stumping fail

[Mike Vines]

Double post

[Mark Colangelo]

Mike I am using surewood shafts. Not footed though...perhaps Ill google that later because I do not know how to do it. Is it difficult?

[frank bullitt]

Have stumped with all kinds of shaft materials over the past 30 plus years. Nothing compares with river cane or bamboo!

Love em!

[Red Beastmaster]

Good old regular steel blunts are best for shooting actual stumps. A .38 casing on wood is a close second.

[Kopper1013]

Foot your arrows, that has saved many of my arrows I believe but the wrong target will destroy them no matter what sometimes. I've mistaken rocks for stumps a couple times and there's no saving those also have picked some stumps that might has well of been rocks they were so hard, it's a guessing game unless you check your target first and there will be casualties just part of the game.

[Kopper1013]

Oh and I like the rubber bunny busters also they absorbe some of the shock. I shoot 200grns points bunny busters only come in 120grns so I take 100grn field points and grind them down to 80grns and stuff the bunny Busters over the top of everything.

[Longtoke]

Originally posted by Mike Vines:
 

Originally posted by Recurve Addict:
so no one sees a markedly better arrow survival rate from one blunt to the next? is that the consensus? Just have to be careful to choose soft targets?

If you shoot wood arrows, try a set of Douglas fir shafts from Surewood.  They have been the best for me.  I usually end up losing them long before they break, and I typically put mine thru the destruction test as often as possible.

The picture I posted on the first page, shows douglas fir that has been footed.  It's only my opinion, but I do not believe Fir needs to be footed.  I do it to gain FOC, and well, it looks cool.  

As for durability, I've busted (tore actually) a FMJ shaft with a 300 grain small game blunt on the front. That was a wrist sized piece of Ironwood that cased that when the head hit the side of it and held on while the 685 grain shaft's momentum continued to follow thru.  In contrast, I've taken a full length Surewood Douglas fir shaft (630 grain total weight) and shot it from 20 feet into a live oak tree, recovered my arrow, and continued on the stumping session with the same arrow.  Both shafts were shot from the same 55# longbow, just a year apart.

 Nothing is immune to failure, if you are willing to push the limits to find out what those limits are. [/b]

I've had that same thing happen before with a footed carbon arrow. On the other hand when I have had a similar shot like that with a POC woodie the arrow split in two up by the fletching. Has anyone else experienced that?

Never tried doug fir, I hope to soon.

You guys with all of those stumps are lucky.  Yes, we got no stumps.  If we do have a stump, it is a bur oak stump.  Ya dosnt has to shoot da stumps when ya  go stumping, does ya?    I shot a basswood stump once about 10 years ago.   A couple of years ago, i could still see my broken aluminum arrow in it and I still couldn't pull it out.  I was not shooting at it, I shot over a deer.  It has a Hunter's Head on it that I want back, it is in pretty deep.

[EWill]

Good old steel blunts or judos is all I use and I break very few. I just splice the ones I do break and take them out again the next time.

[McDave]

I carry two arrows for stumping: a judo for shots where the arrow might get lost in the grass, and a plastic/rubber blunt for shots where the target might turn out to be hard on the arrow.  The plastic/rubber blunts last a lot longer than judos or metal blunts when shot into a hard target.

[Sam McMichael]

"Don't fall in love with your arrows, because you ain't gonna have them that long." -  quote from Dan Quillian to me.

Dan was right. If you shoot enough, you are going to lose and break a lot of them.

[dnovo]

I'm like Mike above. Arrows are meant to be shot and some are lost or broken. That's the perfect reason to get to make some more. I mainly shoot cedar but do have some douglas fir and ash that I have ace hex heads on and I have to try pretty hard to break one. Cedar holds up better than most people seem to give credit for.

[Orion]

Agreed that Doug fir is quite tough and makes a good stumping arrow.  Hardwoods like ash, hickory, maple are tougher still, but are usually a little physically heavier than I like to shoot. I don't stump with bamboo often, but can't remember ever breaking one.  It just may be the toughest stumper.

In fact, I do most of my stumping with old POCs. I take DQ's advice.  I don't fall in love with them because I usually don't have them that long.  I do use a lot of reparrow footings to give shafts broken off behind the point new life.

I don't use carbons for stumping, even footed carbons.  Footed carbons, particularly if the inserts and footings are epoxied, are real tough, but it just hurts/costs so much when I break or lose one.  

[Mark Colangelo]

im using surewood premiums and still broke 3 out of 6...2 of them on stumps that i felt really should not have been so rough on the arrow...one was a hardwood that would have broke my foot if i kicked it so that one was excusable...i really thing the heads i were using were just transferring too much energy...im gonna give the judos a try...id be very sad if I had to limit my stumping

[Soonerlongbow]

Originally posted by Recurve Addict:
Mike I am using surewood shafts. Not footed though...perhaps Ill google that later because I do not know how to do it. Is it difficult?

I've gone through several of Mike's tutorials on just arrow making and fetching. He makes it look so easy. I guess it's something they taught at the McClellen MP School House because they sure didn't at Leonard Wood!

[maineac]

I will be going back to Judos for stumping.  Went to "Hammers" and love the grab they give in leaves, but they are HARD on arrows. My last solid hit split the aluminum footing and mushroomed the carbon express Heritage arrow a good two inches back. The judos would often get stuck in stumps, but were not as hard on the arrows.

[last arrow]

I have not broken an arrow stumping since I started using FMJ's 2 years ago.  I usually stump for a couple of hours any time I go to my camp in northern Michigan - couple times a month in the off season and nearly weekly during season.  Of coarse, I avoid shooting known hard targets but regularly shoot oak logs and stumps with no problem, mostly with Judos.

I think a hidden cause of of broken arrows is poor arrow flight as I believe it puts more stress on the arrow if the target is not hit squarely.

[Mark Colangelo]

update: went to the same area and shot the same stumps but with judos...didnt break a single shaft. Huge difference!Just ordered more lol

[Roadkill]

I hate paying for Judos and hex heads so... When I glue on a point I put a 12 inch  piece of dental floss in with the glue. The I twist it up the shaft towards the fletching, tie it off with a dab of glue.  Affects not the flight, but saves$. By the way, I live in Nevada and we have rocks- they hide under every everything you might mistake as a legit stumping target. It feels good to pick up the broken shaft and dangling at the end of that floss- that expensive stumper.

[FlintNSteel]

Originally posted by Recurve Addict:
so no one sees a markedly better arrow survival rate from one blunt to the next? is that the consensus? Just have to be careful to choose soft targets?

If I have doubts, I pull out my HTM rubber blunt tipped arrows (the Bunny Busters from 3R are the same thing.) I slip them right over a wood shaft, or if I want more weight, over a steel blunt.  You can still destruct an arrow, but these help as much as I have found in any field-shooting tip.  I carry hex-type blunts and judos as well and use whichever seems appropriate for the shot at hand.