Bamboo Backed Ipe R/D Longbow [with Video]

[breazyears]

Lets see some "glamour" pics  

[fujimo]

bow looks aesome- and not trying to be a smarty pants- but such a beautiful wooden bow- why not shoot woodies(oh- oh- you hear that faint popping sounds, as i open the proverbial can   :D   )

[Roy from Pa]

X's 2.....

[Zradix]

I like fujimo's thinking...
....but ya could go all the way and do bamboo arrows with the same stain...really looks good together...  

lol
Would like to see some show off pics...you deserve the attention..lol

[bowhunter15]

I actually did really want to do the wood look on the arrows. I think it looks and matches much better. But I also wanted to try that UEFOC idea from the Ashby reports, and I couldn't get that with either wood or "traditional looking carbons". Too high of GPI. Heck, I only bought 6 arrow shafts. I could probably buy 6 Gold Tip traditional and make some normal EFOC arrows too to see if I like them better. They would put me at about a 748 grain arrow with 24% FOC as opposed to the 640 grain 29% FOC with the Victory's. I know that realistically I'm probably splitting hairs. Either one will shoot fine and give me more than enough penetration out of this bow.

I'm scared to take on actual arrow making this soon. Gotta eliminate variables and become comfortable with trad before trying to guess whether my poor shooting is from inconsistent arrows or inconsistent form lol.

[fujimo]

get a full tapered sitka spruce shaft- with some heavier points- that will be more akin to what yer thinking- but Zradix has a good point with the grass arrows.
the wood/grass will be way quieter- and kinder on the soul     :D     warmer on the fingies in winter too!

[Zradix]

The tapered spruce shafts ( Hildebrand are great ) will actually give you better foc than boo IF YOU KEEP THE SAME OVERALL ARROW WEIGHT.

Boo weighs more than spruce believe it or not..at least the 50 or so shafts I made did..

You get a light weight spruce shaft ( you can ask for a light weight range from Hildebrand) and put a 190 or 250 grain VPA 3 blade on there and you'll have a pretty high foc.

...carbon and Al arrows are nice too..   :rolleyes: ...lol

[bowhunter15]

I looked at the spine for the Hildebrand spruce shafts and the heaviest they came in was at 40-45#. I'm thinking this bow will shoot a .340 static spine, which is between the 5575 and 7595 spines, so maybe like a 70-75# spine arrow in trad terms.

[TradBowyer]

what is the final weight of bow? I looked through your posts and saw you said close to 70. If the bow is not true center than your arrow spine is going to be weaker than the poundage. When I build a wood bow I start at 5-10# lighter than my bow weight and i'm  usually close. Some I have to go 10-15# lighter. but this will change depending on how center shot the bow is but I would start 5-10# lighter to start. If you are looking for heavy arrows, give Allegheny mountain arrow woods a call...they sell Ash or hickory shafts in heavy spines and you will get the weight. I built a set of 75-80# hickorys from them and they ended up 900 grains..

[Zradix]

Hildebrand has 70-75 tapered premium shafts for $47/doz

  http://www.hildebrandarrowshafts.com/products.htm  

click on "sitka spruce premium shafts"

scroll to the bottom of the page.

you want the tapered shafts right under the last/bottom picture.
you need to look at the 11/32nd tapered to 5/16ths.

...not so sure you need 70-75 spine...but they do sell em.

If you have any real want to start using wood most of the time, do yourself a favor and get a spine test kit..ie..1 or 2 arrows of a few different spines. That way you can shoot the arrows out of your next bows and see what spine works the best...then buy a dozen of what you want.

[Roy from Pa]

Just shoot woodies. Heck ya just made a wooden bow, why shoot that high tech stuff? Ya need to get your head and butt aligned..  

[bowhunter15]

These are the numbers I had plugged in to get the static spine required for the carbons. The side plate on the bear weather rest is roughly .700" from center, so I chose 3/4" on the sideplate measurement. I probably will want to switch to wood at some point, but I think the time is after I get past the learning curve with the new bow and know I can shoot consistently enough to tackle working with wood, which must be a process all its own. Starting out with carbons, at least I know the arrows are consistent and it's my form that causes errant shots. Also I guessed on the 67 pounds. It was 69-70, and I did a fair amount of sanding to prep for the Tru-Oil finish, which looks nice by the way.      I'm headed to the archery shop today to get the draw weight retested and order 6 "traditional" carbons, which I don't think they'll stock. Glamor pics will come after the flemish twist string and otter fur silencers come!  

 

[Zradix]

Good luck!

In all honesty, Deep down I think you are correct in starting with carbons. At least you know they're straight and consistent. After you get them tuned and shooting straight, you'll be able to see what happens when your form changes.

Woods are a little more work with the periodic checking of straightness, slight to more than slight differences in weight and such......but they are way cooler..lol

...but hey...I took a deer this last season with carbon....come to think of it, every deer I've shot either by trad or wheelie bows was with carbon..except for the 1st years ago, that was alum.

Just have fun with it!

[bowhunter15]

Here's a clip of me shooting it at 69#. The sanding apparently didn't do anything to reduce the draw weight. I ran the numbers again and discovered I can use the same 340 spine arrows at ~58# if I leave the arrows at full length. So after I get the glamor shots done I probably will drop the draw weight before tuning the arrows.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtT_QTmIOA4&feature=youtu.be

[Pheonixarcher]

This has been a fun thread to follow. Great job! And thanks for taking the time to post all the progress pics.

[LittleBen]

Looking good!

Throw some string silencers on there to quiet it down a bit.

What weight is the arrow you're shooting I. The video?

[bowhunter15]

I have a 16 strand flemish twist string and otter fur silencers on the way. That arrow is a 2117 aluminum full length with 4x4" feathers and a 300 grain field point. So about 710 approximately. I didn't actually weigh it. I'm thinking the carbons I'm building up should weigh about 695 grains and 28% FOC.

I took a bit more wood off the belly last night. I'm estimating it's around 64 or 65 pounds now. I'll get it measured to check and then try to get it down closer to 60.

[Kevinnator11]

I have made a lot of arrows and I have to say I was shocked at how well the bamboo arrows shot.  And the durability.  No worrying about spine with those and super cheap to throw together.  Just go get a bag of bamboo garden stakes for like $8 and get 10+ arrows out of it.

I've bounced them off of rocks and they held up.

[bowhunter15]

Originally posted by Kevinnator11:
I have made a lot of arrows and I have to say I was shocked at how well the bamboo arrows shot.  And the durability.  No worrying about spine with those and super cheap to throw together.  Just go get a bag of bamboo garden stakes for like $8 and get 10+ arrows out of it.

I've bounced them off of rocks and they held up.

I do remember reading in the Ashby report that the wood shafts had better integrity (fewer broken arrows) than either carbon or aluminum during their testing.

I put the otter fur silencers at about 1/4 down the from the tips on the flemish twist string. It's nice!      I was shocked when I plucked the string to hear how much those silencers worked. They aren't even that big. And they look cool.

[fujimo]

pitchurs!!!  :D