Weighing Arrows

[Buck67]

After reading a lot of discussion on this Forum about weighing arrows I thought I'd give it a try.  I built 6 new arrows and got them all to weigh about 400 grains +/- 10 grains.  I noticed that they shot more consistently than a grab bag of arrows with different weights.

What is a good rule of thumb for weight dispersion?   Is +/- 10 grains good?  20 grains?  I also noticed that since the arrows were all made from the same piece of wood that the spline weight was identical +/- 2 pounds.

I kept track of the weights of the 6 new arrows at every stage of construction and was surprised at how little added weight was the fletching, shellac and paint.

[Pappy]

+ or -10 is good and plenty close for most of us shooting out to 20/25 yards,keeping the spline weight close, I think is even more important. Nothing quite like a matched set of arrows, I know some say it don't make much difference but for me it make all the difference in the world in my shooting accuracy and confidants. 
 Pappy

[PEARL DRUMS]

Im happy if they are within 20-30 grains of one another. Especially cane arrows. I cant tell much of a difference in flight or sound until they get about 50-100 grains of separation. Then I can hear and feel it in the bow.

[ajbruggink]

After reading a lot of discussion on this Forum about weighing arrows I thought I'd give it a try.  I built 6 new arrows and got them all to weigh about 400 grains +/- 10 grains.  I noticed that they shot more consistently than a grab bag of arrows with different weights.

What is a good rule of thumb for weight dispersion?   Is +/- 10 grains good?  20 grains?  I also noticed that since the arrows were all made from the same piece of wood that the spline weight was identical +/- 2 pounds.

I kept track of the weights of the 6 new arrows at every stage of construction and was surprised at how little added weight was the fletching, shellac and paint.

Yeah I made that discovery as well, I bought 3 dozen POC cedar shafts, in 5/16", 11/32", 23/64" for a penetration study I want to do some time in the near future and weighed them all and there were 3 separate weight 'classes' for 11/32" and 23/64" and 4 for 5/16" and all three diameters had arrows that weren't within 10 grains of anything else, so I set them aside as duds, 5 duds for 23/64", 3 for 11/32" and 1 for 5/16". First time I actually weighed shafts I was using because I figured spine was #1 priority and I am probably too much of a perfectionist when comes to shaft straightness but I was amazed by the difference in weight and its something I'll keep in mind from now on.   

[Danzn Bar]

+ or -10 is good and plenty close for most of us shooting out to 20/25 yards,keeping the spline weight close, I think is even more important. Nothing quite like a matched set of arrows, I know some say it don't make much difference but for me it make all the difference in the world in my shooting accuracy and confidants. 
 Pappy

+1 on what Pappy said,  but may agree closer to PD on weight difference (20-30grs) @ 20 yds.  But as Pappy said it's in the spine.
DBar

[lebhuntfish]

Interesting, I'll keep my eyes on this thread. Patrick

[Pappy]

Agree with PD also on 20/30 even 50 is fine for hunting arrows,and only plan on shooting out to 15/20 yards, for target arrows I want them a little closer and prefer them to all be about the same
no matter what I am doing with them.
   Pappy

[George Tsoukalas]

When I make a set of hand planed white pine arrow I'm happy if they are all within 50 grains.
When I make shoot arrows or wild rose arrows I don't much care.
Jawge

[sweeney3]

With dowel shafts, I am happy with +/- twenty grains.  My finished range is usually somewhat under that though.  I start of with a maximum length, say 29.5".  Then I weigh those shafts and sort them into ten to twenty grain groups.  From there, I bareshaft tune the individual shaft to the bow.  By the time you have them sorted by physical weight and bareshaft tuned, you wind up with roughly the same physical weight and pretty good flight characteristics.  At hunting ranges, this works pretty well. 

A similar process works okay with cane too, you're just starting with a more raw product so it takes longer.  It's fairly labor intensive, but both birch dowel and cane are super tough, so they last longer than the assorted real shafting material. 

[duke3192]

I was shooting a new bow today that I had just finished tillering, wanted to make sure it had a chance of survival, it is 45# @ 28", osage and 60" ntn, I shot a variety of arrows, some 35# carbons weighing in at 300 grs. Cane arrows @ 50-55 @ 400-450 grs, some super heavy cane in the 50-55 range @ 600 grs. At twenty yards, the carbons shot 4-5" high for me, the 400-450 cane shot dead-on, the 600's were consistently 6" low. I can say all the arrows flew real good except for my bad shots.

[arachnid]

I`m using Beech dowel arrows and I don`t consider the wight.
I only preform a bare shaft test to get the right spine and cut the other arrows to
lenght. Works great for me.

[Buck67]

I'm actually making all my own shafts from various hardwoods, so I can vary the thickness of the shaft depending on the wood being used.  Until I get comfortable with wood from a particular board, I weigh the shaft intermittently and then sand or turn it down more until I get into the proper weight range.

When I was using Poplar dowels from Lowe's I found them to be fairly identical as to weight and spine.  They all seemed to come out in the 34# to 42# range.