I've come to the conclusion...

[possum]

... my arrow making abilities suck!   Or at least they did.   I started getting serious when my arrows wouldn't go where I aimed.  They went in the general area (same zip code) but nothing consistent.  I started tweaking the length with whatever spine the bamboo spined.  I added bird shot in the heads of arrows too short, shortened 1/4" here, 1/2" here to the long ones, etc...  But the biggest problem I noticed is that the arrows I did last year had fletching that was just HORRIBLE!!  I'm ashamed to even say I did it.  I started shooting the new ones today and WOW!!!  I'm a better shot than I thought.

Moral of this story is:
Check your arrows before the hunt.  Tied on fletching can and will move around and it causes funky arrow flight.

possum

ps I know we all know this but this is just a reminder in case we overlook the basics.

[jamie]

dude im a firm believer that any bent stick is a bow. the arrow is where the art is.

[cowboy]

Ya'll are scarin me 

[Justin Snyder]

dude im a firm believer that any bent stick is a bow. the arrow is where the art is.

WHAT?? Actually without the arrow, its just a fancy rabbit stick.  Justin

[bikermikearchery]

being a rather hard headed individual, I offten have to relearn the same leason over again.
I made a Osage flat bow that I was very happy with the tiller, but it had a fat grip and I made arrows that were very light spined so they could snake around that chubby grip area. This bow shot very well in this set up, but after a while I decided that I could get a few more foot per seconds out of her so i tweaked here and there and cut a sight window and thinned out the grip area. Wow it was much faster. so the next week end I took this bow and the old arrows to a shoot and peppered the whole country side with arrows. No place was safe except the targets that I was shooting at. Took me the whole shoot to figure out that these arrows were now way to lightly spined for this bow. After I made new arrows, the bow shoots just fine.

[mullet]

  This tip came from Art;Be sure and find the stiff side of cane and boo arrows.It makes a big difference.

[lowell]

  This tip came from Art;Be sure and find the stiff side of cane and boo arrows.It makes a big difference.

  Got me thinking!!   Is there a stiif side to rose shoots?

[Justin Snyder]

  This tip came from Art;Be sure and find the stiff side of cane and boo arrows.It makes a big difference.

The stiff side is the side you want to spine and where you want to put the cock feather isn't it? Justin

[Kegan]

Good arrows take twice as long to learn how to make than good bows. But once you make some, even some of your "lesser" bows suddenly become shooters .

[cowboy]

Justin, I'm certainly no authority on the subject but Eddie had told me in the past that with cane and boo, you want the stiff side against the bow. Which I didn't do on these cane arra's I'm workin on - hope at least three of em fly straight. Bow season in about three weeks

[mullet]

 I actually got that information from Chris Cade.He made a set of boo arrows that were flying everywhere even though they were splined the same.Then Art told him about the stiff side.I've used that tid bit since then and own quite a few of Art's arrows and Cades and they all fly like darts.

[Mike_A]

Can someone explain how to find the stiff side? Or is it as easy as get the spine for all four sides and take the strongest? One more question when you spine and find the highest spine the stiff side will be on the side of the arrow that is under tension right? Hope this makes sense to ya'll. Thanks a bunch. Mike

[George Tsoukalas]

This is for shoot arrows only. I put it in the spine tester. Get the reading. Rotate it 1/4 turn and then Get the reading again. When I cut the nock I do it at right angles to the stiffest spine. Jawge

[mullet]

  Mike,On the Boo or cane shafts; I'll leave it about 35".Put the tip of one end against,say a coffee table.And the other end on the floor. Put some slight pressure in the center,rolling it with your palm.When you roll to the stiff side ,it will spin or flip real quick in your hand.If you zero in on the spot ,you can mark it with a Sharpie and then orient your nocks and then have a starting point for your feathers. I hope this makes sense?If not,I heard you could put them in water and the side floating down was the stiff side.Never tried it,I didn't want to get 'boo any wetter.

[Mike_A]

Thanks Jawge and Eddie that helps make it a lot clearer. Mike