Cheap arrows

[CurtisJohnson]

Hey guys,
Does anyone know of a way I can make relatively cheap arrows? Looking at some online and their rather expensive :/

Curtis

 

[roger-uk]

what materials are you looking at using?

 

[dwardo]

If you are after wooden arrows then unfortunately they are expsensive even when you make them your self. The shafts, flectchings, nocks, points start to add up in no time. You can substitue nice cedar shafts for cheaper material but for the cash it aint worth it. Last thing you want is an arrow to fail mid loose and embedd its self into your hand. Dont get me wrong, I have made arrows from allsorts aluminium pipe to more primitive things like hazel. But at the end of the day if you want something that has a chance of hitting the target you have to spend a few quid. Or spend a lot of time making and loosing primitive arrows. If you are just after an experiment thats different.
What bow are you after arrows for?

 

[CurtisJohnson]

what materials are you looking at using?

I was thinking mostly wood

 

[CurtisJohnson]

If you are after wooden arrows then unfortunately they are expsensive even when you make them your self. The shafts, flectchings, nocks, points start to add up in no time. You can substitue nice cedar shafts for cheaper material but for the cash it aint worth it. Last thing you want is an arrow to fail mid loose and embedd its self into your hand. Dont get me wrong, I have made arrows from allsorts aluminium pipe to more primitive things like hazel. But at the end of the day if you want something that has a chance of hitting the target you have to spend a few quid. Or spend a lot of time making and loosing primitive arrows. If you are just after an experiment thats different.
What bow are you after arrows for?

There for a 38lbs recurve bow that I bought last summer, it had 10 aluminium arrows and 5 wooden ones, but I've just about killed them all within we had all that good weather in march.

 

[dwardo]

There for a 38lbs recurve bow that I bought last summer, it had 10 aluminium arrows and 5 wooden ones, but I've just about killed them all within we had all that good weather in march.

You have to get your self a forgiving target or you will just keep killing arrows and it starts getting expensive, trust me,
I use a large cardboard box filled with old sheets and that stops them dead.
The difference between a well spined and quality arrow and a poor one is a world apart, the bow is only half of the weapon, if that.

 

[calgarychef]

I know lots of the more traditionalists will poopoo the idea but the cheapest arrows in the long run are carbon. I can't begin to tell you how much money I've burned up wrecking wood and aluminum arrows before I discovered carbon. If you want carbon to be extra tough look up "footing" for carbons, I do that for small game hunting arrows and they last extremely well. I'll be doing it for my most recent hunting arrows too but only because i'm going to be hunting something very big indeed and can't have any arrow failures involved.

If you want bamboo arrows you can go to any garden center and get nice bamboo for cheap. It doesn't really go with the theme of the style of bow you shoot though, but whatever floats your boat!

 

[roger-uk]

Hey guys,
Does anyone know of a way I can make relatively cheap arrows? Looking at some online and their rather expensive :/

Curtis

What do you call expensive??

 

[awarner]

For a 38lb recurve or any bow for that matter I would not even consider attempting to make an arrow without experience and training, one mistake and it could be a very quick A&E visit.
When I had my GNAS coaching training we get to see some nasty pictures caused by using the wrong arrow on a bow let alone a home made arrow.
You will probably find wooden can be more expensive than alloy plus you still have to match the arrow to the bow.

Don't forget you are playing with a lethal weapon, don't cut corners to try and save a few pennies.

 

[awarner]

If you killed your arrows what are you shooting at?

 

[calgarychef]

What Dwardo said about properly spined arrows is good advise, if you want to shoot accurately it's important. I think you're at the "just wanna shoot and have fun" stage. Maybe a look around online will get you some cheap arrows. The other thing is losing/breaking arrows is part of shooting a bow and ya just gotta get used to it!

For my kids I used to rummage through the "broken arrow" boxes at the archery range and find arrows that could be cut down to their size. They have a motley assortment of aluminum, carbon and wood arrows, some shoot well and others shoot like logs...but all are fun. Be careful with making arrows yourself if they break they can destroy your body parts in the process. Don't let that stop you just learn to do it properly, I hunt with folks that make their own arrows out of all sorts of materials and they get along quite nicely with them.

 

[2trapper]

I agree in saying that wood is fascinating but aluminium and expecially carbon are more durable. Only in the last three months, in three sessions of training I broke about five arrows for mild accidents!

 

[marcelxl]

Get yourself on the Easton Website and check out their shaft selector (hunting arrows) then get yourself on the Merlin Archery site (nothing to do with them, just cheapest place) and order some Easton Powerflights, they are carbons but they are cheap and because they are cheap they have a high glass content therefore tough, really tough! I suspect you will need a 500 spine from a 38lb curve depending on point weights but you can get all that from the selector chart, anything else the nice folks from merlin will help you with. Gamegetters from bowsports are still on a deal I think which are really cheap but get a glancer/bouncer/miss and get a tree or rock then you have a bent 'un. Alu's bend and woods break and I have found as both a field archer and a yorkshireman (i.e. tight!) that Easton powerflights easily work out as the most cost effective arrow on the market in the UK that I know about 'cos if a carbon is still in one piece its straight and these babies laugh at trees and rocks and you should be able to knock some up for about £4.50ea but ready mades from them are about a fiver (plastic vanes)

Spine is important but less important if your bow has a cut out beyond centre so the paradox thing is not as important and you get balance it up with point weights but still, get it right and it makes a helluva difference.

Hope my two penneth helps

 

[CurtisJohnson]

Cheers guys,

I'm probs just gonna have a look on merlin archery, that's where I've been getting cheap wooden ones, because I only use them with my longbow, but for the recurve ill make some carbons.
Thanks for all the help you've offered it was greatly appreciated

Curtis