Bunker Buster UEFOC arrow

[jpcarlson]

#5669

Well, i got er dun. I set off this summer to build some FOC arrows, talked to Doc Ashby, talked the ear of of Troy, and scratched my head. Did a lot of reading through the site and all of the great info in the forum and hear is what I came up with.

32″ Easton Axis Nano carbon shaft, 75gr brass HIT insert, 125gr steel adaptor, 300gr Tuffhead. Total arrow weight was around 800gr. FOC worked out to be about 32%. I used four AA 2″ feathers at 95/105 deg.

Son, do these things fly like darts! I have been shooting at my decent foam target and sending them right through that, and through two layers of old carpet as a back stop. Have bent two steel adaptors already from the pass throughs (with the 300gr brass field points on thankfully).

As the guru’s have said, even at these weights the arrow actually flies in a flatter trajectory than a lighter set up, at least out to 30yds. I shot them in some wicked SD wind/cross wind, and they just go where you point them. Going to take them out for a testdrive on some venison this weekend. I have no doubt they will be effective!

Side note, I am shooting these through a 58″ 1960’s Bear Take down recurve. the limbs are rated at 47# @ 28″, I pull 29.5″ putting me around 51.5# draw weight. very comfortable weight to shoot/draw. the heavy arrows are REALLY quiet too!

Thanks to everyone here for the sharing of create info and experience, wouldn’t have gotten there without you all.

Jans

[jpcarlson]

#44480

Here they are. I took some ideas from David Peterson on strengthening the shaft directly behind the head. The wrap seems to be good, but only comes down 1.5″. I plan to put these on a slow moving turner and apply a thin coat of epoxy for added strength but not to much weight.

Jans

[Vintage Archer]

#44938

I like your set up.Nice footings.Does the footing fit up into the ferrule of the TuffHead.?

[jpcarlson]

#45521

Hey Joe,

Yup, the serving goes right to the end of the shaft. It seems to go up a it when the broad head is on. You can see on the other two with field points where the serving goes to the bottom of the metal adaptor.

I like the broadheads and field points a lot, yes they are tuff! As you can see in this pic, the edge of the broadhead has a couple of nics in it. That was after shooting clean through my closed cell foam target 16″, three layers of old wet carpet for a back stop, then hitting a steel post to the metal fence the carpet was hung on:) Looks like I can clean the edge up and make it sharp again.

I think I will put the arrows on a slow motor and coat the serving with a slow cure epoxy for added strengh.

Jans

[Troy Breeding]

#46462

Jans,

When we talked late last week about the wrap footings I knew they were going to look pretty sharp.

I’m eager to hear how they hold up.

I’ve been using alumium footings for some time now and have always run into needing different size shafts for the footing. With the thread wrap it a simple one size fits all deal.

Thumbs up brother!!!

Troy

[Michael Scott]

#40449

I missed out on the photos of the wrap. Would love to see what it looks like, if it’s not too much trouble.

[jpcarlson]

#42904

I ended up cutting the serving off as it was getting loose after lots of shooting through the target. I also tuned my shafts before adding the serving and they didn’t fly as well with the extra weight. Next time I will serve them, apply some epoxy, then bare shaft tune.

J

[jpcarlson]

#42911

[David Petersen]

#43765

Jans – Your wrapping is prettier than mine, but I’ve not yet had problems with it “wearing” or fraying through shooting. This is fake sinew. I also tried serving string, much like yours, but prefer the sinew as it’s wider and flatter and wraps on tighter. I started by using steel wool to prep the arrow paint then applied a coating of TiteBond III and wrapped the sinew on wet. After drying a few days I sprayed with spar urethane, which may wear off after a while but is easy to reapply. I wrapped back 4″ according to Ed Ashby’s advice. So far I’ve noted no difference in how they shoot and the only one I’ve been able to break was wrapped with serving string and broke well behind the wrap when it glanced off the side of a tree. I’m using old stumping POC shafts for these tests, as I try hard to destroy them. But no luck yet breaking one under the wrap. These are 300 grain Tuffies. I do plan to wrap my Sitka spruce elk arrows this way, as one broke an inch behind the head last year on impact (it may have been nicked and I didn’t notice it). I do need to find a weay to prevent the lump of know at the back of the wrap. For now I’m situating it to face away from the bow to eleminate any bumping over the shelf. It’s all fun.

[jpcarlson]

#43814

Dave,

I like the look of the sinew! Good idea spraying with the urethane, i’ll try that. Not as permanent as epoxy:) in case i want to make a change.

Let me know how the testing goes. I noticed a difference in my flight once I added the serving. It might mean my shafts weren’t quite to the sweet spot once I served them, but I can serve them up again, and retune.

J

[Michael Scott]

#43947

Hmmm…right now, I shoot aluminum arrows. I wonder if this would do anything for them? Anybody tried? I like the concept. Any idea how much weight it adds? Do you use just standard serving string? Thank you both for posting some pictures.

[David Petersen]

#22133

J — I’ve given up (a second time) on the wrapped shafts. The poly wears off rapidly, leading to fuzzing of the thread. And I fear exosy would crack — in fact if memory serves I tried that sometime back and it did crack. So for me at least, the search goes on for a way to strengthen the shaft just behind the head without causing other problems. As I coincidentally just mentioned on another thread, Kevin Forrester http://www.forresterwoodshafts.com offers some beautiful hardwood shafts at 23/64 at the head (perfect for the points you’re using) and tapering gradually back to either 11/32 or even 5/16. I’ve shot some and they fly well, but the hardwoods all are too heavy to deliver good FOC. For folks not worried about FOC but who want good weight and a strong “weak link” behind the head, they’re worth looking into.

[Fallguy]

#22437

Have you tried fishing line? I am going to try that on some carbons this summer.

[jpcarlson]

#30261

Dave,

Don’t give up hope on the serving/glue just yet!:) I used to build my own fly rods and was going to try the same approach to the serving as I did to serving the guides on the carbon rod blanks. If memory serves me, I used a very slow cure epoxy on the line guide servings. It was a flex tight or something like that, 24 hour cure time. The only stickler is I will have to tape/attach the shafts to a slow rotating motor to keep them moving while the epoxy sets up to insure a uniform thickness.

I’ll let you know when I get there, to many irons in the fire right now:)

All good,

Jans

[Charles Ek]

#46068

I have no idea whether this will work for the purpose discussed here. However, West Marine sells a tough, flexible epoxy that I have used extensively in fixing a kayak and making carbon tips on a wooden paddle:

G/flex Epoxy

[David Petersen]

#46100

Thanks fellers for your ideas. In my apparently never-ending and frequently revolving search for the perfect external footing for wood shafts, I’m (at this moment at least) back to wrapping … with real sinew. Given the luck I’ve recently had wrapping self-nocks with sinew dipped in TiteBond3 wood glue, I feel confident it will work well as a “splint” for the shafts as well. Compared to the synthetics I’ve tried–fake sinew and serving string–it goes on easier and more neatly, is thinner and doesn’t fray as easily in shooting. And I’m betting that in a showdown situation it will do what we’re shooting for here better as well–prevent shaft breakage behind a heavy broadhead. We should all experiment with everything that comes to mind and keep the idea exchange going. But I’m sort of stuck until I can score some more sinew, hint hint. 😀

[Michael Scott]

#19865

Wow…it’s been a long while since I last posted on here…lol…I’ve been busy with a new job and some custody stuff this spring and summer, but things are starting to slow down at least somewhat…and straighten out…lol…thanks again for showing the pictures. I still wonder if something like that might work for aluminum shafts, or if I just need to try some sort of carbon insert, plus, perhaps, a larger aluminum sleeve…or I could just go to carbons and sleeve them…lol…of course, I would need money for carbons…haha…anyway, have a good night, guys. Just wanted to drop in before my brain shut down for the night. I’m already starting to get a bit owlie…take care!!

[Ed Ashby]

#20360

Michael,

O.L. uses a series of carbon tubes and a small carbon rod to make an internal footing. That might be worth trying. He has some source on line that sells carbon tubes/rods in many sizes (he also uses them on the remote controlled planes he builds). He uses one carbon tube that’s a slip-fit in the shaft, then a second, somewhat longer tube that’s a slip-fit inside the first tube, then a small carbon rod that’s a slip fit inside the second tube, and a inch or so longer than the second tube tube. He glues this all together with slow-cure (24 hour) epoxy. This creates a step-down IF that works similar to the gradual tapering hardwood IF that I use.

Ed

[jpcarlson]

#20952

That sounds pretty neat Doc! I just saw some carbon shafts I believe were Easton Light Speeds? they weigh somewhere around 7.5 gr/inch in a 340 shaft! Wow! I would like to get some and see what kind of FOC I could come up with on my setup with 500gr up front!;)

Jans

[Author]

Posts