We all know tapered wood arrows are supposed to "recover" more quickly than parallel shafts..

... WHY is quick recovery an advantage?

How does quick recovery help? One of our fabled fabulous longbow target shooters uses barreled shafts...is that his secret sauce?

My understanding is....

Quick recovery means less speed scrubbed off coming out of the gate and quicker settling into point-on flight, which aids penetration when you're hunting.

And both tapered and barreled have a slightly reduced amount of lateral surface area, so they are ever-so-slightly less prone to getting pushed around by the wind.

And in a game where some of the shooters resort to oversized line-cutter shafts to improve their scores, you could argue that something that makes a difference of only a few hundredths of an inch at 70 or 90 meters actually does make a difference....

Or at least that's my understanding... I'm always open to learning more/better....

Quicker recovery means an arrow flying better quicker and over a longer period than one that doesn't recover as quick. Tapered usually clears more cleanly since the back end is narrower, and that can allow using a little stiffer shaft if need be. In real life terms though, how much it benefits an archer is likely negligible.

They sneak around the riser better imo. I luv making them you can also spin sand the spine right on. Rooty

I agree with what has been said. Dr. Robert Elmer in his book "Target Archery" said in some tests he did. "At 100 yards a breast tapered arrow consistently printed 1/2 a target higher than a barreled shaft" Now he was talking of a 48" round matt used in The American and York rounds. That was using sights, arrows of the same spine/weight/fletching size & point weight.

That's comparing two tapered arrows, I would have loved to have seen the difference between a breast tapered shaft and parallel.

If you look back in history, just about every nation that used the bow, used tapered arrows.

Bob

The same reason that a boattail bullet recovers, and retains energy over long range quicker, and more efficiently than a roundball, or an essentially square slug.

I thought it was because close shots don't wiggle waggle to the target. i.e. recover quicker. Jawge

Who cares why if they shoot better.

DDave

Quicker recovery upon release may make for a more precisely directed projectile. Subjectively, it sure seems to shoot better and I prefer them, barrel or breasted that is. For a hunting shaft, it is proclaimed to also flex less upon entry allowing for better penetration.

At the ranges I shoot I can't tell a difference. I couldn't hit a Target at 100 yards if my life depended on it. I prefer non tapered arrows maybe I'm in the minority but at least it saves me money slash effort making them. In my opinion if you have a shaft hitting your bow at the tail end you have bigger problems than the minute amount of wood tapering removes. My woods have recovered by about 7 yards by looking at the flight.

None of my shafts hit the bow, but I can see the double tapered ones recover sooner just a couple of yards off the bow. Not on every shot, it depends on lighting and background, but often enough I know it's a reality.

I just know they fly better

Most likely it has to do with the transition from laminar to turbulent flow at the nock end of the arrow. Same reason golf ball have dimples.

The quicker you can get the arrow to come out from paradox to a true straight position, it is better for good flight, less velocity lost and less energy lost. This is one of the big reasons people shoot carbon fiber arrows. If you spend the time and tune your wood arrows correctly though, you will minimize the paradox and you probably wont notice a difference.

For hunting applications it makes 10 yards and under shots penetrate better if the shafts flying straight instead of wiggling back and forth and maybe have the broadhead hit slightly sideways,

I like them better plus if your shooting 23/64 its not a log on the back and clears easier smaller nocks. I always found them to shoot better for me. Seemed faster but without chrono dono?

A fast recovery is good on a close hunting shot.

How about barrel tapered if you want to open some worms.

How about barrel tapered if you want to open some worms.

"The quicker you can get the arrow to come out from paradox to a true straight position, it is better for good flight, less velocity lost and less energy lost. This is one of the big reasons people shoot carbon fiber arrows. If you spend the time and tune your wood arrows correctly though, you will minimize the paradox and you probably wont notice a difference."

The slow motion films I have seen show the arrow swimming all the way to the target. It is amazing they actually hit with unerring accuracy (when shot well) given how large the oscillations are.

Minimizing paradox is what stiffer arrows do. It isn't a good thing if the arrows you were otherwise using are perfect. You would just have too stiff a spine.

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The one things we know that tapering at either end does for sure is reduce the weight of an arrow, for a given initial spine, which means they shoot as though they were spined stiffer (which is going to play with your spine table, small price); and fly flatter as they are lighter; and have less aero drag.

As far as recovering faster, I don't know about that. It is possible, but the question is how much. Are there any points in it. Who has actually measured it. Saying they shoot better is not measuring. Archery accuracy is more subjective than it is scientific.

That is why guys shot the Arrow Dynamics, tapered and carbon. They recover super quick. Shawn

Actually, it does make sense that barreled arrows would stop oscillatng quicker, because of the lower mass at each end relative to the center.

Personally, I like having a smaller nock between my first and second finger, as opposed to a fatter one. But then again, I do like 11/32 or 23/64 upfront, just because I like those fat-boy shafts. I will say that my arrow-dynamics carbons straighten up pretty nicely as long as they are fletched; they are too stiff, but they fly a bit nock-right to about 7 yards, and then straighten right out and go where they are supposed to. A tapered cedar will keep swimming all the way to at least 40 feet... which I happen to know because I have it on video. Slow- motion mode on my phone is a thing-o-beauty!

My guess is low mass at either end is the answer. That plus transition in ability of various diameter to bend, might stop nodal points. Just a guess beats me.

You can taylor flight characteristics of your arrows .Short tapers I find sweet shooters and just seem to recover a bit quicker than parallel shafts do. Lots of good flight arrows are barrell tapered and will generally shoot farther than a parallel shaft will.Breasted shafts shoot quite well too but for me the short 9" or10" taper is just right.One anomaly is some arrows found on the Mary Rose were tapered to be thick on both ends and thinner in the middle.It has a lot of experts baffled and what benifit it was is unknown.Could just that some woods shrunk in the center being entombed in the silt of the Solient for so long.They may not started out that way.I hand make footed arrow shafts by hand and if the wood I am using looks as I will get shafts under spine I barrell them This allows me to make spine.If they are too stiff I full length taper them.Thats A huge benifit to me as I only make a few hundred a year . OSR

I taper my ash shafts because on very close ground shots, the arrow penetrates straight on. No deflection to left or right. Mike Lalumiere at Silent Pond Archery used to make incredible tapered and barrel tapered ash shafts.

Here is some Turkish flight arrow profiles OSR

Some more taper profiles OSR

I have done the lab work on researching this. Tapered woodies do recover faster than simple parallel. But there is still the time problem. Recovery still takes time. Unless you're shooting out to 30+ yards, the arrow is still oscillating when it gets to the target.

The improved accuracy doesn't necessarily come from quicker recovery. (But it doesn't hurt either.) Rather, better accuracy is achieved by imposing that particular shape on the shaft. It forces the nodes of oscillation to occur in more nearly the same place on each and every shaft. It helps to force more consistent behavior upon a material that inherently has a certain degree of inconsistency built into it.

The more consistent behavior makes tuning easier. You're better able to achieve a finer state of tune. And it is THAT which improves the arrow's flight quality. Especially when it comes to broadheads. You know that any weirdness in flight and you wind up with the broadhead wanting to take control, and fighting the fletching.

There is of course the argument, "But I hunt, I only shoot one arrow. I only need one arrow." That's true. But what about when you practice? Or when you pull that arrow from your quiver for that actual kill shot? It's nice to know that any given arrow is going to more nearly behave just like any other arrow that you pull out. It is a HUGE confidence booster. And having absolutely zero question in your mind about your equipment will improve your shooting.

Your dead right ya need consistancy and the oscillation of a shaft that is as close to the same from arrow to arrow would make a differance.Hey I just draw an arrow from my quiver and don't give it a second thought.I know my arrows do shoot consistently but this I do by trial and error more than any scientific method.I can control this by carefully matching my arrows deflection and get it closer than the 5 # normal standard.My arrows probably only vary by 1 or 2# at the most on my best arrows.The specie of wood and how I hand shape each shaft is the secret.From 380 shafts I got 20 that matched in spine and physical weight nearly perfect.Yeah you can tell the differance .I would dearly love to know how you could check oscellation node points on arrows.How did you test that? OSR

OSR: I totally agree that tapered arrows will out perform parallels, however I'd be willing to bet that no one including you can tell the difference in arrows spined within 2# and 10#. And with modern bows cut past center on the shelf I would increase that to 20+#

Bob

Shifting this to Arrow Dynamics carbons...browsing, I've found zero positive commentary by people who paid $$ (as opposed to salespeople)...tho amusingly, some persist as fanboys despite admitted bad results.

Does that prove a point objectively or is it irrelevant because carbon and wood are apples and oranges/

I have used and made more woodies than I'll ever remember and I'll be damned if I ever noticed any difference in parallel, to nock tapered to barrel tapered. But, they sure look nice hanging in a quiver.

with the modern "traditional" archer, the main advantage of faster arrow recovery, is better penetration, on the very close shots that "traditional" archery requires, as anything over 12 yards is unethical.

Yeah bob it's probably just a superstition of mine on the spine deal.I actually get up to a 15 pound to tollerance with one of my recurves. I do however assure you It is not possable with my shoot over the hand Horse bow.Its extreemly finicky with spine.Other folk who shoot the same horse bow as mine have a longer draw and don't have such a hard time with spine. OSR

Osr144:

Its true that bows that are a long ways from center shoot a narrower spine range, however I don't understand why someone with a longer draw has less problems than you!

Bob

I spend the time and spin sand my parallel and tapered wood arrows to the pound, according to what is recommended on Stus calculator. That way there is no chance the arrow is wrong, as most of my first few hundred arrows were. Spines over a forty pound range. Sheesh. I had no idea how important spine was the first few years of making them myself.

Now, by matching then to the pound, if they aren't flying correctly I am 100% certain it is me, and not an incorrectly spined arrow as before. Tapered arrows are definitely more work, but worth the effort, since they are being spin sanded anyway.

Yeah Bob I don't know what the other folk are doing that I don't do but just maybe those folk are not telling the truth either. The horse bow I have shoots great but I had to be real careful as to spine weight compared to all my other bows.

OSR

Guys -

Mr Rowlands probably came closest. Mass is the primary reason and improved aerodynamics a distant second.

Think about it. During paradox, if an arrow is going to break, it's going to break near the middle, at a point between the two nodes. Therefore a greater cross-section there, allows for a lighter overall arrow weight, while keeping the shaft in one piece during paradox. Since the ends are tapered, that "might" let then stop flapping sooner. A chested arrow should be more aerodynamic, but again, I think the effect is minimal.

BTW - this theory is only about 500 years old, so it's still up for debate ...

Viper out.

Osr 144 I did it using a digital storage oscilloscope along with high speed video.

You are correct though that ultimately it does come down to empirical testing of the finished arrow. Being wood, no matter how careful we are during the build, you still come out with one or two who just simply will not play well with others. As the build process nears its end and getting into finer and finer tuning, the sorting and culling process continues.

aromakr you said "I'd be willing to bet that no one including you can tell the difference in arrows spined within 2# and 10#." Although that was for Osr's benefit, since you chose to include everybody here, that is a bet that you would BADLY lose. I GUARANTEE it. I suspect that yes you have come to hold that personal opinion, and do honestly believe it to be true, but I think you may have been erroneously lead to that conclusion. Look to the majority of your clientele over the years. I would suspect that many (but not ALL) of the people you sell to actually don't shoot very well to begin with, and so as such, for them, your opinion is valid.

Thank you Bender and Aromakr I love this stuff.I become better with your knowledge and your experience I add this to my data bank.(brain) despite failing with age.I still can't make that perfect wooden arrow but at times I get dammed close.I am still convinced my stock of Baltic pine is some of the finest wood there is.The one anomaly is some old growth Douglas fir that I occasionally get has a wavy growth ring patten.Weird as it may be it at times it will spine with only a few pound variation at any angle.Straight growth rings don't do that.That hex shaft idea sorts out a myriad of of problems asociated with wood shafts tooYou just sometimes find those exceptional pieces of wood .When I shoot arrows like that it brings a big smile to me.Thats the fun of archery for me.Thanks fellows. OSR

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