Bamboo Arrow Question

[Bushbow]

I made 8 bamboo arrows from Home Depot 6' long pieces of bamboo. I straightened them with a heat gun. all spine 45 to 50 pounds, all weight about 475 grains. They are pretty straight, but flight is not consistent arrow to arrow. I have made hundreds of wood arrows from boards and trees both, and have not had this problem.

The one thing I see is that the nodes are not consistent, some are big and pronounced, some are not.

Should I sand all the nodes flat?

Chuck S.

[NTD]

The only thing I can think of off hand that people have mentioned is...Did you find the stiff side, and orient your nocks accordingly?

[sailordad]

The only thing I can think of off hand that people have mentioned is...Did you find the stiff side, and orient your nocks accordingly?

my first thought too

[Robert E. Leet]

Ok I have straightened my shafts, and found the stiff side.  How do I now orient the nock, knowing the stiff side?

[Tom Leemans]

Stiff side goes against the riser.

[Bushbow]

I did spine them and orient the nock to the stiff side. The only thing I can think is that the diameter is not consistent. I can think of two possible solutions.
1. Flatten the nodes as much as practical and see how they group.
2. Make many bamboo arrows, shoot them, see how they group, and shoot them in sets that group together.

Right now it seems like more work that making 24 arrows out of a single Douglas fir board. Shafts from one board I have noticed are pretty consistent. I am guessing the payoff for using bamboo is that they are less likely to break. I have not shoot the bamboo enough to know yet.

Chuck S.

[Hillbilly]

I always flatten the nodes on boo and cane shafts, down even eith the rest of the shaft. I have had the opposite experience with boo vs. wooden arrows, I find it much easier to get consistant flight with boo/cane than wood. I would guess that the HD boo is probably not the best quality material, either.

[Bushbow]

Thanks for the advice Hillbilly. I will try flattening the nodes. Can't say if the HD bamboo is good or bad, I have nothing to compare it to. I can say it does look like bamboo. Any one of the 8 arrows is not bad, they just all fly different. There is a big difference in the nodes from shaft to shaft. I did notice that some of the shafts are slightly elliptical instead of round. Is that a sign of poor quality bamboo?
Chuck S.

[zeNBowyer]

Boo is more finicky, you don't hafta sand nodes, but you do hafta sort the shafts according to weight and spine, and further-according to how they shoot