]

Have fun and enjoy them wood arrows and new bow!

[BigJim]

Then shoot wood. You need no ones approval but yours. with what little info, I would venture a guess of about 65-70 spine depending on point weight.
A full length arrow will give you about 31" after tapering and won't leave much or any room to adjust. You can however adjust point weight to suit your bow/arrow set up.
My money is on POCedar. but you will find many different opinions. We stock them because of their popularity.
bigJim

[kevsuperg]

Three rivers archery has an easy to read arrow spine chart.  Carbon aluminum and wood.  After finding your arrow you can buy them right there .
 I like port orford cedars.( POC's ) The look the smell the feel.  
 Wood arrows and a longbow connects me to days past when life seemed simple.

[Fletcher]

POC is a great arrow wood however I prefer Douglas Fir.  IMO, fir is the best shooting of the arrow woods and is also tougher and gives a better arrow weight than POC.  Surewood Shafts puts out some very nice DF shafting.

As for spine, shelf depth of cut and point weight will affect your spind needs, but Big Jim's 65-70 is a good starting point.  A set of good test arrows would be a very valuable investment, just get them marked with actual spines, not just the usual 6 lb ranges.  With the range grouped shafts, you never really know what spine you are shooting.

Don't let the wood arrow nay sayers mess with you.  Very good wood arrows aren't that hard to make or buy and they have served us well for thousands of years.

[Hermon]

Hi Luke- Glad you are taking the dive into traditional archery.  I take it you are coming from a compound background.  Did you have a 30" draw with a compound, or have you measured your draw with a traditional bow.  Most folks have a shorter draw length with trad bows.  

As far as wood arrows, I like both POC and douglas fir.

[Brianlocal3]

Where in IL are you Luke? I'm from down around STL on the IL SIDE. I could help you out in person

[Surewood Steve]

Luke as someone has all ready mentioned you may not draw 30" with a longbow if that is your compound draw length.  But if 30" is you draw you are getting about 55# out of your bow.  If the bow is not center shot and you don't need more than a 125 grain head I would say that a wood arrow of 60-65 spine is what you may need.  If you want go to our web page and get my phone number and give me a call and I can walk you through the process.  Steve

[Luke Perring]

I have been shooting a 30" draw on a compound bow, but if I do the wingspan divided by 2.5 method I should be a 31.5" draw. I will probably just buy full length arrows. I am not sure about the center shot, it's a deflex reflex long bow I believe, I will be shooting 135 gr. zwickeys.

[lbshooter]

If you want to shoot wood arrows that's great and you should take the negative comments about them with a grain of salt.  Properly chosen/constructed wood arrows can give up little or nothing to the synthetics, and even offer advantages. They are fundamental to the romance of traditional archery.IMO

[Wandering Archer]

Man, I could swear I posted a comment on this thread, and someone even referenced my comment. But both disappeared?

Anyways, I like to pick my point weight, 190-200gr. personally. Then get a test pack of shafts and find out which shaft tunes best to my points.

I'm currently shooting 225gr. heads with tapered spruce, but I think I'll go back to 200gr. on cedar shafts for my next batch.

I don't know what the negative aspects are, as I've only ever shot wood arrows, but it seems to me that wood breaks less often then aluminum bends when you miss a target. And, as tough as carbons are, a lost arrow is a lost arrow... The only desire I have to ever go to carbons would be to make some super high FOC arrows.

[BigJim]

We don't post an arrow chart on our website because they are very misleading and don't ask enough questions of the buyer. Unless you know what you are looking at, arrow charts will only cost you a bunch of money.

thanks, bigjim