Wood arrows- Taper or straight

[flyflinger]

I am trying out wood arrows. It just seems to me to be the next step in my traditional journey. My question for the folks who regularly shoot woodies is- do you prefer a straight or taper shaft?
 Also what shaft material do you prefer? I have always heard about the Port Orford Cedar. But what about hardwoods or Douglas Fir?
As always I appreciate y'alls input!

[Terry Lightle]

I am a fan of tapered shafts,Surewood Douglas Fir is the shaft of my choice.
Terry

[Pine]

PO cedar is over rated , Doug Fur will out perform it and it's much less expensive .
As far as tapered , they are great but I have no problem with parallel .

[meathead]

I am a big fan of Surewood's Doug fir shafts.  The tapered and parallel are both fine shafts.  Hard to go wrong with either.

[Jim Wright]

I have shot a few dozen tapered shafts and could never find any advantage over parallel shafts. In my experience, as hard as it is to find really good cedar anymore, it's even harder to find any bad douglas fir from surewood shafts.

[Mo_coon-catcher]

I havnt used many different kinds of wood yet, (hickory, fir, bamboo, and cherry) but I like how cherry acts. 3/8 tapered to 5/16 knock. With a 160gr head it gives me ~600gr arrow. They fly very well, and seem pretty tough. With some bad runout at the tips I still havnt had any break after wedging them in trees and bouncing them off rocks.

Kyle

[Orion]

Been shooting wood for more than 50 years.  I shoot mostly tapered now, but a good parallel shaft will shoot just as well.  Tapering the shaft adds a percentage point or two to the FOC.

I like POC.  I've been collecting it over the years so the stuff I have is premium.  Still some good cedar around. Just have to look for it.  Hand select when you can.

Cedar generally runs a bit lighter than Douglas Fir, which is also an excellent arrow wood, and Surewood shafts makes as good a wood shaft as one can find.

[slowbowjoe]

I shoot Doug Fir's almost exclusively. Prefer them for their grain quality, and being tougher than spruce or cedar ( I break a good few stump shooting).

Once in a while, I try some sitka spruce, to keep the arrow weight down to 10 gpp, but prefer the arrow flight and strength of the fir.

Cedar has some good qualities, but again, doesn't seem to hold up as well when banged around.

Tried a set or two of tapered shafts; can't say I noticed a difference in how they shot. They reduced shaft weight around 25 grains or so on the firs I had tapered, which got me to the shaft weight I was looking for.

[flyflinger]

Thanks for the feedback everybody. I have been looking at Surewood shafts. Probably gonna get a test kit from there to see what my bows like best.
Have also been checking out Forrester shafts. Anyone have any experience with them?

[Shadowhnter]

I like both tapered and parallels, but I shoot tapered more often for the foc benefits.

Ive had no issues with POC, from Wapiti. Those shafts are not far behind Douglas fir in toughness. Ive beat them to death stumping before they finally break. Douglas Fir is a good shaft too, and I also shoot and enjoy them.

[M60gunner]

I have used both tapered and parallel as well over the years. I am not that good to see a difference. As for wood choice Fir is great as said above. Cedar, good cedar is hard to find especially when one company produces the bulk of it.
My only complaint about Fir. I have some shafts I bought some years back. They have dried out and some have splintered just hitting the target. I tried Maple, ash, and Ramin as well. I liked the Maple because I could get heavy weight and spine in a 5/16 shaft. But it was hard to straighten and keep that way.

[Jim Wright]

Rob, I made some arrows from Kevin Forrester's mahogany shafts, very pretty grain, no need for stain and because of the spiral fiber, no need for nock orientation. If you use a "pencil sharpener" type taper tool they trim smoothly like cedar. I find them similar to Douglas Fir in quality and toughness, they are good shafts.

[Mo_coon-catcher]

Something I came across but havnt tried yet to keep hardwood arrows strait, lightning grooves. Little grooves you carve into the arrow from infront of the fletchings to behind the head. When you heat straighten the shaft it lightly scorches the edges of the groove, hardening it and helping to hold the arrow straight. If you want to try hardwood.

Kyle

[Red Beastmaster]

If there is a benefit to tapered I've never seen it, certainly not enough to justify the extra cost.

[Biathlonman]

I like tapered as I much prefer a 5/16" nock.  I also figure that means someone more knowledgeable then I had put there hands on it and made sure it was straight before tapering.  I have nothing but good things to say about Surewood.

[Roy from Pa]

I always have shot parallel woodies. Another great arrow is river cane or bamboo arrows.

[maxwell]

I have shoot both tapered and  parallel for a very long time, just bought 3 doz parallel from Sure wood
cheaper and I just can't see the difference.

[SuperK]

I too like the parallel.  Like others have said, cheaper and couldn't tell any difference.  One other thing I like about parallel, I get to choose which end for the nock or broadhead taper.  I use the straightest end for the nock.  Hard to compression straighten an end when you have feathers on it.

[LittleBen]

Parallel. I can't notice any difference in flight personally. Besides if flight is your prime concern shoot carbon.

Tapered looks cool and costs more, but I don't think is better by any meaningful degree.

I also suspect that good parallel shafts are straighter on average than tapered shafts. I can't help wonder how accurately the tapering process can be performed. I know I have tapered a number myself and they were definately not straighter after I was done. Then again I'm not a professional arrow builder

[Stumpkiller]

Lately I have been using 11/32" Douglas Fir tapered the last 12" down to 5/16".  I use a Dean Torges Bowyer's Edge to taper the shafts myself.  

All I shoot is wood since 1982 or so.  P.O. Cedar is good but fragile.  Ramin I briefly tried wasn't so hot and no more durable.    

The Fir is a bit heavier but with a 125 to 130 gr head seems to be the best for me.