A half dozen new arrows :)

[bobnewboy]

Hi All,

Here are some new, replacement bamboo arrows I have made for a couple of upcoming 3D shoots. They are to suit the NFAS 'Primitive' equipment class. The overall length is just shy of 34 inches, and they are very overlength for my draw, but seem to match very well with several different bows that I like to shoot in various classes.

Each nock end has a hardwood insert (hand dowelled osage in this case) glued in, and the self nock formed in that is further reinforced with a button thread/glue matrix. I have used parallel fit steel Bearpaw 3D piles at 70 grains each, with no extra insert. Each arrow carries 3x 2.5 inch Truflight parabolic yellow feathers, which seem to suit the longer distances that we see in 3D shoots these days. The overall arrow weight is 340 grains, plus or minus 5 grains.

Please excuse the poor close-up picture as the phone isnt much good at short distance

Cheers, Bob

 

[mrcharly]

Very nice work. What did you use for the varnish?

 

[bobnewboy]

Very nice work. What did you use for the varnish?

Its Ronseal Diamond hard floor varnish, applied with a soft brush. It is water based and easy to clean up afterwards, but takes a while to really harden up.

 

[redneck]

Do you get a stable arrow flight with 2.5 inch fletches?

 

[Wayne]

Nice looking arrows. Half a dozen for a field shoot your a better shot than me.

 

[bobnewboy]

Do you get a stable arrow flight with 2.5 inch fletches?

Yes, remarkably good when they might otherwise lead to instability. In my experimentation, it is the overlength shafts that seem to assist in this. The arrows seem to match well with a wide variety of bows in the 40 to 55lbs @28 draw weight range, even though the bows vary from English longbow to short horsebow and recurve.

 

[bobnewboy]

Nice looking arrows. Half a dozen for a field shoot your a better shot than me.

Heh Thats half a dozen more of the same spec....

 

[redneck]

Yes, remarkably good when they might otherwise lead to instability. In my experimentation, it is the overlength shafts that seem to assist in this. The arrows seem to match well with a wide variety of bows in the 40 to 55lbs @28 draw weight range, even though the bows vary from English longbow to short horsebow and recurve.

That's very intetesting regarding over length shafts as that can also often lead to a somewhat erratic flight..how much longer than your draw length are we talking?

 

[bobnewboy]

That's very intetesting regarding over length shafts as that can also often lead to a somewhat erratic flight..how much longer than your draw length are we talking?

I believe my drawlength to be 27.5/28 inches possibly dropping to 27 ish when I tire. The arrows are 32.25 from the bottom of nock slot to start/back end of the pile. So around 4 and a bit inches longer than my general draw. I tried making them like this after chatting to a fellow 'primitive' archer at another shoot. He pointed out that in tribal archery over many different regions, arrows are usually considerably longer than draw length. Note that the shafts are actually quite stiff at 45-50 spine, and the pile weight is quite low at 70 grains, so if the arrows were made in the usual lengths their dynamic spine would be quite high for the class of bow.

 

[redneck]

Thanks for that definitely something worth considering.