what kind of box you pickin there Desert Dude??

I have never shot anything but wood and love them.

I’ve always shot wood, and view the recent rush to various alternatives with confusion. Exactly what problems are carbon arrows supposed to solve, anyway? I’ve just never had any difficulties with well made wood shafts. And then there’s the “What is traditional?” question, best left for another time. Anything you can kill with carbon or aluminum, you can kill with wood. My advice? Don’t make it too complicated. Get some good, straight shafts,shoot them at some targets, and once they’re checked out, go hunting. And remember that, as always, 95% of bad shooting is due to the archer and not the tackle. Don

great choice wood arrows had plenty success hunting hogs with them

You should do well. Wondering what poundage you’re pulling?
Surewood Doug Fir Shafts are an excellent choice!

Whats up DUDE,

It’s been a few years sense I used wood, I wood:roll: like to make up some super duty’s for the fun of it.

Hard wood and footer would be fun to make.

Good wood shafts are hard to find.

My carbon shafts have no soul like wood shafts, but there so Superior for durability and strength, I left wood about 15 years ago.

personally i do not think carbon shafts are superior but rather inferior,the only way i see fit to practice is stump shooting and carbon does not hold up like wood i recently purchased a hal doz carbon express terminator select, on the target they flew really good but stump shooting rendered three useless the first day,the cause turned out to be that the shock of an arrow hitting dirt or anything causes vibration and that vibration blew my nocks out and split the arrow.so i decided to try aluminium but still find that when it comes to it a wood arrow, plane old cedar can take 10 times the punishment of other materials i still have 7 custom port cedar arrows from suzanne st charles from 2 years ago all of wich are getting close to being done.however i have thus far had 4 different sets of carbon arrows in the last 3 years all of wich are destroyed.i beg you go wood

I myself must be so darn lucky. I have been shooting Trad gear for only 5 years and in that time have only had maybe 2 arrows that were poor when purchased either finished or not finished. I buy from Valley Traditional Supply he just goes over where he stores them and grabs a bundle of 65-70 and hands them over. So its not like he saves me the “good uns” though he should 8)

OK, you guys have me on the verge of trying woods :shock::). If I buy, say, 100 shafts, how many should I expect to be usable, provided I don’t screw them up? 😆

Edit: Oh, and would you recommend feathers or vanes? :lol::lol::lol:

Kingwouldbe wrote: My carbon shafts have no soul like wood shafts, but there so Superior for durability and strength, I left wood about 15 years ago.

Amen to that, I started using carbon, and tried wood after, that will never work!!:o If you started with wood and tried carbon it would probably be the same way, but I just didnt see the point in spending the same amount of money, having to do twice the work to have them break quicker! Just my thought!
Chris

Patrick,
If I bought 100 shafts from a good source, I would expect 100 to be usable. The aluminum & carbon makers have been stretching the truth for so long, it’s getting thin enough to see thru. don’t let anyone ever tell you that woodies aren’t accurate. It just ain’t so

Butch

Try laminated birch, they make a great heavy hard hitting arrow. Complete pass through, that’s 15 yards beyond, on my last two moose.

But shooting what weight bow, Larry? I’m stuck somewhere between Don Thomas and Elvis(I mean King)Wannabee — I’ve shot woodies most of my long archery career but recently sent to carbons for, in my experience, their undeniably superiority re standardization of weight and spine, plus and mostly their ability to provide far higher FoC with minimal effort and cost. Yet I long for woodies and want to return … pending someone figuring a way to get EFoC with them without having to be a darned machinist with a shop. In recent years I found it increasingly difficult to buy a dozen shafts that were within even 20g the same weight or 10# for spine, no matter what I paid. Certainly, a really heavy wood shaft is strong and really helps penetration, but not nearly so much as a really light shaft with a ton of weight up front so that your total weight is trajectory-manageable with mid and lighter weight bows like most older shooters today must use, yet offer superior penetration. In my tests, 650 grain arrows with 26 percent FoC consistently outpenetrated 750 grain arrows with 20 percent FoC. I think right now the best the average woody shooter can do for really big game arrows is to use a shaft heavier than PO cedar and the heaviest head you can hang on it and still get good flight. Happily, Grizzly and STOS at least both are planning to release (“soon”?) glue-on heads in excess of 200 grains, which will really help. I know one trusted friend who has never had a problem with WoodyWeights, but I myself got consistent breakage behind the double-head on angled test shots in hard targets.

Bottom line for me is that if you hunt nothing but deer and pigs, you can shoot darn near anything. If you can pull a really heavy bow that shoots really heavy arrows really fast, and use the right broadhead (like Larry, probably?), you can kill anything. But I am an average older shooter stuck with 55# max and I hunt elk and moose and don’t want to have to worry about not having enough penetration power should I hit a heavy bone. I’ll take the safe route, for the animal’s sake, and sadly right now that’s carbon. But for a race of animals that can put folks on the moon, 30 years and more ago, and bring ’em all back home alive, I’d think it won’t be long before we will have EFoC woodies without massive tree-trunk weight. The market is waiting for the fellow who can pull that one off, and sell his product at a sane price. My thots, snuffy

A good hardwood shaft is just as tough as carbon!

IMO only. All the rage today has taken a fairly simple sport & turned it into rocket science. The worry about speed, single bevel BH, EFOC, spined to less than 2lbs. and a weight difference of less than five grains is amazing to me. Today people want to take it out of the box & it’s ready to go. What has happened to the [u]fun[u]in archery. I use wooden arrows. Sometimes bamboo with selfnocks & broadheads that I sharpen myself. All of the stuff will shoot better than I can. When I got away from compounds, I thought I had left all that behind. I’m not putting down advances or anybody that uses them. Some advances are great. Others are a manufacturer’s selling point. Anyone who tells you that woodies aren’t accurate are not telling you the truth or haven’t used them much. The person who can tell the difference in well spined wood arrows & carbons or aluminums, are few & far between. If I upset anyone, sorry. That was not my intention. I just wanted to give the new people a different perspective.

Butchmo — first, what’s wrong with your dog’s front teeth? 😆

Bottom line, as a 50-year woody shooter, I agree with you! Unfortunately, “well spined wood arrows” are getting harder and harder to find new, and even harder to find yet after they’ve been “shot in” for a while. Truth is, for all their many lovable advantages to the spirit of the true traditional archer and bowhunter, woodies are natural and thus can never be as consistent in spine and shaft weight as synthetics. We can overcome that by buying and shooting and sorting lots of shafts. Sadly, not all shooters are financially or otherwise able to pull that off. And there is a huge difference between the “rocket science” you wisely left behind when you dropped training wheels in favor of trad gear, and what Doc Ashby has shown through 3 decades of careful field studies. The wheelie crowd’s rocket science is “shoot farther, faster, more accurately.” Ashby rocket science is “increase your kill and recovery rate,” yet, in tune with the whole trad worldview, requires getting closer rather than shooting farther. Bottom line, while the compound arrow-launching-device science doesn’t give a hoot about the animal 70 yards downrange, Ashby science’s entire motivation derives from caring everything about the animal 20 yards or less downrange. So it is that for me, rather than saying “Woodies only and foreover,” or saying “If I can get higher FoC thus better penetration and more accuracy with synthetic shafts, maybe I don’t like it but I’ll do it” … I’m a fence-straddler desperate for a 25% EFocC woody that’s consistent in spine and shaft. We can do it if we have the determination. That’s IMHO. Cheers, dave

Dave,
Yeah. An orthodontist would sure help.:D

I’m not against carbon or aluminum. It’s just new folks seem to be getting some misinformation about some things. I see a lot of threads about how to squeeze the last fps. out of your setup. Shoot extra light arrows with smaller & smaller feathers or vanes and lighter & smaller strings. Some will put up with a noisy bow & take a chance on shortening the bow life. All in the name of 5fps. For me, when the small things get worried to death, the fun leaves. Maybe I don’t worry about the little things enough. Lord knows I can use all the help I can get. If a fella wants to use carbons, that’s entirely up to the individual. As long as it’s a efficient, humane setup, I’ll back you all the way. I just love the simplicity of trad gear & guess I need to back off & let folks do what they believe is right. Some times I’m an old curmudgeon. Nice conversation.

I’m sticking with wood arrows here. I prefer nock tapered arrows with a total weight with point of ten grains per pound of bow weight at my draw. I know there is a lot of talk about front loaded arrows and high FOC, but I just don’t get the proper flight from wood if I concentrate too much on these very worthy facets of dynamics.If my arrows have a moderate FOC and weight in the ratio indicated, flight is usually great whether using a 50 pound bow with 500 grain arrow or 64 pound bow with a 600-650 grain arrow. As to material, I have used many of the hardwoods. Cedar most likely the most consistent until the heavier shafting is required. Then it’s hickory or laminated birch.

Snuffy’s comments about obtaining EFoC with wood raises a valid point. My response? Ignore EFoC and keep shooting what’s worked for me for decades. Seems easier than switching to carbons. As for wood arrows being good for pigs and deer but nothing bigger… come on! I’ve killed moose, brown bear, eland, and water buffalo, all with wood arrows, pass-throughs in almost every case. Henry David Thoreau reminded us from Walden Pond to “Simplify! Simplify!” and he had it right.Why do we–TRADITIONAL bowhunters, of all people–keep inventing problems just so we can solve them? Don

I have to agree with Don, and this coming from someone who primarily shoots carbon arrows (which probably has more to do with not being able to reasonably find wood shafts that accommodate my 32” draw length). Folks were killing all sorts of big game for a long time when wood arrows were all they had. Whether or not they’re suitable for bowhunting use isn’t even debatable.

I have never used anything but wood arrows in over 20 years of hunting with a longbow. I have used cedar, lodgepole, spruce, fir, hickory, ash, and hexpine. And I have killed elk, mule deer, whitetailed deer, mountain goat, antelope, mountain lion, and various small game. Making arrows keeps me busy on cold snowy winter days and I enjoy making them and shooting the arrows I make. I don’t really mind losing or breaking one now and then because that just means I get to make some more.

Mike

Don T. — With due respect for your vastly great experience in hunting and killing lots of really big animals — you misinterpreted what I said (which maybe means I didn’t say it very well). I did NOT mean to suggest that only carbon shafts will work to kill critters bigger than pigs and deer, but rather that right now, so far as I’ve been able to figure, only by using carbon can you attain the extremely high FoC that I have found to allow a mid- to light bow shooter to get reliable lethal penetration with bad bone hits on big heavy boned animals. It’s the ability to hang lots of front weight on a fairly light carbon shaft so that the overall weight is pretty heavy but most of it is up front, and you still get great flight. Maybe that’s no more clear than my first try, so once again: Right now, only with carbon shafts can you get EFoC, and my own experience, no BS, convinces me that EFoC is the single most important penetration factor especially if you can’t shoot 70 pounds. So far as “Simplify,” while you suggest it means doing what we’ve always done so long as it works (and I don’t disagree), in this case, for me, “simplify” means doing and using what provides me with the most consistently clean kills and best odds of recovery. Unlike you, what I did for years didn’t always work, maybe because I’ve never been able to shoot more than mid-60s bows and that’s going down fast with age. Go chase moose, grizzly, etc. with a 55 pound bow and your old setup and see how your odds hold up!

That said, we really appreciate having you on here with us regular guys, Dr. Don. Makes it truly feel like a brotherhood. 🙂 Snuffs

I shoot both wood and carbons, have tried footed shafts and dont find them any stronger than any other wood shaft just prettier. My carbons (Gold Tip Blems from Big Jim) $42.99 a dz are extreme FOC I ordered them extra stiff and fitted them with a 100gr brass insert, 8 gr lock washer and 190gr tuskers they hit exactly where my 200gr field tips do. As for wood shafts the best I have found is Sitka Spruce from the Hildebrands here in WA…Paul

Well… I’ve read the Dr. Ashby Reports and articles by Dave Petersen. Maybe, I’m a hopeless romantic, but I will always stick with wood. Spine, High FoC, Extreme FoC all very important things to know. Knowledge can only make me a better wood arrow maker. Like I said, I’m a romantic, I’ll give up on wood when pigs fly! 🙂

DD49… you did not mention what draw length or bow poundage you’re pulling? Also the Surewood shafts you received, what length were they when you spine tested them? I’ve never had an issue with Surewood Shafts yet and I’ve gotten a few dozen of them.

,Interesting topic, guys as the “missile” and the “warhead” are the most important aspects of our antiquated weapons system and since we’re all opinionated experimentators, I say shoot what you like. As a firearms and handloading enthusiast also , it’s fun to try all different combos- perhaps someone will invent an arrow with an aluminum nock section attached to a carbon shaft footed with the hardwood of your choice!
As for wood- at least the broken ones make a useful fire or tomato stakes- How many pens can you make out of bent and broken aluminum and carbon!? One other aspect of wood is if-when- you lose one in the boonies as it submarines to some unknown location or if you unfortunately wound your prey, wood will eventually rot, mice will eat the feathers, the BH rust into oblivion and you’ll be left with no record of your mistake!
Keep discussing without cussing and Good shooting-Bert

Hey Bud, I shot wood arrows over 20yrs. and never thought I was handicapped in any way. I killed both hogs and Elk with them.

About 4 yrs ago I switched over to carbons for most of my hunting after starting to shoot them at the Muzzy Shoot here in NY(super tough on arrows!). Now that I travel a little more than I used to, I find it easier to hunt with carbons while away on a trip. Unscrewing the heads, and the fact that they’re just plain tougher means I can bring less arrows with me.

Although I still use them for putzing around and small game, there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t miss shooting and making my own wood arrows.

There is nothing as quiet as a wood arrow coming off a bow!You can make them to as close or closer weight, spine tolerance as carbons, and they’re just plain fun to work on! You can make them as plain or artistic as you want.

If someone took all my carbons from me and said I could never use them again…I wouldn’t skip a beat and go right back to woodies! Wouldn’t even consider Aluminium..

Although I love the way my high foc (I have no idea what the % is)carbons shoot and perform on game. I don’t feel I’ve ever killed anything with them that wouldn’t have been just as dead had a wood arrow been behind the BH….

“Why do we–TRADITIONAL bowhunters, of all people–keep inventing problems just so we can solve them?” Don

That’s a good quote right there.

This is just a thought but it keeps coming back in my mind so I’ll put it out there. Fred bear used to shoot wooden arrows and swithed to fiberglass arrows for dangerous game ( please feel free to correct me on this one ). So perhaps we are doing the same here, switching over to a material that is more convenient with todays bowhunting society.

I myself have been thinking about going back to wooden arrows. I remember anchoring and releasing on a very nice moose a number of years ago and I still remember as of today how I lost sight of the fletching as it did a complete pass through right behind the shoulder.

Hummmm…..somehow, our hearts always seem to lead us back to our ancestors.

SB

My arrows are all wood (or grass–bamboo)and I don’t plan on changing. I shoot both Poplar and Hickory and have yet to break a Hickory shaft on anything.

Dennis

Every now and then I briefly consider switching over to carbon arrows. The reasoning behind switching over is because out of a dozen wood arrows, usually half of them fly really well. That said, I stick to my wood arrows because they continually remind me that the name of the game is to get really close to the quarry and don’t over complicate this wonderful world of traditional archery. I have a difficult time believing that wood arrows of today are inferior to wood arrows used by our Native predecessors. I understand the argument for carbon arrows as far as EFOC and straightness. But in the end, I really struggle with any metal touching my beautiful wood riser. It just doesn’t feel right to me. In the end, if you have a yearning to hunt with wood arrows, GO FOR IT!

My brother cracks me up. He has always shot wood arrows until recently he bought a dozen carbon shafts, because he got tired of breaking them during practice. ( lots of rocks behind the target ) Well he set them up, stabbed them in his quiver, and went hunting. As soon as he got home he pulled them back out. I asked him why? He told me he couldn’t stand the site of them in his quiver. He’s done that twice now. I think he’s done. Me I’m just fine with my cedars. I would like to try some surewoods, but can’t get the spine I need. Out of stock on certain spines.

Hey Lunertic,
I also saw that Surewood was out of the spine that I needed but I went to Braveheart’s site and ordered 2 dozen of the Surewood, 55-60 spine Sunday. I don’t know what spine you need but Braveheart may have what your looking for in Surewood shafts.
Brad

donthomas wrote: Snuffy’s comments about obtaining EFoC with wood raises a valid point. My response? Ignore EFoC and keep shooting what’s worked for me for decades. Seems easier than switching to carbons. As for wood arrows being good for pigs and deer but nothing bigger… come on! I’ve killed moose, brown bear, eland, and water buffalo, all with wood arrows, pass-throughs in almost every case. Henry David Thoreau reminded us from Walden Pond to “Simplify! Simplify!” and he had it right.Why do we–TRADITIONAL bowhunters, of all people–keep inventing problems just so we can solve them? Don

Oh, so NOW we’re suppose to rely on experience?!
(Before you attempt to hunt me down an impale me with one of those non-EFoC arrows…I’m joking! :shock::D )

I’ve shot some 200 plus pound pigs with my woodies and have had several complete pass-throughs. 56# longbow with a 650 grain cedar arrow.

My thought is to have the arrow stay inside the animal; I think it causes more damage as it works it’s way out. Sharpen the back end of your broadhead and don’t worry about a complete pass-through.

It’s one of the best sites in bowhunting…..a mature animal runing away with your fletching sicking out it’s side. THat broadhead it twisting a turning the entire time that animal is running. It’s always worked well for me.

Thanks for the info Brad, 55-60 is exactly what I need.

While I’m grateful for Ed Ashby’s work, I’m with Don on this one. 10 years ago I shot a caribou with a cedar arrow and hit too far forward–hit the shoulder blade and still made it into the lungs. I’ll probably start playing around with some heavier points in the spring, but I like making wooden arrows too much to use anything else. If you want heavy, tough, consistent wooden shafts you can’t beat laminated birch from Allegheny Mtn. Arrow woods

Been shooting wood arrows for over 40 years. Never even heard of FOC or the Dr. Ashby ‘best broadhead/best penetration’ designs until recently. And never shot much of anything but Bear razorheads with and w/o the inserts with pretty good results. Starting to wonder now how I ever killed anything without all this crucial knowledge. Didn’t seem to bother Fred Bear much or Howard Hill. I see all the ads today for this or that ‘best’ broadhead and still bet more game has been brought down with a bear razorhead than all the rest put together. Very sad Bear archery doesn’t offer the old glue on Bear razorhead anymore. Very much agree with Don Thomas’ assessment recently in Traditional Archery that for the most part hitting them where you’re supposed to is the best assurance of a clean kill. I think most of us need “bone-splitting” penetration and special FOC arrows like we need a hole in the head. A cedar arrow with a Bear razorhead (145 gr w bleeder) will work well on about anything most of us hunt.

Desert Dude — please tell us more about your Great Basin Footed Shafts. For now, although they can’t approach the mid-20s FOC of carbon set-ups, footed shafts with heavy heads seems the best compromise between the “good feel” and fun of making and shooting wood arrows, and Ashby’s research re FOC. Trouble is, footed’s are expensive and I’ve had reports from friends of being dissatisfied with the product from other well-known footed shaft makers — extreme differences in weight and spine in a dozen shafts. Tell us more, thanks, including a website address, as I can’t find one with google.

My god those are beatiful arrows…makes me wanna make woodies again!

How long does it take you make one of those?

Cheers

Wood just goes with a traditional bow in my old mind, have always worked well for me . this year tried some carbons got one deer with the carbon and one with the wood; after words felt cheated out of the carbon shot deet; the wood just makes it for me

If you can find them, Lodge pole pine is a VERY GOOD arrow wood. 15% heavier than cedar and ten times STRONGER. After nearly 20 yrs. of using them on deer and elk, I’ve only had one get broken and that was by a button buck that wheeled and step on it after a pass through.

I shoot aluminums because they’re cheap and easy to tune. When I have more money and time at my disposal (somewhere down the road lies a pot of gold with my name on it), I’ll give wood a try. I may even make an attempt at making some of my own from scratch. We’ll see. Until then, aluminum for me.

Michael

It simply amazes me all the folks who have quit shooting their compounds and gone back to longbows and recurves to be more “traditional” and then go and shoot carbon arrows or even aluminum. I’m pretty much with Don Thomas on this one and have been shooting wood arrows for over 45 years with no problems I can determine. And this from mostly 45 to 50# bows. Yes, all this mostly on deer but plenty of them. I don’t think it’s hard to find good cedar shafts these days, they’re just about 10 times more expensive than they ought to be because they can be. IMO very very few archers today could tell any difference in accuracy between well made wood arrows and aluminum or carbon shot out of hunting bows.

donthomas wrote: Henry David Thoreau reminded us from Walden Pond to “Simplify! Simplify!” and he had it right.Why do we–TRADITIONAL bowhunters, of all people–keep inventing problems just so we can solve them? Don

This is why I shoot carbon arrows! A good buddy of mine, went on a trip to Iowa in December, and he is definatly a primitive guy, and his rivercane shafts were greatly effected by the cold weather.

Dont get me wrong, so is carbon, but not like his were, he had a hard time getting them to go where he wanted them to the day before the hunt, and all carbon does is get a bit more brittle! Carbon is just easy, you take it out of the box, cut them, fletch them, and shoot them! Easy as pie:D

P.S, like others have said above me, it is truely great to be albe to interact with the great bowhunters of our time!!!:D

Greatreearcher wrote: [quote=donthomas] Henry David Thoreau reminded us from Walden Pond to “Simplify! Simplify!” and he had it right.Why do we–TRADITIONAL bowhunters, of all people–keep inventing problems just so we can solve them? Don

This is why I shoot carbon arrows! A good buddy of mine, went on a trip to Iowa in December, and he is definatly a primitive guy, and his rivercane shafts were greatly effected by the cold weather.

I have shot wood arrows in rain in storms you couldn’t get more wet in then if you jumped in a river to 110 degrees to 20 below 0. I never missed because I was shooting wood.:D

I wouldnt say otherwise jesse. I am sure that his deal was because he was shooting rivercane. But here is really my main point!:D

Greatreearcher wrote: Carbon is just easy, you take it out of the box, cut them, fletch them, and shoot them! Easy as pie:D

Doggone it, I have read through this post and have decided to buy some wood shafts to give them a whirl. Never shot them before now, never really put much thought into it… I just assumed that I would have to fight with straightening them over and over in the field and that sounded like more pain than it was worth. I guess I will have to figure it out by trial and error.

Stick n String wrote: Doggone it, I have read through this post and have decided to buy some wood shafts to give them a whirl. Never shot them before now, never really put much thought into it… I just assumed that I would have to fight with straightening them over and over in the field and that sounded like more pain than it was worth. I guess I will have to figure it out by trial and error.

I hear ya. I’m in the same boat. I would’ve bought some wood arrows at the Kalamazoo expo, but my wife’s dog contracting parvo, and the associated vet bill put the kibosh on that. ($500 later…she’s OK)

DesertDude, it sure would.

Thanks, Dude. This will be good. I think that if everyone knew how easy it is to build arrows, how much fun, and how small an investment is required, finished arrow-makers would all but go out of business. While we can “build” alum and carbon arrows and that’s fun too, wood is the most fun, the most potentially creative and with po cedar, you just can’t top that heady good smell. I would provide a basic list of supplies and gear you’ll need but don’t want to risk robbing Dude’s demo. Myself, this snowed-in weekend, I’ll be building my first internally footed woodies. The adventure never ends! 😀

Looking forward to the build along Desertdude!

I am currently working on 1/2 doz POC with 3rivers swift fletching. Thinking about cresting them too.

All this talk about the Douglas Fir has me wanting to try some of that.

Duncan

Chris…..stick around and expand your horizons son. I love cedars with my longbows, and they will shoot right with your carbons in the coldest weather. I like my aluminum arrows too, but cedar is special with longbows, and you won’t lack in the accuracy or dependability department.

Frankly, I’m growing weary of hearing about this EFOC stuff, and carbon arrows offer no great improvement as far as I’m concerned.

Hey Mark(DD) is there anything you can do for me?

I bought a gross of POC years ago and ended up giving most of them away because I ended up hating making them…lol

I love shooting them and don’t even mind breaking one on occasion since I love the smell but dang it I hate building those darn things. I use my broken ones for their smell,. I’ve been known to break an old broken shaft once in awhile just so I can get the fresh smell.

For me they are like building models(which I’ve always hated doing too) There’s no telling how many unfinished boxes were found around my house and under my bed when I left home as a young man entering the US Army.

I already know your answer, buy more!!…lol I will but they will be completed arrows from really good folks like you and Butch that love building them…lol

God bless,Mudd

Chris Shelton wrote: [quote=donthomas] Henry David Thoreau reminded us from Walden Pond to “Simplify! Simplify!” and he had it right.Why do we–TRADITIONAL bowhunters, of all people–keep inventing problems just so we can solve them? Don

This is why I shoot carbon arrows! A good buddy of mine, went on a trip to Iowa in December, and he is definatly a primitive guy, and his rivercane shafts were greatly effected by the cold weather.

Dont get me wrong, so is carbon, but not like his were, he had a hard time getting them to go where he wanted them to the day before the hunt, and all carbon does is get a bit more brittle! Carbon is just easy, you take it out of the box, cut them, fletch them, and shoot them! Easy as pie:D

P.S, like others have said above me, it is truely great to be albe to interact with the great bowhunters of our time!!!:D

I agree with you Chris. Wood does not sound like simplifying to me. All the different woods, all the tools you need, paint, lacquer, straightening and time. My high school did not have any shop classes. I could never build a bird house although I tried. My father was the same way. Those with talents for wood are blessed. I rather spend my limited time hunting. Those that have the time and money to work on wood more power to you. Enjoy 😀