Need some ideas on heavy shaft/arrow development

[Bud B.]

I need a 720ish grain arrow 28" bop for a 72@27 Hill bow. I draw to 27". I want 10gpp. If wood, I prefer 11/32.

Cedar is out I'm guessing. Not sure if Douglas Fir is the answer.

Need ideas on soaking arrows for weight gain or other ideas to get a 10gpp arrow.

Aluminum and carbon are not out of the picture.

What are your experiences with other woods? Hickory? Ash? Sitka Spruce? Poplar? Weight I can expect from these?


Sponsors?

Thanks.

[Bill Carlsen]

Pope and Young used white birch. Of the heavier hardwood shafts it is my favorite.

[Bud B.]

Never considered that wood. Thanks Bill.

[gringol]

Ash

[Bud B.]

Originally posted by gringol:
Ash

Your experience? gpi? anything?

[gringol]

I had some around 700 grains in a 70-75 spine.  Very tough.  Dpnt recall exactbweight or gpi, but I think they were above 17 gpi.  They don't stay as straight as fir and poc, but they're much better than hickory imo.

[Bjorn]

Ash comes in a variety of weights some really heavy and some light as cedar. You can get  top quality shafting if you check around. I used to get Ash from Raptor that was super straight and stayed that way. Like Bill says white birch is real good too.

[ChuckC]

I used ash in the past and thought well of it.  It is heavy and tough.
ChuckC

[Fletcher]

Going to a heavier point weight will help quite a bit.  With a 125 gr point, you would need to start with about a 610-620 gr full length shaft.  With a 200 gr point you could go with about a 550 gr shaft of a higher spine.  600+ is pushing the envelope for a 70 lb fir shaft, but a 550 in a 75-79 is pretty doable.  Fir makes a really great shooting arrow and I believe you would like how they perform with the heavier points, esp with a heavy arrow.  Surewood should have these in 11/32, but there really isn't that much difference going to a 23/64, less than .016 dia" or .008" radius.  An average human hair is .003".

[Echatham]

i had some 11/32 douglas firs from surewood in 80-85# spine that finished around 700 grains.  they will send you the weight you want within 10 grains  as long as they have it... so far i haven't asked for anything they haven't delivered.

[Bud B.]

Good to hear about Surewoods.

Thanks for all the input so far.

I was thinking a 16-17 gpi shaft in the right spine might be the ballpark I'm looking for.

[Bud B.]

Fletcher,

I have no experience with 23/64. I was wondering about points, i.e. 11/32, and how they'd work on 23/64 shafts? All my glue on points/BHs are 11/32 or 5/16.

[Biathlonman]

I'm thinking the easiest route would be surewood douglas fir.  Will have to play around a bit with arrow and point weight but that's fun!  I'm guessing something 90-95 with point weight to tune would be real close.

[trubltrubl]

ash or maple wil get you close...or try woody weights on your cedar or fir  ...they glue on the end and then you glue your broadhead onto them....they come in weights from 75 grain to 200 grains.....also gives you weight forward and great penetration,,,,good luck

[Looper]

I agree with Biathlonman. 90-95 surewoods and some 200 grain Kodiaks should be right in that ballpark. Of course that will really depend on the specific shafts you get. Call Surewood and have them find you some dense ones.

For carbon, try the Arrow Dynamics Hammerheads. A full length Hammerhead weighs right at 500 grains with the aluminum insert. Shortened to 28" it would probably weigh 450. Add a 100 grain insert and a 175-200 grain woodsman elite and you'll have one heck of a setup.

You could also get there with a GT 7595.

[Bud B.]

I''ll go carbon before woody weights. Too many things to try to line up straight.

Thanks tho.

Keep any unmentioned ideas coming and thank you all  

[J.T.]

Kevin forester at froester woods shafts will have what you need

[Bud B.]

Forrester seems to have all bases covered for heavy wood shafts!!!

[2treks]

Don't be afraid of wood weights.
heat, glue, install, done. they work great.
BUT,
when you can buy a 300+gn head, they are prolly not needed.

ash is great but can take work to get straight. Stays once done though,IME.

I like the birch that Bill C mentions. All of the old timers used it and when I had some back in the 90's I really liked it. Need to find more.

I really like the surewoods. Great arrow shaft. If I didn't want to use birch that is what I would use.

A nice heavy spined shaft with a 200gn ACE or Grizzly on the end will get you what you need. 700gn is pretty easy I think.

With carbon, I find it hard to get an arrow much under 700gn and its easy to go well over that.

Good luck Bud, You gonna make some holes on both sides this year!

[Fletcher]

11/32 points work fine with 23/64 shafts, they just leave a little of the shaft taper showing.  I have a shaft tapering rig and will taper the point end about 4 inches to slightly under 11/32 for a perfect fit, but it isn't necessary or important.  23/64 field points are easy to come by, but Tuffheads are the only true 23/64 ferrule broadheads I know of.  You could do a lot worse than a Tuffhead.

I'll send a PM.