Bow designs for cleaner arrow flight

[TrevorM]

Might want to check out the Casio ZR200, it can shoot up to 1000FPS and won't break the bank. You could also try some kind of triggered camera like Willie suggests, but the best shots with that method are in a dark room and triggering the flash which is probably impractical.

[KS51]

Steve,

Thinking on this thread, there is an experiment you could do that may provide some insight.  Using the 3 different styles of bows you talked about, place each on the tiller tree and when taking them to full draw, for each inch of tip travel, mark the distance the draw travels.  This gives a relative idea of the string acceleration from full draw to brace.  Not sure how this would affect arrow design, but it could provide some insite without the need of a highspeed camera.

Ken

Actually, I thought of something else.  Do a force-draw curve where the force increment is constant.  Then if you scale the tip travel-draw curve so that it matches the force-draw curve you can compare the 2 different draw curves and see the disparity between the energy vs distance traveled that is being imparted to the arrow.  This may tell you something about the "harshness" of the bow.

[Badger]

       Ken, there does seem to be a connection between arrow flight and force draw curves. I would actually like to see the arrow in slow motion and see if I could do anything about the arrow pass area or my release that might help. The same bows will shoot fine with heavier arrows and more spine. Learning how to shoot marginally spined arrows without detuning a bow seems to be the challenge.

       I feel like if I could do a little practice each week it would be like attending 52 flight shoots as far as experience goes. Lack of places to practice could eventually be the death of this sport here. Farmers are all afraid of law suits or just see no benefit to allowing someone to use their land. All the desert areas have either too much foliage or rock hard ground that light arrows will not stick in.

   

[Buckeye Guy]

Steve just some food for thought provoking.
 1   A pinch release  from between thumb  and forefinger can give a more consistent  release
2.  Kick your limbs sideways for a centershot without a cut out
3.  Use some Styrofoam  ahead of the target butt to slow down your arrows before impact so you don't  have such a risk of  damage  to your arrows ( this is what we do for flint heads to not damage them and should also work for you)
You may have to play with the thicknesses  and distance ahead of the butt for your tiny arrows but it is better than destroying all the work that goes into the arrows.
no clue if any of this will help you but may get your creative juices  flowing.
Wish I had time to explore this with you but need to try to stay on the task at hand for now

[Badger]

Steve just some food for thought provoking.
 1   A pinch release  from between thumb  and forefinger can give a more consistent  release
2.  Kick your limbs sideways for a centershot without a cut out
3.  Use some Styrofoam  ahead of the target butt to slow down your arrows before impact so you don't  have such a risk of  damage  to your arrows ( this is what we do for flint heads to not damage them and should also work for you)
You may have to play with the thicknesses  and distance ahead of the butt for your tiny arrows but it is better than destroying all the work that goes into the arrows.
no clue if any of this will help you but may get your creative juices  flowing.
Wish I had time to explore this with you but need to try to stay on the task at hand for now

  #2 I am thinking along these lines. Some of my best shots were from bows with left favoring limbs.
 #1 I have tried the pinch release 40# is the most I can manage this with unless there is some technique I haven't learned? Pinch release would be ideal. I have kind of a radical release, maybe thats why left favoring limbs seem to fly so much better.

  I will give that Styrofoam a try, I just made up a batch of real nice arrows and I am curious how they will come out of the bow

[bobnewboy]

My other half's first primitive bow was an ash flatbow. It was well made but unremarkable except that it would match a large range of arrow spines well without any trouble. I put that down to the fact that when viewed from the belly side, and shot by a left hander ( her and me both) the general front/back profile of the bow was an S-shape, particularly at the handle and fades. This wasnt engineered in, it was a result of following the grain when making the bow. Because of the S shape, the string centred across the bow in such a way that there was quite a cente shot effect. The string over the handle/fades looked like a dollar symbol. Perhaps that falls into the point 2 above?

[Buckeye Guy]

You may have to make special  nocks to get to the higher draw weights
Bulbous  nocks are easer  for me and seem to have been favored by many indigenous  folks too

I never have done the flight arrows but if you are barrel  tapering  just leave the self nock area thick to form your bulb for pinching, at least that is how I typicaly do them
it really does not take much to make a big difference in gripping power
also pinch between your thumb and the large knuckle of your finger rather than between knuckles or small knuckle
if you do want to do self nocks horn might be a good choice,  maybe Japp would fix you up he likes making nocks from horn, not sure if he has done them for pinch grip
have fun and dream on

[Selfbowman]

just pull her back and let it fly is what I have found best so far.. Sometimes you might short draw but even then the relase is pretty clean. But this shooting a long ways is all new to me.
Arvin