Hildebrand Sitka Spruce Tapered Shafts

[Gil Verwey]

I am coming full circle. I started with cedar, went to aluminum, back to cedar, then back to aluminum and now carbon. I love shooting a longbow and really like the carbons I am shooting. I am getting the urge to go back to wood. I am starting to feel I am missing a little by not shooting wood again from a longbow.

I had heard that cedar isn't what it used to be. I am thinking of going to Hildebrand tapered sitka spruce shafts. Does anybody have any experience with these shafts. Are they good quality and as good or better than today's cedar? I like a heavy arrow. Is the sitka heavier than cedar?

Thanks
Gil

[snag]

Gil, if you like a "heavy arrow" then check out the douglas fir from Surewood Shafts. All wood can be come in a range of weights of course. But just naturally douglas fir is a little heavier than spruce and cedar. It makes great arrows!
I used to shoot spruce before I discovered Surewoods. It was a good wood. It just wasn't quite heavy enough for me. The Surewood shaft are the BEST doug fir shafts out there. Very durable and straight. Well worth looking at!

[Gil Verwey]

Thanks David. I am going to check them out right now.

Gil

[ChrisM]

Both spruce and Fir are awesome woods way better than cedar in my opinion.  Can't go wrong with either Hildebrant or surewood, both have excellent customer service.

[Arrow4Christ]

Gil,
I offer all three woods in tapered shafts, Hildebrand Spruce, POC, and Surewood Fir. The spruce shafts may be my personal favorite, but they are a bit lighter than cedar in general, with Fir being the heaviest of the three. Douglas Fir is an excellent wood that's strong, stays straight (given the right finish), and is heavy. I like the Spruce because it has the highest strength to weight ratio, and is very easy to straighten to precision specs.
 
However, I have been experimenting with methods of adding significant weight to the lighter woods, and have been having great success "pressurizing" finish into the shafts. I have some cedar shafts going through this process right now that started out as 430 grain bareshafts and are now up to 640-650, and I'm going to topcoat over them. I think this would be perfect for someone who wanted to shoot a heavy spruce arrow.

Craig

[Buckwheaties]

I've used them all. Doug Fir from Surewood is THE BEST!!!

[WESTBROOK]

Hildebrand Spruce is excellent, very straight grained. But, how heavy is heavy to you? You can get spruce in the 400-420g raw weight.

Eric

[snag]

What poundage bow do you shoot Gil?

[HARL]

Shot some Sitka Spruce that finished close to 700 grs. a few years ago.They are great shafts.

[59Alaskan]

Thank you for starting this thread.  I am starting to tinker with wood arrow building.  All I have used is "junker" cedar and Douglas Fir that was sorted etc...to match.  Obviously I would prefer the DF when comparing those two.  I have wondered about the spruce and other woods.  I never shoot over 55# bows.  Most bows I shoot are 43-50# at my length.

[Ted Fry]

Easy to make a light arrow wood heavy , I can not count all the ways I have heard through the years.
I do like the lighter woods as I tend to foot all my personal shafts, I love the FOC capabilities you can achieve. Sitka Spruce is hard to beat and Hildebrand is doing a great job with their shafts, POC is still a great arrow shaft material if you get them from the correct source, ( not the big one)We get cedar from a small mom and pop that is great , dont get many but they are awesome.
Fir is a good arrow shaft as well but I wish someone would start making some good quality lodgepole arrow shafts.

[Gil Verwey]

Thanks for the info.

I shoot a longbow 60# @ 28" and my draw is 28". I like to shoot arrows on this bow with a total weight between 680 gr and 760 gr. I load up the front of my CX Heritage for a high FOC. I forgot what my cedar shafts used to weigh, it has been a long time since I used them. I use the Abowyer Brown Bear 175 gr broadheads. Today to get the weight I want in my CX Heritage shafts I use a 100 gr brass insert and heavy steel adapter with my broadheads.

I used to use tapered cedar and if I remember right, they used to fly better and tune easier than parallel, at least for me. I was thinking of tapered again. I appreciate all the input. I am going to retire in a little while and will have time to build wood arrows and my own strings again. Eventually I want to try footing arrows also but I figure I have to crawl again before I walk.

Thanks and keep the ideas and recommendations coming.

Gil

[snag]

We are shooting pretty much the same setup Gil. I'm shooting recurves that are 55# to 60#. When I shot carbons I would shot the Heritage 250's with 100gr brass inserts and 125-150gr tips depending on the length I would cut them.

[Gil Verwey]

David I am using 150s. I spined them on my Adams spine tester and they spined 81#. The 250s I had to leave full length to get them to bare shaft. I don't get how CX spines these shafts. They are stiff. They are good and tough though.  

What do you guys recommend for a sitka spruce tapered shaft or douglass fir shaft for my setup, 65/70 or maybe 60/65? I leave my arrows around 29.5" or 30" bop.

Thanks
Gil

[Arrow4Christ]

Gil,
How much weight do you have up front on the 150s total, what is their BOP length, and what type of fletching are you using?
Craig

[Gil Verwey]

Craig the bop is 29.5" with 300 grains up front. I use a 100 grain brass insert, a 125 steel insert with a 175 broadhead. I use 5" shields. I went to your website and checked it out. Very nice. The first few dozen I intend to get made up and tune to my bow, until I find the shaft I like and flys well. Then I will just be buying shafts.

Also I only care that the arrows are consistant in weight and spine, fly well and have a total weight of at least 680 grains. I used to buy my cedars in lots of 100 to get a couple of evenly matched dozens in spine and weight.  

Thanks
Gil

[Arrow4Christ]

Gil,
Thanks very much! Trying to get everything set up and ready to go.
According to Stu's Spine Calculator, you're shooting a dynamic spine of around 22#     :eek:    I suspect you're going to be overspined with a wood arrow with that dynamic spine. I would get some sitka spruce shafts in 70-75# and experiment with total length and point weight.
If you want the most FOC, your goal should be to end up with the shortest arrow you can safely draw with your draw length and a broadhead...that way you'll be able to get the maximum point weight possible to get your correct dynamic spine.
You're probably going to be able to get more FOC with Douglas Fir arrows, honestly...since they go up to higher spines whereas Sitka Spruce only consistently goes to 75#. I, as well as several other Surewood suppliers, can make you up a test pack to try out in several different spines so you can see what flies best from your bow and fits your needs. I would get one that has spines 70-75# and up from there.
Good luck!
Craig

[sagebrush]

Nice website Craig. Looks like you got it together on your arrows. I like sitka spruce. I also have some lodgepole pine arrows that are pretty tough. Gary

[Arrow4Christ]

Thanks very much Gary!