WHY FOOT

[LarryP243]

I have been seeing a lot of articles about footing arrows, and would like to know why and how.

[rolltidehunter]

WHY: it strengthens the tips and keeps them from splintering or breaking.   guys that do a lot of stump shooting like to reinforce the tips. or if they shoot heavy weight on the end of the arrows.

How: if i am shooting a carbon arrow. i will cut a 1 inch piece of a aluminum arrow and glue it over the end. the reason i do this is i try to shoot a 10 gpi arrow or more. this is personally preference, and i need to add a lot of weight to the tip to make my arrows fly strait..

[macbow]

Originally when you said footed arrow it was a wood shaft that had 5 to 6 inches of the point end spliced usually with a hardwood.
Reasons. To save a broken arrow.
To add weight up front. Looks. Or you might need longer arrows.

Footing now also includes the carbon arrows. Like stated earlier it can add weight and,strengthen the front of carbon arrows for stump shooting. A piece of aluminum arrow shaft is glued over the tip.

[JamesKerr]

Originally posted by macbow:
Originally when you said footed arrow it was a wood shaft that had 5 to 6 inches of the point end spliced usually with a hardwood.
Reasons. To save a broken arrow.
To add weight up front. Looks. Or you might need longer arrows.

Footing now also includes the carbon arrows. Like stated earlier it can add weight and,strengthen the front of carbon arrows for stump shooting. A piece of aluminum arrow shaft is glued over the tip.

Exactly.

[jrstegner]

I will never shoot a carbon arrow at a big game animal that is not footed. If you hit the heavy bone there is a high probability of the insert being driven back into the shaft upon impact. Penetration ends right there.

[Mike Vines]

I footed some Douglas fir with tulip wood for my rabbit arrows last weekend and I just glued up some douglas fir with purple heart wood tonight when I got home from work just for the heck of it.  To me, all I'm trying to achieve is a pretty arrow.  As long as they spin true and look great, I really don't care about much else.  If/when they break, I will just make more.  Cedar shafts used to be footed to achieve a less brittle area behind the point.  With douglas fir, that is not necessary.  Douglas fir can take a pretty good beating, a couple guys at Hog Heaven did their best to destroy a Bacote footed arrow I brought down there, and it took Todd (I think) 3 solid hits from about 10 feet to a live tree to get it to crack.  I would have to say wood footing if done correctly are rock solid.

 Yes, a regular unfooted shaft will do the same job as the footed, just as as Chevette will get you to the same place as a Corvette.  You just need to decide which one you prefer to use/be seen in.

Now that just applies to my understanding of wood shafts.  As for aluminum and carbon, I haven't a clue about them.

[Hoyt]

I don't shoot stumps on purpose so never have footed my carbons, but am thinking about it now.

This is what the off side leg bone of a buck did to a new Beman MFX this yr. I want to add as little weight as possible, may look into Carbon Collars sold by 3Rivers.


 

[eflanders]

Others have well described the advantages of footed shafts.  There is a downside though to footed carbons in that they are very hard to remove from certain targets that use a so called self healing mesh like the Bulldog and Spiderweb brand targets.

[Gordon Jabben]

I just foot or splice my broken wooden arrows back together and use them on squirrels.  I just finished 45 today.  Maybe I'm a little too thrifty.  

[Mike Vines]

Here is the tulip wood footing...

 

[Knawbone]

Hey Guys, what do you need to foot an arrow. In other words, how much is it going to cost me to get started.Probably just need one of those shaft planes from 3rivers, right.Would like to start making some.

[Mike Vines]

Won't cost much if you have a router, table saw, band saw, v-groove bits, hinge mortice bit, scrap hard wood (used to make footing jig), and some basic shop skills.  if you have all that, your only expense besides the wood shafts is the wood you plan to use for footings and glue.

The Renfro's (Gary and Connie) put together an awesome DVD on arrow footings.  I suggest you buy the video and watch it a couple times before you attempt footing.  They have some very hi tech jigs they have built, but with some inginuity, you can come up with some pretty handy creations of your own.  I have, and I visited a few arrow shops to learn other ideas as well.

[D]

Why foot??  Cause it works...I'm not sure if this is suppost to be for wood or carbon but I shoot carbons.  I foot mine with an inch and a half of aluminum shaft with a 100 grain brass insert.  At our local 3-d shoot this past year there was a shoot if you dare racoon target set up infront of the face of a small bluff.  If you miss all you hit is a solid rock wall.  Well..I missed lol...twice.... but with that collar and brass insert it didn't hurt my shafts at all.  It just bent my tip and insert.  True I had to replace both inserts and points but still a lot cheeper that buying new shafts.

[Gordon Jabben]

Knawbone, all I use is a wood plane, file, sand paper, glue, electrical tape and a band saw sure makes it easier.  Here's a picture of the arrows I glued up yesterday. As you can see I'm just splicing broken arrows back together to use on small game but it's the same process for a hardwood foot.
 

[meathead]

I have to second Renfro's DVD.  Even if you don't want to go too high tech with the jigs there is still a lot of good info.  You will get a lot of good ideas from it.

[Mike Vines]

Originally posted by meathead:
I have to second Renfro's DVD.  Even if you don't want to go too high tech with the jigs there is still a lot of good info.  You will get a lot of good ideas from it.

After watching the video, I did footings with a hand plane, and knew that much work is not for my shoulder, so that is when I came up with my own jigs.

[meathead]

I have tried that too and quickly spent some time making jigs.  Tried the jig that 3 rivers sells this summer.  I thought it worked great.  I made some beautiful Surewoods footed with wenge with it.

[hitman]

Where does everyone get the hardwoods for footing. Wenge, purpleheart, bocote, cocobola are all hard to find around here. Got any places you recommend ?

[Jim now in Kentucky]

Google Reparrows. Fastest way to fix or foot a wood arrow.

 http://www.angelfire.com/biz/Ironwood/woodbows.html

[ishoot4thrills]

Originally posted by eflanders:
Others have well described the advantages of footed shafts.  There is a downside though to footed carbons in that they are very hard to remove from certain targets that use a so called self healing mesh like the Bulldog and Spiderweb brand targets.

No problems if you chamfer the outside edge of the footing on the end facing the fletching. I just stick the piece of aluminum footing into my drill, tighten it down a bit and lay a file on the table and use the drill to turn the 2" piece of footing and place the edge of it onto the file and squeeze the trigger on the drill and it makes a nice smooth, rounded edge on one end of my footing.