I've enjoyed the recent string of stumping threads, it looks like a great way to spend time in the woods and spend time shooting a bow. I've never had the courage to shoot in the woods because I thought I would lose or destroy my precious arrows.

I decided I'd like to take the plunge, how should I choose a bow and set-up arrows? Most of the hills here in upstate NY have little soil so I may skid a shaft off some rock. I have access to state land with dead stumps where red pine forests have been thinned, brush piles, and beer cans.

Bow: Most of my hunting bows are around 50#, would a lighter bow, say 40 pounds, be easier on the arrows?

Arrows: Should I use carbon or aluminum? Does aluminum footing reduce bending or just relocate the bend a few inches up the shaft? Do I need to replace my 1916s with 1820s? Do I need to fletch flu-flus?

Points: Should I use the Allen Thrasher, Saunders Bludgeon, Zwickey Judo, VPA Thumper, or something else to stop the arrows?

I use the same bow I use for everything else

arrows just cheap Ol aluminum (Jazz or Tributes- from Lancaster) with judo or ACE hex blunts (they are cheap enough that I dont mind bending/losing a few) and thats not common

Douglass fir from sherwood archery seem to hold up the best for me though

Andy Man is right about using less expensive arrows or if you are using carbons foot them with pieces of aluminum shafts. Use Judo type points, game adder stars behind field points or blunts, that will grab debris to keep your arrow from burying up under stuff. Some here have their own designs. Use bright color feathers so you can see your arrows impacts and to help find them if needed be. Most of all have a creative imagination for objects you are shooting at, makes it more fun. Amazing how many trolls, dragons, zombies, and the like you can kill. DANNY

I like to use the same arrow for hunting, target, and stumping.

The heads and inserts might be different but the fletch, arrow weight, and point weight will stay the same, or at least as close as I can make them.

here are my stumpers/small game arrows

100 grain brass insert and an aluminum footing for strength, bright paint and fletch for visibility, and tipped with small game thumper to put the hurt on rabbits, as well as keep it from skipping on dirt and burying in grass/weeds.

I think judos and small game thumper make the best roving heads but there are some other good ones

I like to make a couple homemade points as well

One dirt cheap and effective roving point can be made by drilling 2 holes through your field points then gluing some weed whacker line in the holes like this

very good at stopping an arrow and and makes a cool whistling sound that I enjoy

Nutters work great too and can be made out of all sorts of stuff, just use your imagination and a grain scale

i use pink GT carbon shafts and pink or bright feathers with Hex heads. I also foot about 1-1/2" aluminum shaft on the carbons. some of the areas I shoot flood and have a lot of oak leaves on the ground washed up against rotten stumps/logs. it's possible for the arrows to get covered up on some of the shots. also I take a good bright LED light. some days it's cloudy or I'm coming back to the truck near sunset, shooting as I go, the light will help me locate the arrows if they get covered up. bright is only bright as long as good light is hitting it.

1. Don't shoot at live stumps or hard targets.

2. Judos will keep arrows from burying.

3. Use really bright or white fletching.

4. Make an arrow rake like this one.

Wing nuts will create side to side torque on a hard hit an snap just about any arrow. They are great though for field shooting, or places that have soft targets. One of the best is the old HTM rubber blunt. You can still buy rubber blunts but I'm not sure who makes them. I put them over an aluminum arrow but put a piece of thick leather over the end first to keep it from eventually punching through the blunt. They last long time and take quite a bit of punishment. I use aluminum and fiberglass for stumping and some wood as well. The aluminum is more durable than folks would have you believe, and no shaft will take repeated hits on rocks. We have plenty of limestone here as well but we try our best to avoid it. Rotten stumps make the best targets, and we use the same bows we hunt with. Mine are between 40 and 50 pounds.

I found out that fsdiscountarchery sells the HTM blunts, so I'll be getting a few from them.

good point about the wing nuts creating torque, if you catch one of those wings on something hard your arrow is going for a ride! same thing can happen with the small game thumper too, if you get just one of those claws on something hard there is going to be a lot of torque.

square peg? the weed whacker line is round if that's what you are referencing. I forget what size drill bit I used

All good advice above. I'll add what I do: shoot the stumps, carry a plastic bag, pick up the beer cans.

Footing your Carbon shafts with a little aluminum will get you a few more shots out of your stumping arrow.

And even still you can plan on coming back with fewer shootable arrows.

I use the same bow I hunt with, 45@28 predator hunter. I shoot aluminum arrows with a 2.5 inch aluminum footing. Yes aluminum over aluminum. I shoot a combination of judos, homemade judos and blunts with those little star claws behind them. I always carry an arrow rake, leatherman tool and an old heavy screwdriver in case I need to pry a head out of a stump. I try and select soft dead stumps or logs as targets. Check your local regs. In NY you can only be in the woods on public land with a bow if you have a license and if something is in season.

DHay, if you reverse the star will it catch grass similar to a judo?

Thanks tradmt. I didn't think about the point fitting in the cup. The reason I ask is I shoot 175 group heads and haven't found 175 group judos.

Carbons may cost more but aluminum bends and breaks just life wood. Shoot whatyou can afford to loose. My favorite targets are horse apples or osage orange.

If you reverse that Adder Collar, the force depending on the shot can peal those prongs right back up the shaft. This set up now may not stay above ground quite like a Judo, but it does pretty well. I have tried the collars the other way. I think it (collar the other way) probably does keep the arrows from burying a little more, but I have had some distorted Collars. I like to shoot 175 grains too. The Adder Collar and a 145 gr hex head blunt get you very close to 170 - 175 grs.

I've made hundreds of hickory arrow. They don't break when stumping.

I also have found externally footed carbons more durable than aluminum, even those footed both internally and externally.

I prefer standard steel blunts: adders, wingnuts and other penetration retarding tips tend to impart tremendous torque at the tip. I'd rather run the risk of an occasional arrow snaking in the weeds or snow versus increasing the likelihood of a breakage on a solid hit. Lost arrows can be found easier than resurrecting shattered tips...

Condors. My land is mostly oak stumps so I go shoot at leaves and duff. The condors really work well. Been roving everyday now and really enjoy this simple fun. Still quite a bit of snow in the woods and haven't lost or broke a wood shaft yet. But I know its gonna happen...

Used to shoot woodies... i'd break 30 or so a rove. I wentered though thousands. now I foot my carbon GT traditional's with 3/8" copper tubing fore and aft... 1" up front and 1/4" at the nock. Small game thumper's for a point. Now I go through about 12-18 per year. This from a 70# bow.

Couple additions to the recommendations already made:

1. While I cannot claim that I have stumped with every type of wood arrow available, I have shot many of them (including ash) and I have also shot many types of aluminum arrows (including the heavy walls) and must concur with all those who recommend carbon. As has oft been said, carbon arrows are either straight or broken and my Carbon Express Heritage arrows don't get pampered.

2. Aluminum footings on carbon arrows only need to be 1/2" in length to provide ample protection from "mushrooming" the arrow on hard hits. For added durability, I run a small bead of epoxy around the fletching end of the footing.

3. Aluminum footings can be obtained for free by visiting a bow shop and going through the box of cut-offs below their arrow saw. Be sure to take one of your arrows along so you can make certain the diameter of the cut off pieces of aluminum fit snug to your arrow.

3. Even with the use of a good epoxy, footing collars will eventually jar loose. At the first sign of this happening, put that arrow back in your quiver until it can be repaired. Don't ask me how I know this!

4. If you do not glue in your knocks (I don't because I occasionally break them and need to replace), put a single wrap of electrical tape around the juncture where your knock meets the arrow to prevent them from popping out on hard hits. (NOTE: If memory serves my correctly, a hat tip goes to Mr. Stout for this recommendation.

5. And finally, if you aren't set up to fletch your own arrows, give it some consideration. The most common damage my arrows sustain while stumping is torn or ripped off feathers.

For footing 2216 aluminum fits standard gt & cx carbon's. I use hot melt to secure to shaft

For footing 2216 aluminum fits standard gt & cx carbon's. I use hot melt to secure to shaft

Really good post!

Just to add to the plethora of data here, one more type of arrow for stumping. Ronsplc posts here. We rove on his land with bamboo SARA (Special Armored Roving Shaft) arrows. Ron uses bamboo shafting splined to our #50 pound bows. They’re footed with aluminum 2117 pieces. The aluminum have inserts installed. The points screw into the inserts as with any aluminum or carbon arrow. The bamboo is incredibly tough. They don’t flower (alumabloom) on impact with a hard object like aluminum will. They don’t bend or break easily. Carbon can fail after a glancing impact or side blow. Bamboo doesn’t. Should you lose a SARA, it will eventually decompose, unlike carbon or aluminum. They work really really well.

I want to say thanks fellas, though I'm not asking you to stop posting. It is nice to have a forum like the 'Wall, you put me way ahead of where I was.

So here we are about a month later. I found an old 40# Root Game Master recurve. I draw about 38# with it so it should be easy on the arrows. A buddy made me a suitable string. I got a half dozen Beman Bowhunter 500 shafts that came 31" long. Gold Tip uses a footing that covers the insert plus 1/2" of the shaft, so I footed these the same way with 1 3/4" of 2117 aluminum shaft material. They bareshafted stiff so I upped the point weight to 125 grains and applied one ply of PVC arrow plate material (elect tape). I fletched them as gaudily as I could imagine with 5" pink and white helicals. I hit the shafts with some gloss yellow paint to go with the flecthing and screwed in 125 grain genuine Zwickey Judo points.

I've got a chisel, knife, and a pair of pliers to dig out any arrows that might hang up in roots or stumps. I added a rag to wipe them down, and a couple of grocery bags to pick up coffee cups and beer cans that I come across. My arrow rake didn't make the picture so I'd better put it with the rest of the gear. I'll make a sheath for the chisel and add a first aid kit anyway.

Thanks again for all of your suggestions, I didn't want you to think I was just pulling your chain. Happy Shooting.

And FWIW...

My longest-lasting stumping arrow ever was a cedar flu-flu; 6-fletched, and I had trimmed those to about 1” high... glue-on Judo.

The idea of footing each end of a carbon so you can use glue-on nocks is Pure Genius, IMO.

And I can’t recall the make of it off-hand, but yesterday at the Cos Cob shoot, I put a thick-walled carbon an inch too high on the Iron Bear.... there was a CLANG, a puff of feathers and the shaft came straight back at me about 75% of the way to my feet. Point was flattened and the nock (with an aluminum collar on it) will never be seen again, but the shaft shows no sign of damage whatsoever..

Tough mudder!!

How well do the Ace hex blunts perform for not burying in grass?

Murray

A lot of people really like the axe hex blunts, I am not one of them, I dont find them to much better than a standard flat blunt or 38 special casing for shooting in grass and the like. I actually keep some small game arrows with the hex blunts on them just for trying to shoot game that is behind grass.

I do like them for flu flu arrows though.

Nice looking set up! Looks like you have all bases covered. Just add stumps! Enjoy!

I use nothing but wood...po cedar, pine, maple, hickory, wild rose and various shoot shafts.

I don't bounce my favorite arrows off trees.

Hickory is the toughest I have used.

For points, I've used rubber blunts, judos, metal blunts, homemade blunts and various other concoctions.

Judos are my favorite.

Jawge

I like to use Fluflu’s with regular judo points.

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