The headless arrow experiment.....(photos included)

[half eye]

Had some questions about NA arrows without heads....so I did me a little experiment today. Took a 5/16" birch shaft arrow (with no head) sharpened it and then heat-treated the end of it. Also made a cane arrow with a small hardwood fore-shaft which was also sharpened and heat treated.

First thing I did was shoot both arrows at a piece of 1/2" Wolanized plywood. The birch shaft penetrated about 1" out the back of the plywood. The cane arrows fore-shaft barely poked out the back but then was driven backwards into the cane stem and bounced backwards. Neither point was damaged hardly at all. I then took the arrows and flight shot them. The birch arrow went 172 (measured) yards and the cane arrow went 153 (measured) yards (don't believe the "blunt" end helped much. By the way both arrows flew very straight both at the 15 yard target, and the entire path of the flight shot.

The bow was is an Eastern Ojibwe, ash selfbow, drawing 45# @ 26" (arrows were drawn to 26"). The birch arrow weighs 348 grains and the cane arrow weighs 236 grains. Just though I'd let ya'll know that headless arrows fly well and straight, and sharpened wood pointed shafts penetrate suprisingly good.
rich

[jeffhalfrack]

  Man!!!   did  you  hear  that  crackle?  something  shorted in  my  brain!!!!!   thanks  Rich,,,,   I  needs  to  ponder  this  one  a  while      if  I  was  a  gambler,,,,  I'd  go  home  broke  on  a  bet  like  this   JEFFW

[ErictheViking]

cool experiment Rich, looks like alot of damage from a very fast and easily made point.

[aznboi3644]

Nice experiment.  I've been shooting headless arrows for over a year.  Mine all fly straight and where I look.

[hillbilly61]

That's pennitrations. I don't care what anyone says. Now add that splintering thing, and OUCH for awhile

[JackCrafty]

That's a real eye opener!

[bubby]

yeah rich, I was using the same method, sharpen, heat treat, then soaked the tips in super glue, had some arrows get inch and a half pass thru on a full one inch thick cedar fence board, had to cut them off couldnt pull them out and most with little damage to tips, Bub

[Scowler]

I've done similar tests with fire-hardened tips with similar results.  I found that using long arrows helps with arrow flight.  Never thought about soaking the tips in Super Glue.  Thanks for the tip, bubby.

[Young Bowyer]

I was reading this because im out of field points  im gonna try bubbys method with my poplar dowel shafts

[bubby]

yb, you can also go the duplex nail route for a field point, works good, Bub

[ken75]

nice to see what desoto learned first hand. i damn sure dont want them shot at me

[Pat B]

A few years ago my friend Barry made some pointless cane arrows for the primitive class at the NC State Trad Championships Shoot. He made a diagional cut about 4" from a node on the point end of his cane arrow and fire hardened it. He filled the end with sand(for weight) and sealed it with pitch. Barry shot the whole coarse with this arrow. He hit trees with this arrow and it held up well through the 20 target coarse with little ill effects to the arrow.  I've seen Barry use fire hardened hardwood points added to cane arrows also.

[Young Bowyer]

Very interesting Pat, Im going to try to experiment with the reed we have here. (Eastern Ontario) Great idea using the sand for weight, could you use some sort of crude foreshaft and just insert it? (Thats what she said  ) And then fire-harden and sharpen?

[Pat B]

That's similar to what Rich posted. His cane arrow has a hardwood foreshaft(point). A sinew wrap on the cane at the point will secure the point very well.

[Lee Slikkers]

I can see where a sand/pitch filled cane might work better than one with a fire hardened fore-shaft as the fore-shaft would certain be driven back into the cane easier creating a splitting wedge potential but then, if sinew wrapped well I suppose one could also prevent this from taking place.  Interesting stuff regardless...