Wood arrows

[JAH518]

Looking for help, suggestions, recommendations, and need to knows regarding wood arrows and tuning of them.


I've almost always shot carbon and aluminum arrows but wanting to set up a longbow for wood. It will mainly be a 3D and back yard set up, not planning on hunting with it.

- What do I need to know about tuning that's differant than carbon?
- What is the recomended brand or wood type?
- Is there anything else I should consider when buying wood arrows?


I'm hoping to shorten my learning curve with wood arrows as much as possible with this post.

[John Cholin]

Friend,

I don't shoot anything but woodies, including hunting.  I wouldn't have it any other way, but that's me.

You can get a jump start by using the chart that 3Rivers Archery has in their catalog to get you to the right spine.  It has always worked well for me.  You need to know your bow draw weight, you desired arrow length and the weight of the point and find your spine on the chart.  I buy arrows rather than build and 3Rivers does well by me as well as AllWoodArrows.com.

Stick a big one!

JMC

[MnFn]

Others will have a lot more experience than I, but I like Surewood’s Douglas Fir and Sitka Spruce.  But my experience is limited to hunting, I don’t shoot in any competition or 3D. I shoot a lot into target butts,  and some stump shooting,

My bows ranged from 48# to 55#. I have one set of 65/70 with three 5” feathers and have three lighter sets with four 4” feathers. I usually use 160 grn heads on them. On my first set I asked the arrow maker for his suggestions and then went from there.  I have enough sets now that I usually tune by watching arrow flight.

If I were looking for a new arrow maker I’d probably call Paul Jalon.  He built a great a great set of Sitka Spruce arrows for my first longbow.  I have a few carbon arrows also, but love shooting wood arrows.

[JonCagle]

I would say in my experience, wooden arrow spine is a lot more sensitive to point weight when compared to carbon. Adding 100 grains to the point end of a carbon does little to effect the spine and flight of my arrow but even a 50 grain increase on a wooden arrow will drastically change my point of impact. I do not have a ton of experience with wood so someone more seasoned than me might say different though.

[Wudstix]

As mentioned above point weight with woodies is a bit more delicate.  20-30 grains makes a big difference in required spine.  I normally shoot 160-190 grain heads and use @15 lbs spine over bow weight, with 28-29" arrows and 27.5" draw.  Planning to try 200-250 grain heads and will probably need 20-25# more spine.

[dnovo]

I don’t know anything about carbons but I’ve been shooting and hunting with wood arrows for along time. I don’t find that my woods are real sensitive to point weight. I change from 145 to 190 points all the time.
If you are just interested in target shooting then you don’t need heavy arrows.
POC shafts or spruce. I’ve heard spruce is hard to find. Surewood fir shafts are excellent and they can get you shafts in the weight range you like

[Deno]

X2 Surewood DF shafts.  What is the draw weight of your longbow ?

Deno

[Wheels2]

Do a topic search here and on others for "Wood arrows".  There will be enough info to keep you busy for quite a while.  No sense re-listing info already put out MANY times.

[JAH518]

X2 Surewood DF shafts.  What is the draw weight of your longbow ?

Deno

I do not have the bow yet but it should arrive this Friday or first part of next week. It was ordered to be +/- 1lb of 45lb. and from what I hear Toelke is pretty good about hitting the number.

[Yooper-traveler]

X2 Surewood DF shafts.  What is the draw weight of your longbow ?

Deno

I do not have the bow yet but it should arrive this Friday or first part of next week. It was ordered to be +/- 1lb of 45lb. and from what I hear Toelke is pretty good about hitting the number.

He/they are.

One thought to add.  A woodie test kit is always a helpful part of your archery tool kit.  You can buy one outright or just collect one.  That way as you buy more bows you can match up those arrows.

[McDave]

Keeping wood arrows straight is something you really don't have to worry about if you shoot carbon arrows.  My norm is that most of the wooden arrows I shoot on a particular day need some straightening when I get home after a shoot.  I think the biggest reason for this is that people pull them out of a target at an angle.  Even other people who shoot wood arrows don't seem to care how they pull arrows out of targets, and I don't want to get the reputation of being anal, so I just put up with having to straighten them.

Some of my friends are so good at straightening arrows that they can just glance down the shaft and given them a slight reverse bend where it is crooked, and have an arrow straight again in seconds.  I have never gotten the knack for doing that, so I use an Arizona arrow straightener.  That works fine until you get a bunch of arrows that are slightly oval rather than round, or have flat spots, and then the arrow straightener is useless.

The best answer is to learn to straighten them like my talented friends do, and then it becomes a non-issue.

[MnFn]

2X on Wudstix comments.   I am usually 10-15 lbs more spined arrows than bow weight.  With some bows like my 48# Tall Tines Stickflinger, I can shoot 60/65 or 65/70, probably could get away with 55/60 also.

[Wudstix]

My comments are based solely from experience with tapered arrows; Cedar, Ash and Maple.
                      

[Stumpkiller]

- What do I need to know about tuning that's differant than carbon?
- What is the recomended brand or wood type?
- Is there anything else I should consider when buying wood arrows?

- Wood has grain.  You have to align the nock so that the string groove is perpendicular to the growth rings.  If you are buying made-up arrows this should have been done.

- Port Orford cedar or (I prefer) Douglas fir.  Others are suitable. 

- You should be as specific about weight as possible.  Wood is a living thing and shafts of the same type can be much heavier or lighter 30 or 40 grains.  A good distributor or fletcher will weight them and sort them by spine AND weight. 

[fujimo]

there are some excellent spine charts out there, if you are having a tough time finding them i can send you some.
but like said above, they are just a starting point, there are so many variables that can affect your final tune.
 and like it has been said too, a test kit is a great way to go.

 as for tuning, i have moved away from bareshafting with wood, make no mistake, its an extremely accurate methodology, but irrespective of the wood you shoot, you stand a higher chance of breaking wooden shafts than say carbons when bareshafting.
if you have a good supply of shafts, and are pretty close in spine to where you need to be, and can keep your form really consistent, i would bare shaft. bareshafting will highlight an errors or inconsistencies in your shooting, and thats where i break them usually, i shoot a few  and after a while i lose a bit of focus, and i make an error, that maybe with a fletched shaft wouldnt even be noticeable, and thats it, done!

 i am moving more and more towards "broadhead group tuning"
fletch up two arrows, leave them a little longer, so you can trim back as you tune. one with a broad head, one with a fieldpoint, choose a comfortable distance where you can get a consistent grouping, say 15 or 20 yards. shoot the Bh, a few times and get an accurate assessment of a grouping, i circle my impacts, and mark the center, then do the same with the FP, compare groupings. see the affixed pic for weak and stiff and tune accordingly.
its a very effective and easy method.
 nice thing is that if there are soft spots in your target, that would normally give you a false reading with bareshafting, it doesnt matter here, as we are only looking at points of impact, not angle of shaft!

the woodies spine groups are in tighter group ranges than carbons, so that may or may not make your tuning easier.

as for straightening, i use a roller straightener, Ace Archery sell a good one, probably get one through any of the sponsors on here, some folk use a bottle or a screwdriver or a cuphook, i think the roller doesnt flatten the shaft,so i prefer it.
 it just takes a little bit of practice, a shaft spinner is a handy tool to have, both for straightening, and for aligning points and nocks when attaching them


as to shafting material, thats a very personal choice, they all have their pros and cons.
personally i prefer Sitka spruce, Sitka is considered to be the strongest wood for its weight in the world. there was a good reason they used, and still use it for airplane frames  and for masts and spars on sailing vessels. Its light and stroooong!!!
 it is one tough wood. i only stump shoot and hunt, and i have had my stumpers last thousands of shots.
they are the lightest shafts you will find, this will allow you more latitude when selecting point weights, and you can get a very high FOC on your shaft without getting an excessively high arrow mass.
i have built Sitka wooden arrows with 20% foc quite easily! with about a  600gr arrow for my setup, or a 13-15% FOC with a 530gr arrow, thats on my arrows that are 33" to BOP !!!!, so in comparison, if these were on 29" arrows for a 28" draw they would be about 40-45 gr lighter than the weights i have achieved.

its a personal choice, and i am sure you will love shooting woodies no matter what you shoot.

[BAK]

If you're not going to hunt with them I'd go with the lighter shaft, cedar or spruce.  As for straightening, they should come fairly straight if you're buying them made up.  I too find the roller from Ace works for most.  I have a nice cast iron table saw to lay them on and roll them to find the high spots to hit with the roller.  If you get a stubborn one a bit of heat from a heat gun will allow it to bend easily.  Good luck.

Oh, and don't start building them yourself, that gets to be addicting. 

[JAH518]

Thank you to everyone for all the great information, this is exactly what I was looking for when I started the thread.

BAK, I build all my carbons so I know what you mean. LOL!!! I'm sure at some point I will with the woods but for now I'll let someone else have the fun.

[Sam McMichael]

I have always been a fan of woodies, but for a while, I shot aluminum out of my first longbow. However, the guy at the archery shop helped me settle on a setup that I never deviated from. When I went solely to wood, things got more interesting. So much of the written observations written here are vital, but I caution you not to mountain climb over too many molehills. Get good straight shafts with good grain. It should not be hard to keep a quality arrow straight. A quick tweak should generally be sufficient, as wood is sturdier than many think.  Trim your arrows carefully, and when they fly properly with the point and fletch designs of your preference, you are essentially done. Go shoot and have fun. However, you will not be finished yet! No doubt, you will eventually want to tinker around searching for the "perfect" wood arrow. You will want to try other arrow specs to see how they perform. FOC will catch your attention. Making up your own arrows may well be in the cards. This idea of wood arrows is very simple, yet very complex, all at the same time. That's part of what makes them so much fun. I use standard cedar arrows with parallel shafts and 125 grain points guided by 5" shield cut feathers, which are great for everything I hunt and are more durable than you might initially think. Fujimo's chart above is a very good guide in determining arrow performance. Just my opinion.

[Zwickey-Fever]

Surewood shafts is what I would recommend. I never had a issue with tuning woodies as well. I find them quite accurate and more quiet than my carbons. And besides that I find it relaxing making up a batch of woodies which is a slow process. I am actually surprised how rugged they are.

[reddogge]

I don't shoot them out of R/D or longbows but out of my recurves I'm shooting 55-60 spine out of a 45# bow. I also have some 45-50 spined wood that will shoot out of this bow too. So it's confusing to say the least.