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So I am torn right now between wood arrows and carbon arrows. I have shot both now for roughly a year or two each. Personally I love using wood arrows, I think they are the purest form of traditional archery and they are just so fun to shoot!
On the other hand carbon arrows fly much quicker and fly straighter and I can get away with much more with them.
The difficult part that I am facing right now is, currently I do know have the knowledge to make woodies. I do not have the equipment to make them nice a pretty and I also do not know where to find good wood shafts. Eventually I would love to dive into that more but at this point I am still learning and absorbing. That being said I have my arrows made and shipped out to me. I love the arrows that I receive and they are some of the best wood arrows I have shot. The down fall is the woodies are getting expensive for a dozen arrows.
For the carbons I buy just the bare shafts and I build my arrows to the way I like it. I enjoy putting my own fletching on and playing around with the lumenok and making flu flus with them. In the end they still are not what I want to use.
The other difficulty is that I use to have close to 30 woodies, I had my 3 best ones for hunting and the rest were for practice. I have not broken all my wood arrows except for 2 of them which are my 2 hunting arrows. I have broke carbons too but not nearly at the pace in which I break the woodies.
I do not have any more woodies but still have about a dozen or so of them that I have been practicing with. I wondering if I should use the carbons for hunting this year since that is what I have been practicing with these last few weeks.
I just don’t know what to do….any advice??
PS – for whatever reason I feel like I should have started this post with “Dear Diary” :lol::lol:
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This should be fun to watch. Where’s the beer and popcorn??
There are such die-hard wood users that it will likely get “interesting”.
I find it somewhat moot to argue the traditional aspects of wood arrows if shooting composite bows…self bows, by all means… Have at it!8)
When I started out, I started with hard, tough ash shafting. I could NOT put a nock point or head point taper on those bloody things without borrowing my buddy’s “Woodchuck” sanding rig.
Ash was a bear to straighten. I got some RRA (the older couple) standing dead cedar that were heavy (23/64 tapered to 5/16) and they took almost the same abuse as ash!
Back in those days you had to buy a 100 cedar shafts to get a good 2 dozen or less. Now top arrow makers lament to me it takes 1000 shaft lots to find a couple dozen good, matched straight grained arrows!
I made the transition to carbon. Either straight or broken. Been that way since.
Nothing wrong with wood, but I’d rather shoot than build. I don’t have spine tester, taper tools, and spinners, so carbon just works for me. They’re not purdy, but the deer they have killed haven’t complained that I noticed…!
Carbon, we used to tease back to our wood supporters, is just really, really old wood! 😀
They’re not perfect (carbon) as some who built competition arrows would still spine and spin, and weigh every shaft in a dozen and find that often the dozen had ones that were out of spine or weight… so they’d cull and keep boxes till they would get a dozen similar for their competition shooters.
Consequently, I now tune EACH and EVERY arrow individually… cutting each one from full length a skosh at a time. I keep records and even have numbered shafts to ensure it’s not me.
Do as you see fit. I just didn’t have the budget to buy pre-built good wood, and I can whip out a set of carbon’s in decent time, once I bare shaft the shafts and am ready to fletch…then check tune again. I leave a 1/4″ extra at the back where I fletch so if some cutting is necessary (blade width on the cut off tool) I can do it pulling the nock out to cut. I also like being able to switch out weight of inserts, add over footings of alum to strengthen the lighter weight target shafts, (keep total weight down while getting EFOC) and shift point weights till I find that silver bullet, as it were.
I’ve even shot 3 different deer with the same arrow…just washed the fletch, dried and steamed it and re-sharpened the removable head on my KME and killed another next year!
Each his own. What floats one’s boat will sink another or make them think they’re running a garbage scow. To each his own.
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Thats one thing that I never have done with my carbons is cut them. I buy the full length shafts and put feathers on and let them rip basically and never had any issues. The woodies on the other hand I have them cut to a certain length.
To me the making the arrows is all part of being a traditional archery. I love putting together the arrows and inspecting each one, I could almost name my arrows too, both carbon and wood 🙂
What I like about carbon over wood is the fact that I can bounce another arrow off of it and it will not be effected. The woodies get banged up and I have already had 2 arrows explode upon release and I will not fire any more damaged arrows because of it.
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Thats one thing that I never have done with my carbons is cut them. I buy the full length shafts and put feathers on and let them rip basically and never had any issues. The woodies on the other hand I have them cut to a certain length.
To me the making the arrows is all part of being a traditional archery. I love putting together the arrows and inspecting each one, I could almost name my arrows too, both carbon and wood 🙂
What I like about carbon over wood is the fact that I can bounce another arrow off of it and it will not be effected. The woodies get banged up and I have already had 2 arrows explode upon release and I will not fire any more damaged arrows because of it.
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I do not see where problem is
Wooden shafts make pure trad arrows and are enoughf to hunt if shoots are 20 yards maxi
If you want fasts and very precise shoots on longs shoots
nothing better than carbon
They bury alu and relegate wood for only trad shooters, but if your bow has no fiber glass no carbon Only wood
you must only use wooden shafts
imagine a carbon bike with steel wheels and rubber tires !
If you have a ”modern” trad bow you ask yourself questions that have no real meaning
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Such quandaries we get into when we get curious. I took my 47# longbow with an assorted array of broadheaded arrows. Wood, which up til this years has always been my choice, aluminum which I have used before and carbon, some Gold Tip 35-55’s and some Carbon Express 150’s.
This was going to be a day of decision.:D
So, at 25 yards, all my arrows shot repeatedly the same baseball cap sized group. At 40 yards they all grouped in the same basketball sized group. Hell of a quandary:D:D
Since I’m comfortable with wood and my equipment (bow quivers) are designed to grip wood shafts, I’ll probably go with them. But I think I’m going to put some carbons that have some FOC in my GF type quiver. We see what happens.
So shoot what you’re comfortable with but it’s fun to play. 😆
By the way Bruce the Carbon Express with the Zwickeys you provided are sweet!!!
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T,
I wouldn’t get too fussed about carbon shooting faster, that’s just a matter of weight. And as far as shooting straighter goes, I for one don’t shoot straight or consistently enough to notice that.
I would just use whatever you prefer, based on money and time constraints and whatever weight you happen to put on the aesthetic value of wood. I love wood too but am always torn for a number of reasons. If time and money were no issue I would never shoot carbon again.
Like fellas have said above, don’t worry about there being a right answer, find the answer that is right for you 😉
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“Like fellas have said above, don’t worry about there being a right answer, find the answer that is right for you”
What Jim said! Also, even though I shoot carbons, I’ll have to give a +1 to Ash or Mahogany shafting as well.
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I can relate to that dilemma! When I started shooting a traditional bow 10 years ago, I used alu arrows, but quickly switched to wood, and for a few years, nothing but wood. After trying shafts from different sources, I discovered tapered compressed cedar shafts made by a guy in Montrose, CO. Man, did they fly good!!!! Then I bought my first carbons, Beman classics, which I still shoot today. I was shooting both compressed woodies and carbons with equal precision at any distance. Then my compressed shafts guy disappeared, and I couldn’t get any wood arrows that flew as good as my previous ones, so I ended up shooting carbons only!
Having said that, I do miss the whole process of making my wood arrows, and I will NEVER let any aluminum or carbon touch my beautiful Osage self bow!!!! 😀 I have Hex shafts waiting backstage for a chance to touch it! Maybe towards the end of the season, after my freezer gets hopefully full, I will take the self bow out hunting! Good luck! 😀
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Wood or carbon, they all work well and each has their own positive attributes. To me, wood arrows are like selfbows; I enjoy making them a lot more than shooting them. Due to my 32” draw length, wood arrows are mostly reserved for small game, where I use tips that I can draw back onto the shelf. I can’t do that with broadheads, and my accuracy takes a hit if I have to short draw.
Carbon arrows to me are the height of simplicity. They’re either straight or broken, the components go together easily, they can be assembled in minutes and I don’t have to worry about maintenance. I’ve been shooting Bemans since the mid-90s and Victorys for target competitions over the past couple years. Of the countless dozens I’ve bought I have yet to find a single shaft out of spine or weight. The ICS 340s I buy today weigh and spine the same as the ones I bought a decade ago.
In the end—wood or carbon—they’ll all get the job done afield. We have more than enough historical data to prove that point. Besides, if Don Thomas can kill a water buffalo with a wood arrow I don’t see anything on this continent being a problem.
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This thread reminds me a little of Smithhammer’s Assumptions and Biases… I love it.
Oh yeah, arrows.. me? I shoot carbons, just because I shoot them better than I was shooting wood. Maybe if I would have paid attention to my wood arrows as much as I do my carbons I would have done better with them. Maybe now that I’ve got a bit more practice under my belt I’d do better with them, too. Thing is, I’m only shooting one set-up for target, stumping and hunting. I really admire you guys that can pick up any bow and arrow and send them in there to the mark. best, dwc
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30 + years ago aluminum
10-12 years ago to present carbon.
Within last 5 days first time shooting woods and MAN, am I smitten!!! Just received my first order from Joe @ True North Arrows. Unreal the beauty, the quality and the performance. Remarkably quiet….now I’m really torn as I’m comfortable and shoot well with carbons all these years but shooting these woodies last few days I’m putting them in as good or better groups, quieter and doing it from 2 different ( though not remarkably so – Widow PCHX and KBX) bows!
This sure is fun 😆
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jmsmithy wrote: 30 + years ago aluminum
10-12 years ago to present carbon.
Within last 5 days first time shooting woods and MAN, am I smitten!!! Just received my first order from Joe @ True North Arrows. Unreal the beauty, the quality and the performance. Remarkably quiet….now I’m really torn as I’m comfortable and shoot well with carbons all these years but shooting these woodies last few days I’m putting them in as good or better groups, quieter and doing it from 2 different ( though not remarkably so – Widow PCHX and KBX) bows!
This sure is fun 😆
I think that is the problem that I am having….I love shooting the woodies! They are a blast to shoot, I just hate the fact that I break them more frequently. I shoot in my backyard at one of those rhinehart ball targets. I love the target itself its a different shot every time i shoot but I keep banging my arrows together on it. Basically I shoot one arrow and the target moves and then I end up hitting the side of the arrow and splits the arrow right in half. The same thing happens with my carbons too….I guess the lesson here is don’t shoot as many arrows into the target. I will probably limit myself to 3 arrows for that target.
I think my predicament that I have right now will be an on going process and as mentioned before its going to come down to preference
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