carbon arrows

[maddawg]

#131186

How does one start. Looking to switch from aluminum to carbons. The question is what is the heaviest arrow I can use? But also how does one select the proper spine for the bow. Bear Kodiak recurve 55 lbs.

[David Coulter]

#131188

Hi MD,

I made made that transition a few years ago. At the same time I found myself in possession of some 225 gr tuffheads. I didn’t realize it at the time as I’m pretty new at this, but that’s the order of things. Choose your broadhead, then you’ll know your point weight. Then pick a shaft that fits. If you’re heading toward higher FOC, then look for a light gr per inch shaft. If you just want a heavy arrow, then there’s more to choose from. I use a 400 shaft on a 45lb bow. That’s stiff by the book, but works great with 350 total gr up front and left a little long. I got lucky and was able to tune the first shaft I bought. Good luck with the process! Dwc

[Stephen Graf]

#131192

I’ll be the contrarian here and stick my thumb in the pie…

If you are thinking of changing arrow types, I would encourage you to consider wood.  I know carbon has it’s allure.  It’s strong, reliable, easy to tune, fast shooting, durable, and expensive.  Here are some reasons to consider wood:

• It’s fun!  Making wood arrows is an easy way to scratch that itch to make something.  It’s easy to learn how to taper and shape your own arrows, even add footings and self nock as you desire.  Finishing is easy.  It’s wood!  Contrast that to carbon arrows, which are no harder to work with then lego blocks.  A 6 year old can do it.  Cutting wood brings a nice scent to the nose.  Cutting Carbon makes your lungs black and cancerous.
• It’s cheap (er)!  Depending on the type of wood shafts you buy, you can get several dozen wood arrows for what a half dozen carbons will set you back.  When you shoot at $45.00 carbon arrow are you totally focused on what you are shooting at, or are you hosting the idea “Gee, I hope I don’t those this arrow…” in the back of your mind so that you are not having as much fun and spending waaay too much time looking for lost arrows.  Will you laugh  and smile when your arrow explodes on a rock, or will you jump up and down and curse?
• It’s ecological!  Wing a wood arrow with feather fletching to some undiscovered spot in the woods and you have caused no long term harm.  The arrow will return to the soil in a few short years and take its place in the web of life.   Contrast that with the affect of a carbon arrow left in the woods.   It will persist for thousands of years, and pose a risk to any critter that steps on it, or chews it, or trips over it.
• It’s renewable!  Arrows literally grow on trees.  Contrast that to the infrastructure, mining, and chemical processing required to produce a carbon arrow.  Why not support a good old american Mom and Pop shop instead of some foreign industrial giant?
• Learn something new! You will learn everything you need to know about carbon arrows in 15 minutes.  It can take a lifetime to learn everything there is to know about wood arrows.  You can start by buying finished arrows, or shafts, and after a few years you may be buying boards to turn your own shafts.  Eventually you may split your own air dried billets into blanks and turn shafts from the old tree that fell behind the house.
• It’s more Traditional!  Carbon arrows came along to support compound bows.  They are an industrial product with no soul.  The were designed to be bullets for pulley guns.

I have found no disadvantage to shooting wood arrows.  They are just as accurate as carbon arrows for me.  They don’t have to be all that straight either.  Each arrow has its own way about it.  Some of my best arrows have been wobbly.  This straightness thing is an advertising gimmick used to make synthetic shafts seem better than organic ones. The only thing manufacturers can claim is that their shafts are straighter than wood shafts.  We fill in the blanks with our assumptions and finish their fiction for them by thinking that a shaft has to be super straight to fly well.

OK, I’m done.

[Raymond Coffman]

#131195

Maddawg

Ditto what DWC and Mr Graf had to say.

I like to shoot both. I have 2 bows dedicated to wood arrows only, and others shoot carbon.  There is a mystique to shooting wood ( and is most trad) that is undeniable. They have taken everything on the planet and are prettier too. More panache – haha. Depending on what wood, they can be quite heavy.

Carbon is easier to get efoc – if you are interested in that.

In answer to your question- I would go to one of the spine charts and see what it says for your bow. they are usually set up for std point weight*, so if that is what you intend to shoot – great. Pick that shaft and one lower and higher in spine and get an arrow test kit from one of the purveyors in trad bow. Try em and see what shoots best. Like Steve said, use a mask in ventilated area to cut carbon.

As an example one of my bows that is set up for carbon – a Centaur RD 54″ 53# @ 26″ shoots good with Easton n fused carbon Axis 28 1/2″ shaft. Total arrow weight is 670 grs.  Over half the weight is in the head. I shoot a tuffhead on it like dwc . That shaft works for me with that head, in that bow, with my shooting style.

Scout

* you didn’t say what the arrow would be used for ? I would go with the spine chart for std heads.

[Ralph]

#131198

Lots of choices and lots of fun.

Just go down the straight and arrow path.

I love wood shafts, I’ve been shooting them for nearly always. They’re simple to me, I get shafts five pounds heavier than the draw weight of the bow at my draw length, put 125 gr, sometimes 145 gr points on them, straighten and re-straighten and if necessary, straighten some more, build them and go on.

Works for me, simple to me but I worked out my formula years ago. It has been a good formula for folks for a long time.

People know that I hate to complicate simplicity……….

My carbons? I’ve kinda got them figured out, they shoot well, but there’s always that factor Steve mentioned, when there’s a jungle or a pile of rocks behind my goal to hit, the “what if I miss and lose or destroy” syndrome takes over sometimes.

I figure that most of the time if I have arrow problems it’s that thing that’s drawing the bow back and not the arrow that’s the problem.

Of course, being an archer in the Texas Panhandle, there’s always the wind to blame problems on.  Not me!!!!!

Your question, how to start.

There’s good info available but my experience with getting carbon arrows to work for me took a lot of diddling around and a bit of expense in buying different weight inserts and points.

They be not too forgiving of bad shooting habits, danged wind again…  ;-))

Good luck….

 

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