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Heavy arrow build

My biggest fear with making heavy arrows and putting all the time into making a dozen arrows that fly true with hand sharpened 200 grain single bevel blades, is schlocking one off a limb and losing it in a cornfield or switchgrass or under leaves.
Damn, that would suck.

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These heavy arrows have me interested in building arrows again.
I have some grizzly sticks but even with a 300 grain head I think they are still way to stiff for my black widow.
I’ll watch what you guys do and try it out for my setup.
Great thread.


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I literally just built the same arrows. Mine are 566 finished with a 125gr head. I am of the same way of thinking, I don't want some super heavy head that isn't easily bought at any store. I want to stick with a 125gr head so I can easily replace them on a trip if something went south. The Day Six arrows are great so far and seem to be very durable. Little tip on the outserts and sleeves....get some Bohning CoolFlex glue and install them with that instead of the supplied epoxy. That way if something is damaged you can replace it with a little heat.
 
Following. Interested in a new arrow setup this year, so it is time to learn from those with more experience than me.
 
PJC said:
My biggest fear with making heavy arrows and putting all the time into making a dozen arrows that fly true with hand sharpened 200 grain single bevel blades, is schlocking one off a limb and losing it in a cornfield or switchgrass or under leaves.
Damn, that would suck.

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Click to expand...

Ooh, these heavy arrows bury deep into wood. They penetrate soft bottom ground extremely well too. When you catch a root 24" down you are kinda screwed ...... start pulling and hope for the best. I have donated my share for sure.
 
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Make sure you get the ranch fairy field tip kit from Ethics Archery. 200 -300 grain heads.
I built some Sirius Apollo 250s with a 100 grain insert and a 225 grain field tip punches perfect bullet holes where a 125 grain head didn't.
So now i know the magic number to hit to make them fly perfect....650 grains of madness with an Iron Will Wide leading the way.

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flinginairos said:
I literally just built the same arrows. Mine are 566 finished with a 125gr head. I am of the same way of thinking, I don't want some super heavy head that isn't easily bought at any store. I want to stick with a 125gr head so I can easily replace them on a trip if something went south. The Day Six arrows are great so far and seem to be very durable. Little tip on the outserts and sleeves....get some Bohning CoolFlex glue and install them with that instead of the supplied epoxy. That way if something is damaged you can replace it with a little heat.
Click to expand...
Great minds think alike.

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I haven't seen it mentioned yet so here goes. When I did my arroes a couple years ago I went with 340 spine at 27 inches and according to a spine calculator I'm on the stiff side of optimum. I'm at 200 grains up front and 65#. I think you should do like the ranch fairy says and try tuning out a 340 spine first. You'll only lose a few grains in the shaft and gain FOC. Might be worth the trade off. Especially if you can adjust the insert weight some to hold onto the 125gr heads you want. I think if you can get around that 19% foc and only lose 35-40 grains.
 
Sounds like you're on the right track. I built some similar last year and really liked how they performed, they ended up around 550 grains with about 19% FOC. I had the same thought about readily available heads that won't break the bank, because lets face it, they're going to get lost from time to time. I really liked the performance of the Magnus Black Hornet SER razor 125's and the Buzzcut 150's. You can accomplish quite a bit as far as weight goes with a good insert/outsert system and a decently spined arrow.
Good luck with your build!
 
I just started my heavy arrow build.
I just got my 250 and 300 spine arrows and “Ethics Archery Field Test Kit” with field points from 200-300 grains. I should be getting a dozen 50gr insert weights in on Thursday as well.

I’m aiming for 575-675 grain total arrow weight.

“The Ranch Fairy” May be crazy, but he has some good info.


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Kurt said:
Hot melting in your inserts and or the fact weight style inserts make sense to me for on the fly adjustability. Run different point weights and maintain the same total weight, and FoC.
Click to expand...

Yeah... once a 100gr insert is glued in using superglue type glue... good luck getting it out.
 
I shot "heavy" 560 grain arrows one season and they performed well. Blew through opposite side shoulder on my first archery deer. With a mechanical head no less.

Couple things you should be aware of, but are also part of the fun:
  • Arrow trajectory will be affected. The arrow will now shoot less flat and you will need to adjust your sight accordingly. Not that big of a deal if using a multi pin sight, but If using a single pin slider style this means if you shot 'lighter' arrows relatively flat to 20-25 yards that is likely no longer to be the case, so those on the fly adjustments might be problematic.
  • Tuning heavy arrows can be finnicky. Seemed like I spent much more time tuning my bow to shoot heavy arrows than I ever did my regular ones. But once they were tuned they were fine.
  • If I were to build heavy arrows again i'd definitely use hot melt glue or inserts with adjustable weights so I can go back or change weights for other things ie: 3D shooting, etc.
  • Heavy arrows beat up targets quick like.
 
g2outdoors said:
Yeah I'm working through everything as far as point weight etc. I wanted a heavier arrow so I could shoot readily available Broadheads. I don't want to be locked into a 150 or 200 grain head that I have to order. What happens on a trip if something goes south? I want to be able to run to walmart in a pinch and buy new heads.

And foc is less important to me than overall weight. I'll have decent FOC with this setup. It seems like high teens is the "magic formula".

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I used Ethics 180 grain outserts on my Black Eagle X impact shafts. With those inserts your going to be in good shape for FOC with 100 to 125 grains up front.
 
On your longer bows you could shoot longer, lighter arrows and that would help the foc while not losing as much weight overall. I haven’t shot an arrow that short since overdraws lost popularity. On your gear head bow it wouldn’t make much sense to shoot a longer arrow as it would take away some of the benefit of shooting an ultra short bow only to have a quiver full of 30” arrows hanging on it.
 
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