Cane Arrow Weight

[Diligence]

Okay team.  Did a lot of searching, now I need your help.

Just started making bamboo arrows.  I made 2 arrows, both 31" long for my 46# self-bow, both with 125 gr field points.  One weighs 280gr, the other weighs 350gr.  Both fly the same.....at least not with any difference I can notice.  For comparison, my 31" hemlock and poplar arrows are only 240gr each, and they also seem to fly the same as the bamboo.

First question:
What weight of arrow are you shooting, what nominal spine and at what length?

Second question:
How does the arrow weight affect flight?  (i.e. to get all your arrows the same weight, do you keep them the same length, then just up the tip mass?, but then that should drop the spine?....)

Cheers,
J

[Pappy]

Most of mine are between 525 and 550 and for Cain the spine around 60-65 for a 50lb. bow with
cedar about the same weight but spined at 45-50 with arrow cut at about 28 inches. the tapper in the cain or natural shoots you can get by with heaver spine because of the natural tapper.The weight only make a difference with longer shots,but heavy do seem to fly better.I put about 160 on the point.
   Pappy

[riarcher]

Just weighed 10 shafts for this.
30" long, 145 target points, spined at 60-65#, self nocks.
The heaviest is 531 gr, lightest @ 445 giving a total deviation on these of 86 gr.
If I take the average of the ten it would be 487.4 gr.
Of these ten 7 would be within +/- 10 gr. (hmmm, interesting)

Okay, eliminate the high and low -
That would change the average to 487.0 gr. for 8 pcs.

Lets see............ 87gr. is about 18% of total weight variation. That seems like a lot!
And indeed it would be for a compound target shooter at 100 yds. But that's not my intent or purpose.
I've heard that 5 gr. = 1' additional drop at 100 yds. (I don't know if it's true, but..)
So, 85gr wouldbe 17" at 100 yds. deviation on these. If my shooting range is 25 yds. I would suspect up to 4" off the mark would need to be acceptable due to shaft weight and perfect shooting??
Hmmm,, think I need to do better than that because my shooting will definately add to it because I'm far from perfect.
Thanks for sending me back to the drawing board.     ( )

Good post! 

Interestingly, considering the above, my shootiing seems much better than it should be. So now I'm really puzzled. 

[Cromm]

I read some where that your arrow should work out at 10gr for every 1lb.....Not sure if I got that right or not, I will look into it....Sorry...

[riarcher]

Cromm-
For me, I like the 10 gr / lb idea.
Seems to make the bow quieter to shoot, more forgiving and smoother.
I try to stay close to it, but a little one way or the other is good too.