Native American arrows?

[jeffhalfrack]

Hmmm good question,,,,,,but we still are finding artifact arrow heads all over the place,,,looks to me they shot a lot ,,,I'm just sayin,,sorry I have no answer jeffw

[RandallH]

Is there a rough figure of how many arrows have been found so far? It would have to be in the thousands, right?

[DC]

Arrowheads have been found in the millions I would imagine. Arrows rot, not so many of them I'll bet.

[wstanley]

Good Discussion, late response.

I agree with Loeffler and Six Rabbit,

I shoot a short strong California style bow. I use button brush (willow) and elderberry for my arrows. The type of plant species determines spine. For instance I only like button brush, and stay away from all other willows as I find them weak in spine. I like to find shafts that are closest to the diameter I want, so I'm not sanding all day to get the desired diameter. When all this is completed, I will always get arrows with exact spine. Over the years I honed in on the appropriate dimensions. Now, my eye picks out shoots instinctively. Sometimes I spot shoots along the road as I drive. No doubt natives developed this skill early with their fathers teaching them.

When I started I would hastily pick 20 shoots I thought would be great. I would usually only get 10 -12 good ones. Now I pick five shoots with a careful eye and they will all reach arrow status. Every once in a while I find some bug damage.

Elderberry is a bit more troublesome, but if you find the right one - its great. I've noticed elderberry that's next to a good water source (spring) grows quickly with thin walls - no good. Bushes I find away from water sources develop thick walls. I frequent these same bushes over and over. When you find an elderberry with thick walls, but with overall narrow diameter, it outshoots any other arrow material I have used.

I also keep a few "perfect arrows" aside as reminders of the dimensions I like.

The stiffer and more narrow the better, as far as short powerful bows go... my opinion. 

Don't doubt natives had tricks, skills, and knowledge we just don't know of. I've heard for some plants picking shoots at night in between moon phases produces the best shoots.

Ishi knew the results of this hazel shoots from making arrows his whole life. I would expect most of us would develop that instinctively over time and wouldn't have to measure, weigh, etc our arrows.

I don't know a darn thing about spining arrows, but I assure you my 25'' arrows fly real nice.

Also, as for  the archers paradox, it plays no role in the style of shooting that Ishi had (and other California tribes). I only shoot like Ishi, and the arrow never touches the bow or my grip hand because of the twisting motion during the release which gives room for the arrow to pass. Again my opinion, but the paradox seems to be with European/American style shooting.

[WhistlingBadger]

...there is no specific science to it. You sort of just go by instinct and what feels trustworthy.

I suspect that's true of most of what the native Americans did, as well as most "pre-industrial" people.  You spend your whole life doing something, you just get a feel for it.  I can tell my wife's mood when she's in the next room, and I'm not even totally sure how I know.  Now, if I spent as much time with my bow as I did with my wife...well, that would be sort of sad, because frankly, my wife's a lot cuter.     But I bet I'd have all sorts of instincts about the flight of the arrow.

[WhistlingBadger]

Maybe I can have some short bow shooters with short draw -24" back me up on this. A short bow with a short draw can handle any arrow as long as the spine is stiff enough. So a 23.5" arrow shaft with a 70# spine will still shoot well from a 50# bow.

I wonder if that's part of the reason that so many hunting/horseback cultures favor short-ish bows, when they have the materials to make them.  The English seem to have used their longbows for long-distance armor piercing, but just north of the border, the Scots (who used bows mostly for hunting and guerilla-style skirmishing) appear to have favored shorter, lighter-weight bows.   Perhaps, for close-range shooting where such things matter, a shorter bow just gives good arrow flight easier.

On the other hand, some of the jungle tribes in South America, who no doubt have their pick of bow woods most of us would kill for, make enormously long bows.  Same goes for jungle tribes in New Guinea and India.  So I might be completely wrong.

[bassman]

west coast natives made arrows that were works of art

[willie]

Now, if I spent as much time with my bow as I did with my wife...But I bet I'd have all sorts of instincts about the flight of the arrow.

I would think this has a lot to do with their method, and a weaker arrow might require to be not drawn so much, and a stiffer arrow might be scraped down more...or otherwise modified to act weaker, in other words the arrows were "spined" by shooting them in,.... the modern concept of spine did not come about until modern manufacturing methods prevailed

I have read ethnological accounts that report much more effort was put into arrow making than bow making

[Hawkdancer]

Bow can be good, arrow must be great!  There are still a lot of arrow artifacts to be found, I hope!  Here in the high dry climate, there should be some yet to be discovered!  The next cave or burial may prove to be the AHA, moment!
Hawkdancer