wood arrow popularity

[Wheels2]

Can't say why, but the smell of cedar coming from a freshly broken shaft helps sooth the anguish of the loss.

[Terry Lightle]

POC for me for about 40 years,shot the beer can arrows for a while but came back to cedar after a little while

[Pepper]

Originally posted by Wheels2:
Can't say why, but the smell of cedar coming from a freshly broken shaft helps sooth the anguish of the loss.

Aroma therapy has been around for years, archers knew it long before the yuppies.

I shoot carbon and wood, prefer wood, nothing like an arrow that has your blood sweat and tears in the making.

[Jim now in Kentucky]

I make my shafts and arrows. I like making anything I can that I want or need from things that live. When aluminum or carbon fiber  trees start growing on my 40 acres, I will start using those for arrows.

I'm old, but I as like this when I was young.

Jim

[SlowBowke]

Something that grows, and usable for trad archery just "fits the big picture" more for me.

Half the reason I dont go selfbow is because I know I wont look back if I do and my lam bows will gather dust lol.

Arrows of wood are the most comfortable??? way for me to stay in touch with it all or something? There is the fact that few things in trad archery are as beautiful as a properly made wood arrow~!

Few now would believe it but I do recall reading OLD articles about the hoorah that hit the fan when fiberglass lams were added to bows and those that thought THAT wasn't "traditional".

Different times.

I stand behind anyone's choices, yet we all have our own ideas, desires etc on what will "deliver the goods" as we seek the feelings and results of such.

I've shot em all. Woodies are and will be my go to arrows for the woods and fields. I've been picking up 50s broadheads to take afield this fall and hopefully, many others, taking my trad hunting "back" a notch.

Putting them on anything else would be unthinkable.......to me.

Shoot what you believe in.

God Bless

NOT to "start something" but...a personal opinion here on "matching" arrows, spines, weights etc.

I dont bother. I dont own a spine tester nor need one. Off the wall thinking to a lot of you but..at the ranges I SHOOT, I cant tell dowhop difference out hunting or practicing TO hunt.

True, one 50 grains or more heavier has a noticable trajectory change past a certain point so I have them "close" in weight, choosing my preference of heavy arrows anyway.

Spine is quite often in the ball park but Ive got some that I KNOW arent close but different head weights make em closer.

I like arrows. I like making arrows. I like shooting arrows. All of em.  Come hunting season the "scale" I use is picking out a half dozen that "shoot best" for me, ones I have the greatest confidence in, in my hands, out of a particular bow.

I've taken more deer with arrows I havent a CLUE what they weigh than those I did know. Still worked.

One year I shot two deer with a particular hickory arrow that I knew from shooting it was "heavy" and all I knew. A friend took it and put it on his scale. 737 grains. 50lb LB.

Blissfully ignorant? lol

Perfectly matched arrows are a fine and challenging quest. Dont get me wrong there. All is good but FOR ME, the "gain" isnt enough to outweigh the hassle and cost.

Regardless if it's one I made, or a CHEAP "auction" woody all I ask of it is to fly well and if it does, that will work just dandy. Ive banana, shield, parabolic, custom (hand lol) cut feathers on em, Different diameters, spine weights. All's good. Somehow they will fly out of something I whang away with. A lot of the fun for me is just playing with the shaft and "making it shoot". Different strokes is all.

I guess that is another reason I dont use carbon or aluminum anymore. I dont feel I HAVE.......repeat I HAVE the "need" for precision shafts?  No offense.

I've went the route of matching shafts, weighing, spining, sorting.........eh.

Somehow, again FOR ME, it took something away from the simplicity of just shooting em, adjusting head weight if needed and going hunting.

Guess IM not that good of a shot but I get by in the woods. Deer keep dying by my shafts........to me the simplicity of such far outweighs all the calculations, the scales, testers etc.

Keep It Simple (stupid) Steve LOL.

Just works for me, fits my simplistic nature and I've the confidence that they all will shoot better than I can shoot em. Tough to explain, really.

Sorry to get OT a bit. Just food for thought.

God Bless,once again.

[snag]

Yes, wood can't get to the tolerances of aluminum or carbon...but who amoung us, if we are really honest, can tell the difference in their performance? I match my wood shafts to tight tolerances. I even weigh them as I am putting sealer on them. The ones that are 5-8grs lighter I dip them again. So I can get spine and weight pretty close among a dozen. But wood is wood. It has grain, it was a growing thing. I guess that is why I love it as an arrow material. Just seems right and feels right=wood bow, wood arrows! I'm happy with their performance, quietness off the shelf, and yes they look GREAT! Like Rob said performance above all else...throw in looks and it's a complete package for me.
I got away from shooting a compound because it became too mechanical and I was detached from what I felt archery should be. Picked up a recurve but shot aluminum and carbon. Then I got some wood arrows and it seemed like I had "come home" completely. I'm staying for good!  I went through lots of different woods making arrows. When I found Surewood Shafts (douglas fir) I found what I feel are the best wood shafts out there. Oh, don't get me wrong. I have some 25 yr old ACME port orford cedar that are "the good stuff". If they still cut cedar like that today I'd be shooting that too. But with the consistancy of Surewoods and the durability are tops!  

[bigbadjon]

I shoot wood and aluminum. All of my wood arrows are matched within one pound of spine, which makes them more consistent than carbon. Vendors are still around that hand spine their arrows that way if you don't want the output of doing it yourself.

[Rob DiStefano]

Originally posted by snag:
... I got away from shooting a compound because it became too mechanical and I was detached from what I felt archery should be. Picked up a recurve but shot aluminum and carbon. Then I got some wood arrows and it seemed like I had "come home" completely. I'm staying for good!

now ya just need to trade in that recurve for a hill longbow and you'll be closer to "true trad" than ever before.   :D

[Rob DiStefano]

Originally posted by bigbadjon:
... All of my wood arrows are matched within one pound of spine, which makes them more consistent than carbon. ...

whoa there podner!  so far, there is no way that an organic shaft can be or maintain more consistency than carbon (or alum).  uh uh, ain't never gonna happen.  

i can build a perfectly matched set of woodies that are SPOT ON for both spine and mass weight, but after a dayze worth of shooting not only is the spine and weight off, so is their concentricity.

woodies have a mind set of their own and things happen with regards to environment and stress that just don't happen with carbon (or alum).    

not saying that woodies are bad, heck i've been building 'em and shooting 'em since '55, i love 'em, but facts is facts and carbons are just more consistent than woodies over both the long and short hauls.  and that's what matters most - arrows that remain consistent both during and after usage.

[Jim now in Kentucky]

Meant to mention above that using wood I cut or salvage to make my shafts and using wood I cut for my bows lets me be pretty near independent of changes in the market for manufactured goods.

Sorry, I just want to be able to keep on shooting if the whole system collapses. Guess when it comes to archery, there is a bit of the survivalist in me.

Jim

[Stumpkiller]

As a very informal and unofficial observation survey I'd say, of so called "traditional" shooters currently: 70% shoot carbon, 10% aluminum and 15% some type of wood.

I own no carbon or aluminum, and tried a few carbons I borrowed for a day of Dart shooting and returned them without feeling the need to switch.  Shot aluminum for two years with a wheelie bow in the early 80's and sold those with the bow.  Wood just seems right.  I concede carbon or aluminum (at least new Al) will shoot better, but so does my scoped .223 Rem varmint rifle.  I just associate wood with archery.

[GRINCH]

We all have our preferences,I like wood but find it easier to shoot carbons,I'm just learning how to make my own arrows and carbon are simpler for me.

[Don Stokes]

When I was manufacturing Superceder shafts, I did a couple of shows with a booth next to Byron. I traded him a dozen shafts for his book, but he told me he couldn't shoot them in public because Easton is his sponsor, and they understandably insist he only shoot their shafts. I got the impression he would shoot wood if he could.

Rob, if your wood arrows aren't still the same spine and weight after a day of shooting, you got bad shafts! I have arrows that I've shot off and on for decades that haven't changed a bit.

Properly made and matched wood shafts will shoot as well and as consistently as anything else out there. Fletching is the great equalizer. They don't have to be perfect to be plenty accurate.

[frank bullitt]

Originally posted by Rob DiStefano:
 

Originally posted by snag:
... I got away from shooting a compound because it became too mechanical and I was detached from what I felt archery should be. Picked up a recurve but shot aluminum and carbon. Then I got some wood arrows and it seemed like I had "come home" completely. I'm staying for good!

now ya just need to trade in that recurve for a hill longbow and you'll be closer to "true trad" than ever before.    :D  [/b]

[frank bullitt]

Check out the Bowyers Bench, Snag, David, is building some sweet Selfbows! Cant'get much more Real Bow!

Great job, Snag  

[stiknstringer]

I shoot only wood shafts.It just feels like it goes with the whole traditional mindset.Carbon,fiberglass and aluminum may be more consistant in their spine and weight,but Fred Bear said,and I for one believe it, that no one is so consistant in their shooting that it would make much difference out to say 20 yards.  

[bigbadjon]

Rob, I was speaking from when I start out my arrows are better matched than a carbon. No arrow material maintains straightness better than carbon. Both aluminium and wood becamoe less straight as they are shot and in my opinion that is the only desireable trait of carbon. As far as shooting a day effecting the spine and weight of the wood arrow that is just not true. If your arrow is sealed with a truly waterproof finish and is maintained in straightness it will fly as true as the day it was made until you break it.

[PaddyMac]

I'm a green sprout to trad archery (but a burled  trunk to everything else) and I'm here for the same reasons Rob stated.

I'm like a kid in a candy store, and next year I'm going to try wood, but this year, I need to walk before I run. So carbon it is. But I am building my own. Plain jane first, then I'll start dancing.

Same with a long bow. I'm dying to shoot one. But gotta focus. September is almost on us!

[snag]

Thanks Frank, sometimes you get lucky! haha

[WRV]

My woodies are the most quiet but I shoot mostly carbons and aluminum. they are more consistent to me......Randy