Wood arrows--favorite shaft material and sources

[TomBow]

My bowhunting friend mobow hooked me up with shafts, nocks, points and feathers so I am in the process of putting together my first 6-7 wood arrows in POC.  What is your favorite shaft material: POC, Douglas Fir (same as Sitka Spruce?) or other.  And where do you purchase your raw shafts and why (Price, Service or ?)

Thanks.  So far I have spray painted 8" white caps and finished with 4 coats of Wipe-On Polyeurathane.  1 coat Poly, caps over that, then 3 coats of Poly to complete the sealing.  Just waiting for the taper tool and need to finish my homemade arrow spinner, which I thought would be cheaper than purchasing one...by the time I'm done, my "custom-made" beauty will be a few bucks more...but I made it myself.  A few skateboard wheel bearings (see the video on youtube, re: homemade arrow spinner), some nuts, bolts, washers, brass sleeves to go between the bearing and the bold-axles and I think it's going to work just fine.

[jonsimoneau]

All the woods you mentioned make great shafts. I like Sitka spruce myself. I just received 2 dozen Sitka shafts from hilldebrant that are excellent.

[Grey Taylor]

I currently use Sitka Spruce and Douglas Fir from Hildebrand. But I've recently met the owners of both Wapiti and Surewood and have confidence that they all make good quality shafts.
A lot of shaft choice is personal preference. If you do your part to make a quality, well matched arrow that is proper for you and your bow, then they'll all work on the target or on the animal.

Guy

[meathead]

I have been shooting Doug fir from surewood.  Great shafting.

[WESTBROOK]

Hildebrand, Surewood, Twig and Wapiti are the only shafts I'll order, from them or from vendor that sell their shafts. From them I know ALL the shafts will be good ones, otherwise I only buy shafts that I have inspected in person. Some places will slip a couple "mickeys" in there.

D Fir, Spruce, POC, Chundoo, I dont care, gimme a hefty shaft with straight grain, I'll shoot it.

Eric

[ChrisM]

Douglas Fir and Sitka Spruce are different woods.  Fir is heavier. Sitka is very strong with long fibers.  The long fibers make it hard to get a good taper unless you are using a sander or a wood chuck.

[sweeney3]

I've tried several.  While you can't go wrong with any of the commercially avaliable materials from any of the suppliers you'll find on here, I have to put in another plug for Sitka spruce from Hildebrand.  Those have been my favorites due to the strength, straightness, and light weight (that allows me to use a chunky head up front).  

For non-commercial sources, I like river cane that I harvest locally.

[ron w]

I like all that have been mentioned....but I really have no problem with plain old cedar shafts....made a few up today. I have gotten them all over # Rivers ,Kustom King, off trade blankets and I have had great luck with them!

[Widow's Son]

Cedar shafting from Rose City.

[Green]

For my own arrows I'm pretty hooked on the Poplar shafting that Magnus offers.  Nice weight, take stain/paint well, straighten up nice (and stay that way), and they take a good taper down to 5/16ths.  On top of that, probably the toughest shaft I've shot.

[m midd]

Ive tried them all but cedar is still
My favorite, although not as strong
or as heavy as some of the others. I just like how cedar shoots. I buy Rose City and sometimes from 3R

[steadman]

Doug Fir----Surewood

[dnovo]

I have tried a bunch, POC, ash, doug fir, spruce, and while I like the fir shafts a lot, I still keep coming back to the cedar.

[Hot Hap]

POC

[gringol]

They're all good, but have differences.  Spruce is very light, and tends to break easier, but is real quick.  On the other end of the spectrum, ash is super tough and heavy, but is sluggish in recovery.  Everything else is in the middle.  I like lodgepole pine and Doug fir because they give you a nice blend of weight, toughness, and speed, but it really is pretty personal.

[jonsimoneau]

I'm picky about arrow shafts. POC is probably the best for a mid weight shaft IF you can find some good POC. I started shooting Sitka spruce from hilldebrant because the last couple times I ordered POC the shafts had a lot of runout. But that was years ago and I just recently came back to wood after shooting carbon.  From what I have heard there are great cedar shafts being produced again these days. But in my opinion Sitka spruce is a great light to midweight shaft for deer sized animals. And Douglas fir is also excellent for a slightly heavier arrow. Doug fir takes a stain better.   I kinda fell off the wood band wagon when carbon shafts came out. They are just easier to work with. But I missed the satisfaction of taking a big game animal with a wood shaft that I crafted myself. So I'm back to wood. Good luck with whatever you choose.

[Flying Dutchman]

Sitka Spruce beause it is very strong and light. I get them from a supplier who gets them from Hildebrand.The last orders they were not very straight though, the most I had to straighten myself.

[Osage61]

Poplar from Magnus    

[TomBow]

Thanks for the insights!  Just waiting for the tru-taper tool to show up, just working on getting the arrow spinner put together, then I'll have a little more hands-on experience with POC.  I learned much during my recent visit and am also DIY'ing an arrow straighten from an old bowfishing roller rest so I should have all the tools cobbled together.  Of course, this first batch will be short of fancy but should be functional if I do everything right.  Wish me luck!  Best of Luck to you and yours.

TomBow

[gringol]

You can use a phillips screw driver to straighten shafts.  Just apply a little pressure with the shank of the screw driver (needs to be round) to the offending spot while you rub the screwdriver back and forth parallel with the shaft.  I believe Dutchman posted a how-to on this recently.