equalizing arrow weight?

[ionicmuffin]

So i was thinking that if arrows are spined similar but have varying masses could some weight be added to the tip section by drill and maybe a led weight that is the exact amount you want for your arrow to be say 500 grains? so say you had a 337 grain arrowshaft and with the head it will be 50 grains more. so you have 387 grains, now you take led and add exactly 113 grains so its at 500. each of the different arrowshafts vary by about 10 to 20 grains, and you want each at 500 like i said, would this be at all feasible or just a waste of time and effort?

[Thesquirrelslinger]

Well, IMO, I think it would work well. But if you have arrows' shafts and points weighing b/t 350-380 g, wouldn't it be better and more effieciant to just make them 400? I am not sure how much lead 113 grains is, but it might be 'nough that if could weaken the arrow.
I like the idea;)

Maybe Ill try it with some arrows, ill take and post pics so I have PROOF.

[hatcha]

What kinda head/pile/point/tip are you using that weighs only 50 grains?

[ionicmuffin]

not using them but if i were to mount the glass heads ive been making it would be 50 grains... light but i would penetrate none the less. Thanks TSS i look forward to your results, i think ill go ahead soon an make some myself and see if they break more easily or what. ill take a set for control and then the set of modified arrows and see if they are consistent in durability, flight pattern, accuracy, penetration depth ect.

[Don]

Wouldn't putting that much lead up front change the weight forward and spine.
Shouldn't the weight be through the whole shaft.

[ionicmuffin]

well that's just it, I'm not acquainted with the intricacies of arrow mechanics enough to know one way or another, but if that were the case then you wouldn't want anything heavy on the front. I suppose you could craft footings weight the front of the shaft, harden the front, and even adjust it a bit or whatever.

[Don]

I did't mean for you to not try it. It may work great. It was just a thought.
Give it a try. I would like to know how it works also.

[half eye]

Here's some of my experience with what your experiment is doing. Short of using cane (hollow core) shafts drilling is not that precise. If you need or want to add a few grains your better off to "wire wrap" just behind the head like you were hafting it on. You can weigh the wire before wrapping and glueing it. With cane you can use slow setting epoxy and fine lead bird shot that is weighed ahead of time of insertion. Pour in the glue add the shot followed by some cotton and push in far enough to allow for mounting the head and let the shaft stand on it's head overnight.

Now having said all that, some of my hunting arrows are mounted with flint cahokian style heads that weigh 30/40 grains. They penetrate as well as the heavy heads out to 25/30 yards. That dont make sense unless you figure how ballistic penetrators work.....where-in you can use high mass / Ke and simply overwhelm the target material, or you can go the "long rod" penetrator route where in the mass is "piled-up" behind the head and drives it through the target. I use hardwood arrows that have the weight in the shaft and a smaller sized cutting tip that is "pushed" trough. The other option that is vogue right now is the EWF types with the big heavy heads. I've shot both types and BOTH work. But the cutting head driven by shaft mass works very well on thin skinned animals like the deer family.

Also consider that the length of the shaft and the attitude of the bow makes a difference as well. If you shoot up-right then spine is a major consideration so longer arrows lengths are needed and the weight forawrd is probably the way to go. As the bow approaches horizontal and windage becomes elevation spine is hardly critical at all, then the light head stiff heavy shafts work very well.

Hope that helps you some.....like I said that's just my experience. If you want to experiment try wire wrapping instead of drill and fill on wood shafts, if cane then use glue and fine sized "shot" It dont matter how any of it works for me or anybody else, it's how it works for you and ya wont know that till ya do it.....how's that for non-comittal?
rich

[ionicmuffin]

Thanks rich! that really clears up my question, because essentially i wanted to add mass to equalize, so if wire works i may just go with that because its easier and servers the same function.

[half eye]

If soft steel/iron wire isn't heavy enough you can use the small diameter solder to get more weight.
rich

[ionicmuffin]

man, your full of knowledge aren't you! thanks again rich!

[bubbles]

I've done the Solder wrap to equalize the weight of my arrows. You need a lot of regular wire to change the weight, which is why I used lead solder.  I think it weighed about 5 grains per inch.  Wrap shaft, secure with tape and wrap the ends of the tape in thread.  I was shooting really long shafts (36") and put the weight just infront of the bow at full draw, so to have less of an effect on spine than putting it on the end - about the same place on the shaft as the joint would be between a foreshaft and the tailshaft of a cane arrow.  Unforunately, I was shooting waay underspined shafts to compensate for bad technique.  I shoot much shorter shafts now, 29.5" for a draw of 27".  I would consider trying it again, but I would need to adjust arrow spine and length - switch to a heaver spine at a longer length, and do the weight adjustment.  Although having a bulbous weight on the shaft would impede penetration.   

[Carson (CMB)]

My personal preference to match arrows by spine over weight.  That is I give more care to matching the spine of the shafts, than I do to the mass weight.  Adding weight to the point end does affect the dynamic spine of the arrow.  If you start with a dozen arrows having matching static spine, then add different amounts of weight to the point end then you end up with a dozen arrows having various dynamic spine.  Not that you shouldn't try to match your arrows by mass weight, just keep in mind that even 20 grns added to the point end affects the dynamic spine noticeably. 

[anasazi]

Im glad these guys have all this technical knowledge i dont know much about that stuff but drilling probably wouldn't be a good idea you will lose about half or more of the weight you are adding every time you drill out a hole to put the lead in just something i noticed when adding weight to my boys  pine wood derby car

[Pat B]

Adding tip weight to an arrow will change(decrease) the effective spine of the arrow by about 5# for each 25grains added.  When I make cane or hardwood shoot arrows I only spine them to find the stiff side and that side goes against the bow. I think that matching the physical weight of primitive arrows is more critical than matching spine weight, at least for me.