Last year was my 2nd and 3rd time hunting at all with wood arrows. I managed to kill a deer with a stone point and a trade point I made. This year I want to continue this streak and do a little hunting with more primitive heads. The main issue I have is my trade points are about 215 grains and I have stone heads in that ballpark. I have no idea where to start with picking wood arrows spine for those heads. I can't find charts with heavier heads listed. I'm shooting an Elkheart 52#@28". I draw 28".
Here is the head I started today
No expert on this but the point weight reduces your spine.
Others will guide u but I say go for it. It can be done.
Quote from: Justin Falon on June 25, 2019, 10:03:49 PM
No expert on this but the point weight reduces your spine.
Others will guide u but I say go for it. It can be done.
I know it can be done and I know it reduces spine but I don't want to buy tons of arrows to find the right spine.
Last year I had 250 grain heads and they flew ok but the 80# spines arrows I had were still stiff.
I'd say that head would reduce the effective spine by 15# to 20# so maybe 65# to 70# spined shaft.
I generally figure about 1 lb per 7 grains, but change rate slows down some with heads over 200 gr and high spine shafts. The only way to really find out what spine is best is to test with a range of spines. PM your phone number and I can send you some shafts.
Quote from: Fletcher on June 25, 2019, 11:18:09 PM
I generally figure about 1 lb per 7 grains, but change rate slows down some with heads over 200 gr and high spine shafts. The only way to really find out what spine is best is to test with a range of spines. PM your phone number and I can send you some shafts.
Thanks for the offer but I'm good. I just dug up an old test kit I forgot about. It has 65-70, 70-75 and 75-80. I also have a dozen 60-65 hickory shafts. Now I just have to see if I can dig up some woody weights and heads
My current setup is with 150 grain woodie weights + 135 grain zwickey. So that's 285 total up front and about 680 grains total. Personally, I'd worry more about getting it tuned well than what the exact weight of the components are. Worst-case scenario, you end up with an arrow so heavy that can punch through a rhino but only at 10 yards (if you're dumb enough to try it).
Quote from: YosemiteSam on June 26, 2019, 12:56:03 PM
My current setup is with 150 grain woodie weights + 135 grain zwickey. So that's 285 total up front and about 680 grains total. Personally, I'd worry more about getting it tuned well than what the exact weight of the components are. Worst-case scenario, you end up with an arrow so heavy that can punch through a rhino but only at 10 yards (if you're dumb enough to try it).
I'm not worried at all about overall weight. I like arrows over 700 grains in carbon and am even playing with hickory arrows that will be 900 grains or so. I'm more worried about finding the right spine and was looking for starting point.
In that case, go with the 3Rivers calculator. Works pretty well for most production bows. If you're shooting homemade stuff, you'll have to adjust accordingly, depending on how good/bad a bowyer you are.
I have a lot of "point loaded" woodies that I use and they shoot extremely well. Wood shafts seem to take to it nearly as well as carbons do.
Be careful, you do NOT need anywhere near as much extra spine as you would guess to make significant jumps in point weight.
I'm putting some arrows together. 100/105 fir shafts
200 grain grizzlies. I've tested a bunch of woods. Fir is not the heaviest but I've got a bunch of these heavier spines. They are straight. Finished arrow will weigh about 725 grains.