Building Arrow Shafts

[Bearded Bear]

Well I finally did it, toasted every arrow I have squirrel hunting, and it was a blast! So I need to build some more arrows, and awhile ago I bought a veritas dowel maker and made 3 dozen arrows out of radiata pine (a straight grained farm grown pine found at home depot)
   I found the shafts similar to doug fir. I was curious, if anyone else here does that and or where you source your wood from, if there is a decent way to spine an arrow without buying a spine tester(DIY), a cheaper alternative to buying fletchings, and a DIY tip for small game.
   
   I have in the past bought all my arrow supplies from three rivers, and find them to be excellent in all aspects. The only problem is the operator(me) seems to break/loose arrows at an alarming rate.

[Jakeemt]

Well bear since you have a dowel maker you obviously role your own shaft. Otherwise I would say buy them in bulk from sure wood. For a cheap spine tester use 2 nails, a 2lb weight, and a little dial caliper. Just make sure it is level. For fletching checkout up Bear paw and Sagittarius archery. Also big jim has bunch on sale. Getting a feather chopper cuts costs almost in half. If you talk to your local deer processor or just neighboring turkey hunters they will likely save the wings and then you have very little cost at all (unless you count time which become substantial)

[monterey]

I make them now and then with the Veritas as well.  I did pine from HD once and they were ok but just ok.  They are great cottontail and stumping arrows.  My best were made from Doug Fir also from HD.

For small game, sometimes I just use my regular hunting heads.  Recently came across a box of 18 new Bodkins I'd forgot about so they will get some use on cottontails.  Not on squirrels though.  Too easy to leave em stuck in the top of a tree!

A quick and easy small game adaption is to drill a hole across your field point, cut a piece of nail about 5/8 or 3/4 inch and put it through then bend them back to keep it from falling out.  It's just disruptive enough that a bunny or grouse won't walk off or fly away with the arrow in them.

I once shot a grouse on a ridge with a plain field point.  Grouse was on the ground so the arrow went halfway through then stopped when the point hit the ground on the other side.  Grouse launched into the air and glided out over the basin and out of sight.  I heard it crash into the quakies way down in the bottom!

[RaybowTx]

Bear, how do you like that dowel maker?  Are you able to make good shafts? Compareable to commercial shafts?  I would be wanting to make quality shafts for hunting and 3-d. Whatcha thank?..........Ray

[bowberry]

the first spine tester i made was 2 nails in a board. a plastic pop bottle with about 2 pints of water, with a wire hook taped near the top.

I hung it at eye level on the wall.Put an arrow across the nails, hang the bottle on the arrow in the middle. Make a mark on the board with a pen, how far the top side of the arrow deflected.

I never needed a dial indicater because i was comparing home made shafts to arrows that i knew i liked( flew good, right spine ect)

If my home made shafts were weaker or stiffer it was obviouse.


Scissors work fine for cutting feathers.

some people use empty bullet shells for blunt small game tips .357 I think.

Note;If a person is out of work ( no $,lots of free time) you can make an arrow for zero money.(Its a really usefull skill to develope)

 that being said,fletching,field points and nocks can be had pretty cheap if you shop around a little.

You'll spend less time building and more time shooting if you can spend a little money on parts and pieces.

[fujimo]

self nocks, 357 shell cases- (with a transverse wire- make a great "judo", trade points, "south east indian two fletch", or whatever feathers/fletching you can lay your hands on, they are really easy to process.
i have built many arrows  this way!!
 made my own shafts- but shoots can be cut if need be!- then you just need to build a self bow to go with the arrows   :D

[Bearded Bear]

Hey Ray, I think the shafts come out pretty sweet. Like I said I've only turned out about three dozen so far and have my concerns about the wood I used. There are some things that amount to a small learning curve but over-all I definitely like it. I would myself want to turn out a lot of shafts though before I would hunt big game with them, just to be thorough. In any case it has already paid for itself.

I actually use Herters Brass (too soft to reload) in 357. I guess ill have to give the crosswise nail a try

[goobersan]

This is a great tutorial for making your own shafts.
 

I haven't started yet but Sam Harper has a nice spine checker build. Dial indicators can be found online for $30.  Good luck !

[V I Archer]

I wrote an article in TBM for building a spine tester last year.  I think it was the Sept. 2014 issue.

.38 or .357 brass casings make great stumping heads, just throw in a little split shot to bring the weight up.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Originally posted by Bearded Bear:
Well I finally did it, toasted every arrow I have squirrel hunting, and it was a blast! So I need to build some more arrows, and awhile ago I bought a veritas dowel maker and made 3 dozen arrows out of radiata pine (a straight grained farm grown pine found at home depot)
   I found the shafts similar to doug fir. I was curious, if anyone else here does that and or where you source your wood from, if there is a decent way to spine an arrow without buying a spine tester(DIY), a cheaper alternative to buying fletchings, and a DIY tip for small game.
       
   I have in the past bought all my arrow supplies from three rivers, and find them to be excellent in all aspects. The only problem is the operator(me) seems to break/loose arrows at an alarming rate.

You can build a spine tester really cheap... less than 50 bucks. all you need is this, a 2 pound fishing weight, and a couple shelf brackets...

  http://www.amazon.com/Grizzly-G9849-Magnetic-Indicator-Combo/dp/B0000DD0VA/ref=sr_1_1?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1446053787&sr=1-1&keywords=magnetic+base+dial+indicator  

Send me an email brutha... i've got a 1000 3/8 cedar dowels sitting here. i can sell some to you on the cheap... [email protected]

[AkDan]

a simple way to spine shafts is to make one.

Find a known spined shaft to use as your calibration.   Buy a test kit of marked shafts for this.

you can also use aluminum as well.  

I have Roy Day's (Agincourt archery) spine tester....the thing rocks.   no messing around, and it has an adjustment knob to zero any shaft out.   If you can find one buy it, much better than building imho!