Cane Arrow Weight

[Ryan_Gill_HuntPrimitive]

I have a horrible time trying to get any weight out of my cane arrows.  I want to do them all primitive, no metal. Finished out with points I'm barely getting 500 grains.  They are 29-30" long, the ends are filled. I either fill with skewers of split cane or sand. either way the weight gain is only about 25-40 grains. And that is cutting just behind the node so i get as much "arrow" to stuff full as possible.  I have no problem getting 600 grain bareshafts out of my sparkleberry or privet arrows.... but i just cant get weight from cane at all.   Yeah I know I could stuff a nail down in the ends or add any kind of metal weight, but I don't want any metal in there. They are all stone pointed arrows and yeah, no one will be able to see the nails....but I will know they are in there..  Ideally I want 600 grains out of them (roughly) but id be happy with 550.  Im barely getting 480- low 500's.  I've used river cane from Alabama and Florida both, with no difference between the two.  I lose about 25gr by barrel tapering the ends of my shafts, but I feel this is 100% necessary when shooting stone.   any ideas? or just going to have to suck it up and shoot 450-500's?   I've killed deer with stone pointed cane arrows with less weight before, But I sure wouldn't mind getting the extra umph outa them.

[Pat B]

What cane are you using? I can get 600gr to 700gr on finished hill cane arrows with stone or trade points.

[Ryan_Gill_HuntPrimitive]

It's the good thick walled river cane, not phragmites or anything weak.   My points are also between 50-75 grains .. add extra weight in the points isn't really an option. From my experiences, those big stone points don't penetrate enough consistently.  So I'm very picky about the size of the points I shoot.   I leave my cane arrows longer than my hardwood arrows too.   I'm sure I can get by when them, they have worked several times before, but man it's aggravating that I cannot come up with a good heavy cane shaft.   And thats going through a lot of cane shafts, spineing and weighing.

[burchett.donald]

    Twistedlimbs,
                         50 grains is a  light point, not to say it wouldn't do the job on a deer. What kind of penetration problems were you experiencing with heavier points? Maybe a heavy foreshaft would give you a little more weight.
                                                  Don

[Ryan_Gill_HuntPrimitive]

stone is way less dense than steel. so you just dont get the same weights from the stone points without having too big a point. My points are 7\8 - 1" wide.   I tune all my arrows to fly without points at all, then ad the light points.    The Bigger points, despite being sharp don't consistently punch out both sides. I have gotten a couple out the opposite sides If I don't hit any ribs or anything, but the small points on a heavy arrow get full penetration pretty consistently.

             Ive shot pass through's with smaller points on lighter cane before, so i know 500 will work, especially at 10 yards from a 60 pound bow.  But I can't help but to always want to shoot heavier bows and arrows. I never had toooo much penetration!

[H Rhodes]

  I have been using long,  thin oak foreshafts which fill an entire internode area (inserted about four or five inches into the shaft) and which protrude a good inch beyond the end of the cane.  I fill that gap between the end of the cane shaft and the point with lots sinew and glue wrapping, which adds a good bit of weight.  Once you finish all that off with a pine pitch to smooth your transition areas it will give you another 75 - 100 grns. 
  It is still hard for me to build a 600 grain cane arrow if I use the "3/8" fat end formula".  You just about have to go with bigger diameter and bigger points... scale the whole design up and shoot a heavier bow, if you want cane arrows for hog killing...