Are we pickier as a whole about our arrow flight than years ago? We have so much more information at our finger tips than we use to. I remember when I first started shooting and bow hunting there was very little information on what proper arrow flight was and how to tune the bow and arrow combo get it there. I also remeber going to traditional shoots and seeing poor arrow flight and people thinking it was really good. Many depended on Bananna fletches or large cut 5.5inch parabolic or shield cuts to stablize their arrows. Now many are shooting 3 4inch feathers and using them to shoot broadheads. So are we pickier and tune our arrows better? DANNY

I don't think so. Not when you consider stories of Howard Hill, Saxton Pope, L.E. Stemmler and those guys making up dozens of arrows in a given range and shooting them repeatedly to separate them in to groups with similar characteristics.

Personally I'd say a LOT new longbow and recurve shooters are just now catching up.

We? dunno, but I am for myself. If I can't bareshaft out to 30 yards it's not tuned.

I put down the recurve yrs ago, and may never have picked one up again if not for this site. I am a Great bow hunter, but found out that I was a dumb ass about what my reccurve was telling me. I didn't even know there was more then one string type. thanks to everyone here I can get back at it again, and have been for 3yrs now. being picky is just doing ting the right way , not the way I was doing them before . But now I just cant get close to a deer. go figure...

No its just got so scientific with everything today all collage boys thinking.LOL

No. What is happening, over time, is newer archers are paying attention to tuning because there are many archery forums at their fingertips, and more talk about tuning...that's a good thing. Don't assume that people just grabbed arrows and went shooting back in the day. I know I was particular about getting spine correct and had a good archery shop person who knew the ropes. That got me started correctly

I think that we think we are so much better today, but archers were taking game regularly and shooting high scores in the field and target venues as well. Never judge a sport by a few you see shooting badly or have ill-tuned setups.

To some degree I do believe we are pickier but mostly because we know so much more. In the 60s I went to an archery shop and bought arrows that were spined for my bow. They came in certain lengths and weren't custom cut. I'd shoot them and number them depending on how they shot.

In the 80s I bought arrows spined for the bows I was shooting but they were cut to the length I wanted and there were more types available to me where I lived.

I don't recall trying bare shafting until sometime in the 90s. I was disappointed because the arrows that were shooting well for me out of my bows would not bare shaft well.

I would say today we are better-educated about what makes for a good flying arrow. Many of us take advantage of this information and use it to optimize our arrow/point selection. I would not call this being "pickier". When I was getting into archery and bowhunting in the early 1970's, nobody did stuff like bare shaft testing, effect of point weight, etc. You just tried out some arrows and if they shot reasonably decent you were done.

It doesn't take much to know if you have good arrow flight. I can't speak on Carbon arrows, they could be harder to tune than my woodies.

Yes. We are much pickier about arrow flight. We are much better educated, largely due to the internet and sites like this one.

Ollie not to pick on you but the last comment you make "You just tried out some arrows and if they shot reasonabley decent you were done." Kinda is the reason I started this post.

George you had a Archery Shop to get you started right. Around here you had Sears, Woolco, Penny's, and the sort. Sold the equipment but didn't know what to tell the buyer, unless you got lucky to have a experianced salesman, and I think that was the way it was a lot of places. There were some Archery Clubs, but as today not everyone knew about them.

I believe the Internet has educated people more about what arrow flight is supposed to be like and made us picker. Not just well that looks fairly good and go hunting. I tell people to come here BECAUSE of the wealth of knowledge that is here to learn, impove, and be pickier. DANNY

Danny, that's the truth, there is a wealth of knowledge on here and people willing to help others.

Linecutter, in the past people pretty much took the Easton spine charts (or wood arrow spine ranges) as gospel and ordered arrows based on that with little additional thought given. In many cases, that worked. For some it resulted in arrows that just didn't fly good, but no one really knew why. If we are pickier today it is just because we are willing to spend extra time and effort to ensure our arrows fly as good as possible.

I would think "pickier" today- only because more information available,about tuning methods and more choices in shafts and point weights, etc

but in old days you soon found what shot well with your bows,and your technique

there is a range from perfect that works very well, and would have to have form like a machiene to see the difference, which most don't have,me included

Not really. I've always numbered my arrows so that if one didn't fly well it could be weeded out. That was common practice back in "the day". Most never assumed that they all flew the same. Once tuned I leave mine alone tho. If you're tuned and suddenly get bad flight its you, not the tune.

I think some are way too picky. To the point it really doesn't matter.

When I started shooting in 1967 people knew exactly what a well tuned bow/arrow combination was. And I don't know why anybody would think otherwise.

John.

when I started in the mid fifties all the concentration was on the arrows out here. the bow was secondary. that was because everyone I met doing archery had two sports besides hunting, field rounds where you had to score 4 arrows to compete and York and American rounds where you needed to score 6 arrows. you didn't "just grab some arrows that flew pretty good". you made up groups of perfectly matched arrows and shot them to your best ability. when aluminum arrows first came out it was like magic compared to matching PO cedar. damon howatt set a record back in the fourties at 100 yards shooting arrows he made from refrigeration tubing. that's how much energy and time people put into their arrows back then.

I think archers have always been picky about arrows and arrow flight, isn't that what the sport is.

I think what you are seeing is that (trad or real) archery had to re-invent itself for the masses after compounds stole the show and created a gap in participation. There are also more choices of equipment now.

I remember when I got my first set of aluminum arrows I loved them so much I would not risk shooting them at any shots where I might loose or break one, so typically I still shot woodies.

I can only go back as far as 1962 when I was a member of a large club that had four field ranges in OKC. Think Larry and Jack are correct that we all thought about what arrows we shot very seriously and how we tuned our bows.

My coach gave me my first set of 24srt shafts, but seems like we all used aluminums instead of woodies for field tournaments. We liked their flights to long targets with low poundage target bows and numbering them was just what we did.

Arrows were as important as the bows we shot, but maybe not more so, because many of you all can remember a lot of folks shot some great and expensive target bows like the Hoyts with the ball stabilizers, Black Widows, Tamerlanes, Presentations, the Damon Howatts as Larry can verify, etc. I'd say the shooters who regularly participated were darn serious about their bows too.

I think we are just getting as picky as they were back in the day,,,hope it stays that way this time

We figured out how to get arrow flight back then.... that's why you know how now.

Some seem to think this is all new information..

If you have already registered, please

sign in now

For new registrations

Click Here