1st time bow attempt

[Hawkdancer]

Sounds like you are making good progress!  Where are you located, you may be close enough to another member to get together.  The big gatherings have started already, try to make one of them!
Hawkdancer

[Oldvol]

Have not mastered the ability of posting photos to this website. More complicated than others.

[Oldvol]

I am located in Smithville, Tn. May try to go to the Tennessee Classic this weekend.

[willie]

if you make the classic this weekend, you will come home miles ahead. in the meantime,  can I ask if the arrows are entering the target straight?

[Oldvol]

I did not notice but I think they were pointing left. I am in the process of varnishing the bow. When finished I will shoot again and observe how they enter. I have noticed that the arrows were set up for compound bows, not traditional bows. I corrected the nock position. That may help my shooting.

[mmattockx]

I purchased 6 Hunter Ian Archery carbon arrows from Amazon. Arrows are 28” with 500 spline and 100g tip. Total arrow weight is 34g. Is this a good arrow for this bow?

You have too stiff of a spine for that draw weight and a 34g (524grains) is a very heavy arrow for a 30# bow. You can still shoot with these but you will not be able to ever get the arrows to be really tuned for the bow. I have a bunch of 500 spine arrows similar to these and they don't really fly straight for me until the bow is around 40# draw. Mine are all left at full length (around 31"), too, which softens the spine a bit. Yours cut to 28" will act even stiffer.

Don't give up on shooting, almost everyone really sprays arrows around when they start. I would suggest watching some youtube videos on form to get an idea of how it is supposed to go. The Jake Kaminski channel has a good form video series from an Olympic medallist if you need someplace to start watching.


Mark

[gutpile]

being that long 72"and only needing 26" draw you could whack 2" off each end making it 68" will increase draw weight and still be plenty long enough.. gut

[Oldvol]

The bow is 68” long overall and 66” ntn. Thanks for the feedback about the arrows. What spine should I use? Should I use arrows made of wood, carbon or fiberglass? I will definitely watch the Kaminisky videos. Thanks to everyone for your help.

[Don W]

welcome. I just recently signed up and the pictures took a while to figure out. You have to add an attachment at the bottom. It's a little picky, so just keep trying

[willie]

the needed spine depends on multiple factors.. As Mark mentioned, arrow length is a factor along with point weight. Store bought arrows for lighter weight bows are generally inexpensive (child) arrrows, or very expensive womens recurve target arrows. If you pick up a few of the inexpensive ones at the department store, you might try replacing the plastic vanes with softer feathers. I use hotmelt glue to add various tips for additional weight.

A self bow with a wider arrowpass generally requires more arrow tuning than a centershot bow, so I prefer to rip clear spf on the table saw and shape with a $10 thumbplane, rather than be buying lots of parts and pieces for a carbon or aluminum arrow. Others prefer shoots or bamboo/cane

[mmattockx]

The bow is 68” long overall and 66” ntn. Thanks for the feedback about the arrows. What spine should I use? Should I use arrows made of wood, carbon or fiberglass? I will definitely watch the Kaminisky videos. Thanks to everyone for your help.

According to the Skylon arrows spine chart (http://www.skylonarchery.com/images/chart/chart%20target.pdf) you are looking at around a 700 spine for a 30# draw weight and a 28" arrow length. You can shoot arrows made of any typical material, they will all work fine. To shoot off a shelf or your hand you need to have feathers for fletching and not solid vanes. All my arrows have vanes and I shoot off a stick-on rest, which works well.

Be aware that the carbon and fibreglass arrows have spine measured differently than wood arrows. The composite materials will have spine numbers in the hundreds, like the 500 and 700 I mentioned, while wood arrows typically have their spine expressed in pounds of draw weight.

As willie says, you can fine tune arrow performance by cutting them to different lengths and using different tip weights. At your point I wouldn't worry about that, though. Until you can shoot consistently you won't be able to tell if the tuning is helping or not.


Mark

[Oldvol]

Thanks Mark. Going to Sports Academy next week to see they have in stock.