New Longbow

[Micneador]

Made it down to the McAllister ammo plant traditional 3-d shoot yesterday. My first time going down there. It was great fun, simple scoring, and full of great people. I shot surprisingly well (in my opinion). They were using a 5-2 point system, and I think I only missed the 5 pt zone on 7 of 25 targets. Near 10 ringed the Buffalo at 45 yards.

I eyeballed some of Navajo longbow's work. Dude had some absolutely beautiful bows.

I did end up buying a centaur 62" 41# @ 28" longbow used. Excited to get to tuning that bow out. I also need to eventually find a 3 or 4 arrow quiver for it as my currently selway is entirely to big.


Looking at how things are going, I'm going to be shooting a lot more 3-d events next year. All the competitions around here require wood arrows in longbow class, and I can shoot the same longbow in recurve class with carbons. What does everyone recommend for wood arrows? Size? Necessary tools and equipment for building/finishing wood shafts?

 

[Swampwalker]

I've owned a couple Centaurs. Excellent shooting bows. Have a couple sets of ILF limbs to try out. Jim knows his stuff.

 

[NMSbowhunter]

Wood arrows are great. I like Douglas fir. I buy mine from Surewood Shafts out of Oregon. Surewood Shafts . Check out their website. I believe they sell test kits with a variety of spines. You will need a good nock taper tool. This is the one I have and it works great. Tru-Center V2 Taper Tool for Wood Arrow Building (3riversarchery.com). You will need a fletching jig. The best, in my opinion is the Bitzenberger. Bitzenburger Dial-O-Fletch Fletching Jig (3riversarchery.com) You'll need to decide if you want to fletch right or left wing and get the corresponding clamp for the jig. You will need some dip tubes for finishing the arrows, some field points (have to choose a weight) and feathers. You'll need some glue to attach the feathers, Duco cement is what I use.

As you can see it is a bit involved at first and can get expensive to set up initially. Wood arrows are worth it, though.

Congrats on the new bow!

 

[Micneador]

Wood arrows are great. I like Douglas fir. I buy mine from Surewood Shafts out of Oregon. Surewood Shafts . Check out their website. I believe they sell test kits with a variety of spines. You will need a good nock taper tool. This is the one I have and it works great. Tru-Center V2 Taper Tool for Wood Arrow Building (3riversarchery.com). You will need a fletching jig. The best, in my opinion is the Bitzenberger. Bitzenburger Dial-O-Fletch Fletching Jig (3riversarchery.com) You'll need to decide if you want to fletch right or left wing and get the corresponding clamp for the jig. You will need some dip tubes for finishing the arrows, some field points (have to choose a weight) and feathers. You'll need some glue to attach the feathers, Duco cement is what I use.

As you can see it is a bit involved at first and can get expensive to set up initially. Wood arrows are worth it, though.

Congrats on the new bow!

I've got a fletch jig and feathers already from fletching my own carbon trads and previously fletcher my own compound arrows.

The dip tubes I saw at woods n feathers booth but didn't understand what exactly they were. Now I do. Thank you

What do yall prefer to glue nocks and points? Same cement as for the feathers? Currently have several different types of fletch glue and don't really have a favorite yet.

 

[NMSbowhunter]

I've got a fletch jig and feathers already from fletching my own carbon trads and previously fletcher my own compound arrows.

The dip tubes I saw at woods n feathers booth but didn't understand what exactly they were. Now I do. Thank you

What do yall prefer to glue nocks and points? Same cement as for the feathers? Currently have several different types of fletch glue and don't really have a favorite yet.

I use the Duco cement for the nocks and use hot glue for the points. Just take the point in a pair of pliers, heat it over a candle *(they sell a nice little alcohol burner just for this) and then heat a little glue. Smear some of the heated glue on the taper of the shaft, put the heated field point down on it and rotate it and push it in at the same time. That will make sure excess glue is forced out and the tapers match up so the point will be straight.

 

[TheBlindCat]

I use a Bitzenburger jig. Easiest, cheapest, simplest method to seal is 3Rivers Gasket Lacquer and an Eco dipper. I can put 3-4 coats on a dozen in less than half an hour. I let it dry overnight before mounting nocks. It seems to hold up well to rain/snow. I use fletching tape with a drop of Duco cement (a bottle with fine metal tip works well and keeps the Duco cement just fine for a least a year) on the front and back of the fletching. I attach nocks with Duco cement and points with Saunders hot melt and 3Rivers alcohol burner.

I cut mine with a Lee Valley mini miter box and razor saw. But there are many ways to cut wood shafts, they just need to be square.

For a test kit either 3Rivers or Addictive Archery (he’ll send you single arrows of whatever you want). I’ve bought my shafts from Surewood Shafts, Rose City, and 3Rivers. I know Addictive Archery sells shafts from a few different suppliers.

You can put tapers on with when the pencil sharpener style, it just takes a while and understand those sharpeners are disposable. I have found all of the fancy ones, including the Perfect Taper tool, will tear Doug fir. Still could mount points if it’s annoying. So I’m going to try the 3Rivers sanding jig and a harbor freight disc/belt sander.

Simplest if you already have a fletching jig:

-3Rivers Gasket Lacquer
-Eco Dipper
-Pencil Sharpener taper tools
-Alcohol Burner
-Saunders hot melt
-Duco Cement
-Plastic bottle with metal fine tip (3Rivers and Addictive Archery sell this)
-Lee Valley mini miter box and razor saw, or have the shaft supplier cut them to length.

You’ll also want a drying rack. You can build one from scrap wood, I bought a 3D printed one from Etsy.

https://www.addictivearchery.com/collections/finished-arrows/products/wood-test-arrows

 

[BTaylor]

Arrows - Doug fr from Surewood Shafts
Fletching - real turkey feathers burned to shape on a young feather burner
Use gorilla super glue gel for nocks
Use 3m glue sticks from Addictive Archery for points
Use field points from Addictive archery
Minwax stains for the shafts
Then massey finish to seal them followed by a coat or two of matte clear rattle can poly
Use spray paint for crest but I am not trying to do fine lines.

Other stuff:
You will want a little alcohol burner pot that you can also get from Addictive archery for melting glue and heating points.
You will need an arrow spinner.
You will want a shaft straightener, I use the ace arrow roller
I use the Tru center nock tool already mentioned

"Make wood arrows great again"

 

[Iron_llama]

Is there an advantage to using an alcohol burner instead of a candle?

 

[BTaylor]

Is there an advantage to using an alcohol burner instead of a candle?

It last basically forever and doesnt really have any smoke. Otherwise, no not that I am aware of. My dad always kept a stash of candles he made in used shotgun shells for his hunting kit incase he needed to change a head or point while on a hunt.

 

[Micneador]

Thank yall for the inputs and recommendations. this is another rabbit hole I'm fixated on now (add my wife rolling her eyes here)


Obviously a test kit is what I need to start with, and a 41lb bow is definitely in the 40-45 spine range. I really only plan to shoot wood shafts for 3D. Should I roll with standard 100gr points and cut down till it tunes or mess with changing point weights? Other question is on shaft sizes. I believe this bow is cut past center. Does 5/16 and 11/32 really make that much of a difference?

 

[BTaylor]

Not sure I would mess with 5/16 shafts unless I was going to be shooting a bow under 40#. Test kit wise, I would prolly start with 45-50, 50-55 and 55-60 if you draw 27" or up. Things like a "fast flight" string and draw length over 28" will generally call for a higher spine than the draw weight of the bow. Bows cut too and esp cut past center will generally shoot a higher spine better too. Then head weight comes into play as well. Over 125 is going to start requiring higher spine than bow draw weight and will move up as head weight increases. Shaft length obviously factors in as well when tuning for dynamic spine.

If you are going to shoot 100-125 tips for 3d, depending on how long you cut the shaft, I would expect the 45-50 to likely work for you but you might have to move up though. The other consideration with wood shafts is shaft weight. You can pick a weight range within a spine range. Setting up an arrow for a 25 yard point on will likely work well for you on most 3d courses. This is a rough guess cause I have never setup an arrow specifically for 3d like that but I would think you would be looking at 12-14 grains per pound of draw maybe a touch higher. Hopefully some of the others can verify or correct that.