Cedar arrow spine

[rappstar]

most places that you can buy cedar arrows from have a spine chart.  With a 50# bow and a 28# draw, it looks like most folks recommend a 50-55 spine arrow.

However, i read an article last night and they guy said to add 10-15# of spine on cedar.  So for a 50# bow, i should be buying a 60-65 spine cedar arrow...Thoughts?

[aromakr]

rappstar:
Several things need to be addressed before you settle on a spine for your setup. What you stated in the first sentence is industry standard,however is 28" draw AND 28" arrow, however the bow has to be cut (shelf) 1/8" less than center. if your shelf is different then corrections need to be made. i.e. if its center cut I add one spine range (5#) and for every 1/16" additional depth add 5#. If your bow has no shelf then spine needs to be deducted, so a 50# bow in that type would use less than 50# spine@28"
Also as arrow lenght varies from 28" the arrow will get weaker by 5# for every 1" longer than 28" and will stiffen 5# for every 1" shorter than 28"
Bob

[rappstar]

Thanks Bob,

So if i buy some fletched arrows that are considered 31" long (50-55 spine), cut them to 29.5", mount the point, and have a 29" BOP arrow, the spine would be 60-65# on that arrow?

[George D. Stout]

If you are not using a newer non-stretch type string, you can always spine close to the draw weight.   You have to add spine when you use the low/non stretch material.

I use dacron on my bows and have little problem with arrow spine, and I use the pound for pound theory..50# spine for 50# bow.  Bows cut to center will allow for greater spine as well, but those not will ususally call for lighter than the bows weight at your draw.

[Orion]

Rapstar:  Aromkr is right, as usual.  Static spine is measured at 26 inches so you don't increase the static spine by shortening your arrows.  If you cut your arrows to 29.5, you're actually reducing the dynamic spine to less than 50-55#.  

One can get to splitting hairs on exactly how much spine one needs or should have.  Most of my longbows are cut 1/8 inch to center, and I've found that cedars overspined by 10-15 pounds shoot well out of all of them.  Likewise, 10-15# overspining or more will work out of center shot or cut past center recurves.  The only time I've found spine to be real critical is with selfbows and others that are far from centershot.  On those, you need to match closer to the bow's weight at your draw, and sometimes you need to go even lower.  You might consider one of those spining kits that some suppliers offer, i.e., two to four arrows in each of three different spines.  Good luck.

[Shawn Leonard]

Let arromaker and th erest know exactly the bow you are shooting and the weight at your draw and we can get ya darn close on the spine ya need. Shawn

[Dave Coalter]

I shoot a 50# bow at 28". 50-55 work great for me.

[Shawn Leonard]

I will say for a modern high performace recurve ya should add 10-15#s depending on how high performance and than 5#s more for every inch over 28"s, is a good rule. So if it was say a Bear Grizzly add 10#s and another 5#s for a 29" arrow and ya would need a spine around 65#s, so 65-70# would be good. If ya are shooting say a Blacktail recurve at 50#s at 28"s ya would add 15#s and than 5#s for the inch over 28"s and ya would get 20#s and ya would want a woodies around 70#s. Shawn