Other than taking a branch off a maple tree, oak tree, hickory tree etc., from where would one collect hardwood shafts suitable to make into primitive arrows? Not talking river cane but actual hardwood. This is just a hypothetical question, a curiosity of mine when I saw a video on making primitive arrows.

Hi Jim, Not sure if it's a hard-wood but the Legend of the North uses Red Osier? Hope that OTHERS will chime in? GOOD HUNTING & BLESSED BE!

Out in the woods :^)

I've used multiflora rose, viburnum/arrowwood, red brush, and various hardwood saplings. Arrow wood material is one of the things I keep an eye out for anytime I'm out hunting or gathering. You can find it along streams, fence rows, wood edges, gasline and powerline right of ways. For actual hardwood shoots like cherry, maple... look under the parent trees... guess that's kinda obvious.

I will say this though, if you find a good patch, take what you can, what you think you'll need for future use, because I've been very conservative thinking I'd come back for more next year only to find it all dead from spraying of herbicides, run over by loggers, etc.

Shoots of various types from various locations.

Wild Rose is very good (probably one of the best) as is Dogwood, Yaupon, I've used good straight shoots growing up from an old stump of other species as well.

Essentially anywhere that you can find straight shoots.

Osier grows all over and easily spotted in the winter as its bright red. Most wet areas have it growing plentiful. Second growth sprouts are always better to harvest.

One could argue whether actual split hardwood shafts were primitive but there are many museum specimens of Native arrows from split hickory and the like.

Whether those are all from post contact when metal wedges or axes were available is up for debate. You can split with antler wedges too.

Here in Arkansas we have an overabundance of Chinese privet (Ligustrum sinense). The shoots grow straight and have a nearly perfect taper. They can be made into very good arrows.

I'm guessin oiser is probably what we call red brush here.

Yepper Runner, an antler tine makes a decent splitting wedge. I've split out hickory staves for bows of primitive means from forearm size trees with antlers. Works very well.

Shoot arrows are much simpler than cutting whole trees and splitting them out and shaping them into arrows. Some shoots can be a challenge to straighten, but much of that is up to how selective you are when choosing which to bring home.

Did a little scavengin' after work today. No arrow shaft material but stumbled into a patch of ramps.

Anyone made arrows from coppiced shoots?

All the time.

I made walking sticks for my young grandsons from coppiced shoots. ng I thought 'arrow' while working on them.

Hardwood shoots are just tiny hardwood trees.

There is a lot of information on my site regarding arrows.

One of the first articles i wrote was for Instinctive Archer, feels like a century ago, wait It was the last century, was on shoot shafts.

Anyway here is the link for my site

http://traditionalarchery101.com

Jawge

Jeff, what was the nearby vegetation. where you found ramps ? Maple trees?

Philip, there's a mix of trees in there, mostly oaks and maples. They're on a small flat area of a gentle slope, facing south.

Thanks for info, Jeff, didn’t mean to divert thread.

This is an example of how easy this really is. This is a maple shoot I snapped off, I scraped the bark off it and let it dry by the stove at my cabin.

Only tool I used was my pocket knife to scrape it down to size, and shape both tapers. Rubbed it down with some sand stone, then coated it with some Crisco. I did use glue for the nock, fletch, and broadhead. The turkey fletch came from some feathers I found under a roost tree near my cabin. Burnt some design on the shaft.

I only hunted with it once, took a nice 6 point with a straight down shot from an old home made hang on stand. Missed the spine but the arrow ended up in the heart. 48# bow.

Pulled the arrow out, cleaned it up and hung it on the wall. That was about 15 years ago.

One of mine I made a few years ago. I don't bow hunt with them. I only make primitive arrows for friends, but they are shootable. You guys who bow hunt with them let's see some pictures of game animals you've taken with them.

Nice arrows!

I'd also love to see some pics of game taken with primitive arrows if you got em.

Nice arrow work, fellas. Primitive arrows are a whole art/skill unto themselves and I respect anyone who invests themselves in it.

I've made a few hunt worthy shoot arrows. Enjoyable work. Just imagine if we had to actually rely on them for our, and our family's survival.... I'd have to seriously up my quality and quantity. But I think back then, arrow making was part of daily living. Just one more regular chore. Bet they went through a lot of arrows. Nowadays we go to work, take out the garbage, do yard work, etc instead of trapping, fishing, making quality hunting weapons, accessories, and using them for daily sustenance.

Geeze, again, I feel I was born too late.

Found another patch of ramps today. A big one. But others know about it. Saw where they were diggin. I didn't take any.

Gonna put some serious scavengin'/scouting miles on the next few days. Turks, morels, ramps, watercress, whatever. I'll keep an eye out for arrow shaft material too.

Two dead gobblers on the road on the way home from work just now... got some primaries for arras :^)

I see what you did there. Very nice Bluesman. Simple. Effective.

GREAT THREAD! GOOD HUNTING & BLESSED BE! Batman

Bluesman, very nice. Can't see from picture, but that's a self nock? Jeff, I am going to tromp my 7 acres on Tues, want to find some ramps and other stuff.

The best of luck to you. Let us know how you make out.

I have made them from bamboo to wild choke cherry, and any thing I could get my hands on that I thought would make a good arrow. I have a dozen river cane shafts ready to make into arrows now for a year. Just can't get into it like I used to. Getting old.

A friend made some arrows from those green stained bamboo tomato stakes. Very ugly but he won some 3D events with them.

I believe he used outsert type points and nocks from the compound world. - lbg

The green stained ones are usually Tonkin and they are excellent when well selected. Sometimes you have to decide whether an apparently excellent couple in a bag of ten or so is worth the cost.

WOW! FASCINATING! GOOD HUNTING & BLESSED BE!

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