Broke another cedar arrow??? How many...

[BowHuntingFool]

hey guys. I'm built my 1st dozen POC and I broke my second arrow in a week and a half. 1st one I was bare shafting and it snapeed in the target, my fault. The other I just broke and was just looking down the shaft to make sure its straight and barely flexed it and snap!!!!!! How many arrows do you guys that shoot woodies go thru??? At one a week it sure could get expensive....  

[Badlands]

Joe
2 arrows in 2 weeks isn't bad at all.  I tend to go through a lot of them, part of the reason is because I might not be the worlds best shot, but it is mostly because I seldom pass up a shot just because there might be a chance of breaking and arrow. I know that it is tough to see arrow break after putting all of that work into building it but life is way to short to worry about arrows. I think I broke 3 or 4 shooting 3Ds this weekend.
 I order a couple dozen at a time and seem to be pertetually making arrows.  POC might not be the best choise if you are looking for a durrable wooden arrow.  If memory serves me POC didn't rate very high in Dr. Ashby's reports.  Laminated birch or hichory might be better choises.

Brad

[Bert Frelink]

We used to go stump shooting and started with a dozen arrows each, we wouldn't go home until they were all gone.
Have fun.
Regards, Bert.

[BowHuntingFool]

Brad are the laminated birch or Hickory a heavier arrow?? I'm going to see how the other 10 POC I have and take it from there. I knew going in that you go thru them but I didn't think I would go thru them as quick as I am. I like to shoot and shoot a lot so it might make sense to check out the Birch or hickory!
 

Thanks guys, I guess that makes me feel better...   :cool:  somewhat!        At least I'm having fun bustin them!

[Aeronut]

I lost two of my Poplar arrows yesterday at a local 3D shoot.  These were last seen floating down Limestone creek.  
My shooting was way off and I bounced several off the trees but didn't break any.  I even had a complete pass through on a dead limb about 2" in diameter.

Dennis

[Orion]

Laminated birch, hickory, all hardwoods are heavier than cedar, and stronger, too.  If you broke an arrow by trying to straighten it, it may have had very poor grain.  There's a lot of real junk being sold nowadays with the grain running entirely off the shaft at its midpoint, for example.   Such shafts should only be used for tomato stakes.  Check your arrows for grain straightness.  That is more likely the problem rather than the type of wood.  Although, hardwoods with bad grain don't break as easily as cedar with bad grain.

[portugeejn]

I have had good experiences with Douglas Fir shafts.  I don't spend a lot of time on my arrows making them all pretty now.  Feels better when I lose/break one.  The time I spent crowning and cresting, I use to make sure they are straight as they can be, and I still come out ahead time-wise.

Ron

[killinstuff]

Try Sitka Spruce, tough as nails

[Jim now in Kentucky]

I just fix them and keep  on shooting.  I have  five  arrows  in my shooting quiver that I've had for  maybe three years. Some  of them and some of the rest have  been repaired  one  or more times.

[BowHuntingFool]

Originally posted by Jim in Maine:
I just fix them and keep  on shooting.  I have  five  arrows  in my shooting quiver that I've had for  maybe three years. Some  of them and some of the rest have  been repaired  one  or more times.

How the heck do you fix a wood arrow thats busted in half????   :confused:    I think thats a bit much for me at this point, just trying to get the POC tuned and straight!  

[maxwell]

I shoot alot of arrows, woodies.  I think I broke only one this year. I shoot alot of Lam Birch, cedar, hickory and forgewoods the cedars are the weakest but shoot great. I think if I was breaking cedars I would look at fir, a nice compromise in weight.

Bill

[Rufus]

I may shoot for two weeks and not break or lose an arrow and then play havoc the next day. I have a good supply of arrows but man I hate to break or lose one but that's the fun of it. It's good that that one broke when you were flexing it to straighten. Good to find a weak spot then and not shortly after launch. I have two nice scars to attest to that.

[George D. Stout]

Bareshafting wooden shafts is a useless experiment in futility.  As for breaking them, it sound's like you had a bad shaft or had one of those nasty glance type hits.  Cedar is more durable than given credit but you will break a few of them.

[Rufus]

You not see those arrows that Rambow had? Just gotta be creative with the bungi cord. Either that or shorten up your draw a mite. Actually, a lot of my broken ones will work for the boys when we're out stumping. They don't need anything perfect for their bows then. Man though, they get one of those buried up, might as well be a super arrow cause we still gotta find it.

[BowHuntingFool]

I'm looking to get a good and heavy hunting arrow. I have some Carbons that I got flying great and are very accurate but want to shoot wood arrows. I enjoy making them from the bareshaft!

[SuperK]

Poplar and ramin are my two favorite arrow woods.  Poplar makes a prettier arrow and is a lot tuffer than cedar.  Ramin doesn't have as nice as grain but if ya looking something tuff; ramin is it!

[Red Beastmaster]

I shoot a ton of wooden arrows at stumps, targets, groundhogs, etc.

I actually counted how many arrows I broke or lost in 2007. Total was 142.

I'm still grinnin' from all the fun I had!  

I especially like it when you can smell the cedar as you walk up to the stump. Yeah it broke, but man that is a great aroma!

Dave

[WilliamMcC]

just think of it as motivation to be a better shot!

For some reason i am incredibly tough on arrows. I when though six gold tip carbons in two weeks. Everyone told me they were tough. Right now I have 5 of 6 cedar arrow that i got 3 weeks ago. broke the nock off the sixth yesterday.

When it comes to wooden arrows…
 
1. you have to know what your shooting at. that way to dont end up hitting a rock or something like that.
2. you have to love shooting them. If your looking for the best most accurate arrow, then you might wanna look at an alternative. However, of we all tried to get to the most advanced equipment, we would all be shooting weelie bows wouldn’t we?

[Badlands]

Joe
The hardwoods are deffinately heavier.  The last 2 dozen laminated birch I got were 525 to 550 grains.  The finished arrows are about 740 or so.
I've had pretty good luck with fir as a good affordable compromise.  They are not quite as tough as some of the hardwoods but much tougher than POC.  
I have to agree there is something to be said for the smell of a freshly borken cedar shaft!

I used to spend a lot of time finishing, crown dipping and cresting all of my arrows but it got to be to much work for the volume.  I still do pick out some of the straighter grained shafts and make a some fancy ones, but most of them are just finished and fletched.  

Brad

[Rik]

Cedar arrows will not hold up to shooting from a heavy bow. Period.

I stopped using cedar 20 years ago, and now go through W-A-Y fewer arrows per year.

Douglas fir, lodgepole pine, or any of the hardwoods make great, durable arrows-----and they penetrate better too.

If you read Dr. Ashby's reports, you will notice  his studies show that good, hardwood arrows experience far less breakage when striking heavy bone than carbon arrows.

I first noticed this on a stump shooting outing with Kelly Peterson (Arrows by Kelly) in the Stanley Basin. He wanted me to try some of his heavy carbon arrows, and in less than 15 minutes I had broken three of them. He was shocked. I went back to my strong, durable compressed lodgepole pine and didn't break a single one for the rest of the weekend.

The durablility of cedar arrows is zero. The durablility of carbon arrows is a marketing myth. If you disagree, closley read Dr. Ashby's reports, then buy some high-quality Douglas Fir or hardwood shafts. You will see the light. . .