Newbie Wood Question

[La. bowhunter]

I have been here quite a while now and have been shooting carbon arrows from day one BUT I keep reading about and seeing the wood arrows on here and want to give them a try. I have a friend who shoots and loves ash but all of his arrows are too weak and short for me. My question is if I order one of the test kits of cedar arrows from 3 rivers to tune and find my spine range with would the same spine range work with other woods?          

[Bjorn]

Yes, pretty much. Sometimes a really heavy wood shaft will require a bit more spine.
Cedar, Spruce, Fir will all be the same.

[La. bowhunter]

So today I talked to some of the sponsors here who sell wood arrows of different types. But I guess I forgot to ask a question or two so maybe you folks can help. I was told I should buy 65-70 or 70-75 spine arrows so would I be better to be a little stiff or a little weak.

[Hot Hap]

Tell us about your bow.

[La. bowhunter]

I am shooting a Dan Quillian Patriot and an Acadian Woods recurve one is 55@ 28 and one is 56@ 28 both have FF strings and both are cut just past center. I draw 28 1/2 inches so I want an arrow at least 29 1/2 to 30 inches long so I will have plenty of room out front. I shoot the same arrow in both bows now and think I can do the same with wood.

[George D. Stout]

If you let them 30" then go with 70/75.  That would be adding 5# for fastflight/center cut/ and 5# for each inch over 28".  I think you will be right on the money with that.

[Don Stokes]

La. bowhunter, I'm shooting a Patriot at 40#, and it needs 60-65# shafts at 28" length. For a two inch longer arrow you will need to go up 10#, and for the 15# more draw weight go up another 15#, which puts you at around 90#. This is based on bare-shaft tuning. When I put the 61# limbs on, I shoot 90-95# shafts at 28", using a 160 g. broadhead.

The Patriot is a very hot bow, and needs surprisingly stiff shafts. My FF string is a skinny one, and if yours is bigger (16 strands or more) you can back off 5# or so. You can also build out the sight window to reduce spine, if you have trouble finding the higher spines. You can also "detune" the bow by adding a relatively heavy bow quiver, or putting on heavy rubber string silencers.

I once bare-shaft tuned a guy who had three sets of rubber spiders on the string of his Patriot, and when we cut them off his spine requirement went up about 20#. Adding weight to the string is a sure way to reduce the spine requirements of your bow.

All of these factors are at least some of the reasons that we see big differences in what works for individuals shooting similar draw weights.

[La. bowhunter]

Thanks George and Don
Yeah I know about the Patriot right now I am shooting CX heritage 350's at 30 inches with 225 grains up front. I think both bows have 14 strand strings may be 12 but I think 14 both have Hush puppy silencers. I also have a bow quiver on the Patriot it is a Thunderhorn small fry 4 arrow quiver the Acadian Woods doesnt have a quiver.
One more question though. If I buy one of the trial sets from 3 rivers and they are parallel shafts and I decide on tapered shafts would there be a difference.

[Don Stokes]

I doubt you'll see any significant difference between the spine required for tapered vs. parallel.

[Mike Byrge]

Scott, Are you going to make the Sterling Harrell shoot this year? (April 25/26).

If so, get in touch with Michael Harbison and he can probably have some test arrows for you to try out.  He makes very good wood arrows.