wood and carbon testing

[arrow flynn]

Common knowledge is the people that can tune their carbons like them after all they stay strait and are harder to break Ishoot woods and like them but carbons outlast them and they come to you already strait and less expensive to shoot.

[jmorgan41480]

thanks for all the great insight guys!
I think I will give the tuning process another try with the woodies. I was watching the arrow tuning video by Ken Beck and noticed I have a bit of wear on the outside of my riser shelf. according to the video, this could come from putting a little too much down pressure on the arrow at full draw or "cork-screwing" the string. hopefully I can spend a few hours on it tonight and see if that clears it up.

[don kauss]

Wood is worth the extra effort...

[Onehair]

If your carbons are shooting perfect, run the specs through Stu's calculator. Take that number and apply it to the woodies. Saves a lot of hassle if your new to the wood shafts.

[Flying Dutchman]

I shoot woodies and carbons for years now. Carbons have the advantage they won't break, stay straight, and all have the same weight. Altogether they need less maintenance and LTC   . However, carbons tend to be less forgiving and more nervous then woodies. It is my experience that woodies fly equally well, if not better, then carbons.
However the selection process determines a LOT!

I always order woodies at a amount 32 or more.
They are hand-spined by the supplier by +\\- 2 lbs.
They are matched in weight as much as possible.
Most suppliers offer hand-spining and weight matching as an extra service, for which you have to pay a small amount.
I straighten them myselve, till they spin on my hand without any wobbling.
Then I seal them, crest them and fletch them.
When they are ready, I weigh them again on a digital grain scale, because some  arrows absorb more lacker then others.
Take care that you install the nock in such a way that the string for each shaft comes perpendicular on the grain of your woodies. Not perpendicular means a lower dynamic spine! Same for relative spine testing.....

Then I make groups, which are very close in weight. Say for 32 arrows you end up in 4 different weight groups.

If you do all this and take care your set-up is properly tuned, I dare to face any challenge with carbon shooters.

After some shooting keep checking if your arrows are still straight every time!

[Bonebuster]

My experience is to expect a wood shaft to need a HEAVIER spine than recommended and Carbon to require a weaker spine.

When shooting wood and carbon together, the wood shaft may give the appearance of flying poorly because it is still occilating and the carbon shaft gets straight much faster. This is why Carbon shafts scrub less energy in flight.

In reality, the wood shaft is doing exactly as it must in order to clear the bow as necessary...and in doing so, it takes longer to quit reacting to the initial flex that occurs upon release.

Carbon and wood shafts each have their good points and bad.

If you REALLY want to see the difference, look for some slow motion video of archers paradox, and compare carbon vs wood. Wood arrows are STILL in the process of correcting themselves from the intital flex upon release when the carbon has long since gotten straight...

I love wood arrows, but I shoot Carbon.

[joe skipp]

I would like to know the bow weight your shooting at your actual draw length. Recurve or longbow...your bow cut to center...nock point...brace...Fast flite or dacron string...

I have never had problems getting any wood arrows to fly perfectly from any of my bows, I prefer tapered shafts over parallel. Something just isn't right here....JMO

[jackdaw]

I agree with a proper tuned set of woodies should fly just like the cardon. if I was shooting a 50 pound bow, I usually went with a 60 pounds spine arrow when using wood. This is always worked well with both 125 and 145 grain points.