Arrows for my Bear Kodiak Recurve

[archer66]

I have a 1966 Bear Kodiak Magnum:
52 inches
40 pounds at my draw length
27 inch arrows
125 grain point (for now)
shooting off bear hair rest

I went ahead and purchased half a dozen arrows to practice with and work on anchor/release/follow through....I chose Carbon Express Predator II's in 3050 which has a .505 spine rating.  Also looking at Gold tips, their arrow selection chart indicates 1535's which have a .600 spine.  

At 40 pounds I am kind of on the line on a lot of arrow selection charts.  I'm wondering if it's better to err on the weak spined side or the stiff side (and add weight to the point).  Any suggestions based on your experience would be welcome as well.

I want to work on bare shaft tuning but at this point I'm really not consistent enough to see real patterns in my tests.  Need to decide how much of that is me and how much is the arrows I've chosen to start with.

[FightingCelt]

archer66...I shoot the same bow and was offered this recomendation by a regular on this site...I hope it helps

I would suggest gold tip spine 35/55 and cut them 29". I would add another 100 grains to the front to increase your FOC. A sponsor here sells Gold Tip Blems for a decent price.

I would put 5" full helical parabolic feathers on for stability. I shoot Arrow Dynamic Carbons off the shelf from my longbow and recurves with no problems. The key to carbon is to weaken them up for good flight. Cut them too short and you will need to increase your FOC more.

[archer66]

Thanks for the reply....I do have another question....

At 27 inches my arrows are 2.5 inches past the front of my riser so 29 inches would make them 4.5 inches past...is this normal practice?

[JimB]

If you add point weight,you are moving toward the weak side,not stiff,but I think .500 spine arrows cut to 27" would need a lot of weakening for a 40 lb bow.Others that shoot that weight,I'm sure will give you some ideas.I wouldn't expect a small jump in point weight to do anything.A very unscientific guess,if I were trying that setup,would be to start at 200 gr point weight or go to a .600 spine arrow.

You can still bare shaft tune your setup.Just get closer to your target,shoot a lot and average the results.Read the tuning information at bowmaker.net and go from there.

If you download stu's calculator or have someone run the numbers for you,you can get that pretty close.I believe though, for point weights in the 125 gr range you will need .600 spine shafts,possibly cut longer.

[The Whittler]

I would think the 600 spine should work.

Maybe Shawn Leonard will see this and post, he gives very good advice and knows his carbons.

[reddogge]

I shoot GT1535s out of 45# bows and they shoot well with 50gr. inserts and 125gr points and they come in at around 430 gr. The 3555s will require too much weight up front to weaken them enough and will be heavy for that 40# bow. They would probably scale well over 500 gr. and require 100 gr inserts. So I'm saying the 1535s are a much better match for that bow.

[archer66]

Thanks for the comments folks..  After reading your suggestions and looking at Stu Millers Dynamic arrow spine program I've decided to try some Beman MFX Classic 600's.  They are 600 spine and come with inserts that start at 75 grains and can be "broken" down to 50 grains.  I'm going to start em off with 125 grain points and a 75 grain insert.  I'll experiment with point weight from there....the spine calc tool shows me a touch weak at 125 grains and a touch heavy at 100 grains.  I'm pretty optimistic about these...  If they fly like I expect I'll be ready to bare shaft tune next week.