Do y'all know of a source for something cheaper than POC, some other kind of wood? What I use is 30-35 5/16. Thanks!

Nope. Not if they are any good.

Only alternative is to make them yourself, and then you trade money for time.

x2

Check out 3 Rivers Hunter shafts. They make good entry-level arrows. I bought 3 doz arrows so the shafts should be the same.

I bought some German Spruce about a year or so ago from Kustom King and they were surprisingly good shafts for $28.00 a dozen. Don't know if you can find them anymore. If someone tells me they're no good, I usually give them a try. More often then not they work just fine and are as accurate as I can be with them anyway. If they are spined well and weigh close the same amount they will likely be just fine.

I think that what you give up to save ten or twelve bucks is not worth it. Especially if you buy more than a dozen at a time and compare shipping costs.

You can make your own very cheap. I do it for close up small game arrows and never look back if they are lost. Otherwise, I buy premium shafts from Wapiti (there are other suppliers that are just as good).

I'm learning all kinds of stuff on here!!! I got the info to make a spine tester and found some poplar dowels real cheap per 100. I,m gonna test some of my arrows that shoot good and mark that as the standard on the face of my tester then sand the poplars till they match. We'll see if it works, If not I ain't out much. I wish I could figure out how to post pics,I'd show y'all my $5.00 dip tube setup I made this morning outta some 1/2 " pipe, a 16oz water bottle and a cardboard box....I'm so cheap....

Trees?

Your approach with the poplar is pretty much what I do. I don't bother with the spine just mark bows on the spine tester. Getting a calibrated tester is not my interest, I just want the arrows to shoot form my bows.

Not worth it saving a couple $ on the thing you actually shoot from your bow and is intended to hit repeatedly on the same spot. Poplar dowels are dowels for a reason. No grain orientation at all. Hope you don't shoot one through your hand. Especially for real low spine....

You pretty much get what you pay for.

Cheap arrows become expensive in a hurry. You need to learn the hard way like most of us. Rooty

The first thing I read in a magazine in 66 when I started was "any bow will give you good accuracy but not just any arrow will. So buy the best arrows you can, then buy a bow to match them with what's left."

Poplar dowels from Lowe’s is all I shoot. They are made by Madison Mills. You have to sort through them to find the ones with minimal grain run out. Then a spine tester and grain scale are needed to match them.

I start with 3/8” and barrel taper then sand to get the spine I want. I need 55-60. But if you’re looking for 30-35 lb 5/16, that will be no problem without needing to barrel taper.

The nice thing about it is, you can sort through them in the store, then when you get them home and before you cut them, you can spine check them and return the ones that won’t fit your parameters. No waste.

I would be curious what percentage of usable shafts you will get out of the 100 shafts ordered. Like stykzz says, buy local and you can select through them as you buy them, and not end up with a bunch that won’t fit your perimeters safely.

I would never buy a whole box. Out of a box in the store I only get 1-15 out of a box of I think 300? But I’ve been doing this for a while and have lots of shafts saved up. I currently have approximately 13 doz all spine matched and weighed. And about 300 more to process. I just check each store every six months or so. I have three stores in my town and a couple more not to far from me.

Yeah it takes some time, But I find it enjoyable.

I should amend that last post. I shoot 40# @30" so I'm looking for the lightest dowel as well, usually in the 600 grain range at the full 36" length. With a 100 grain point, and barrel tapering I end up with a 475 grain arrow. If you want a heavier arrow, there are lots more usable dowels. You'd probably get up to 20 each visit. I still wouldn't buy a complete box though.

How good do you shoot that you will realize the difference between premium cedar, and standard cull...or even a product like German Spruce. Have you even tried them? Probably some of you have, but some folks build a prejudice without any personal experience.

You only get what you pay for literally; you pay your money and you get a product. There is no guarantee that paying more money for premium shafts will make you any better than the standard culls at $10.00 less, so justify it however you like, but I know that most of the time those cheaper shafts shoot just as accurately. But then some folks don't mind paying for what they think is better...and that keeps the economy going. :)

FWIW you can buy those spruce shafts (grown and harvested in Austria) direct in bulk from Germany from this website:

https://www.bogensport-beier.de/en/arrows/shafts/fir-wood- shafts/1843/5/16-premiun-wooden-shaft-fir/spruce-handspined

You can also ask them for an estimate for shipping. My last order a year ago or more ran 39 Euro ($46) for (120) shafts shipped to Boston.

Their current price for (100) shafts is 116 Euro, or ~$138. Now I bet you that shipping has gone UP, but even if it costs you $60 to ship those (100) shafts, you'll get them for $2 each. What I also do is wait for their pre-Xmas sale when items are 25% off. I did that once and paid $1.18 per shaft delivered.

NOTES on the QUALITY: -For spine - Even though they are alleged to be spined, I hand- spine them myself and find you'll get maybe 10% up into the next higher spine range. -For weight - Once spined I'll weigh them all and sort them to make consistent dozen batches. -For straightness - I've been very pleased and some spin in my hand like they were carbn shafts. I have only rarely ever straightened one.

CAVEAT - These aren't the shafts for everyone, clearly, but I need to use 5/16" shafts on some of my selfbows as with the 1" wide riser and no cut-in shelf and no shelf for that matter (only an inlaid arrow pass & shooting off the knuckle) I need to use shafts spined a good 10#s below the draw weight, even whilst using D97 strings.

For my use strictly on lighter selfbows, they are PERFECT! However, your mileage may vary ...

if the culls have run outs the ten bux u saved -that's a crack up- is gonna get mutiplied by 10k if you run one into your arm and that's no exaggeration. i crashed my bicycle 36 days ago. got five fractures in ribs and pelvis. the bills are just over 40k right now. eroom $35.5K amberglamps $2011 doc $1800 therapist $650 eroom assistant $350. not all bills in yet either. 10 bux lol

I make Poplar shafts and have great luck with them. And they cost less than POC.

Funny, people used to realize if you cut corners in archery you do it by buying a cheap bow, not arrows where grain runout can put you in the hospital(no matter how you orient the rift). Or lack of consistancy can cost an animal lots of unneeded pain. I learned the hard way not to buy cap dipped arrows from internet experts favorite dealers when an arrow broke as it hit the bag target. It broke at a point where most all the grain ran out together, under the paint where I couldn't see it. I just called the new owner because no one else had a doz 75-80s a friend needs. I ask for a doz GOOD premiums. He found a doz weighed, spined, and bundled. I told him to make them up since this is a present. The next day he called me n let me know that when he unbundled them they turned out to be junk that he won't sell and apologized. NOW I would trust that company.

Sorry for the book, my point was in short what if the shaft came apart on release.

I've used a few dozen of the German spruce shafts I got from a local shop closing its doors. $10 per dozen. Great shafts. Some runout on the ends of a few that got trimmed off anyway. Also used the dowels from the box stores for stumpers, but didn't get too elaborate with matching weight and spine, can't remember ever breaking one, but back then they were most likely ramin dowels.

Getting ready to try making some arrows from a big batch of bamboo garden stakes I picked up recently for 10 bucks for 125 of them. I may end up with a couple sets, but no real loss if I only get a six-pack ;)

If you live somewhere that has River Cane, it makes awesome arrow.shafts and you can harvest and prep yourself

With grass shafts theres no grain to worry about. How do you get the spine? Size, or can you sand them?

I make my own shafts and it's not possible to make better. No, I won't sell any at any price. Y'all need to learn to make your own.

make mine from straight grain poplar boards from Lowes. have footed a few. gives me something to do...

After thinking about a dowel rod driven through my wrist and hand for a few days I believe I'll just take the long route instead of cutting that corner.....

Tembo62, you can, and many folks do, make arrows from hand selected dowels that are just as accurate, and just as safe as any wooden arrows made.

You have to select the grain just like a dealer who is selecting shafts to send to you does. The difference being that when you buy them, you are paying someone to do that for you. Arrow shafts are dowels after all. If you buy arrows that have bad grain structure (and it happens) those shafts are no less likely to end up stuck through your wrist than any other.

I've made dozens and dozens from Ramin, Oak, and Poplar dowels just like lots of other folks have.

But you have to do what you feel comfortable with.

It's difficult to find that spine in 5/16 in anything other than POC. Perhaps Sitka spruce, but the price will be similar.

Regardless, the arrow is the most important part of the set up That's not the place to skimp.

With shipping (that clearly has gone up) today's price is $1.81 per shaft at the conversion price of 1 Euro = $1.01 USD.

Ikept records of the (120) I purchased of spine 30-35 (for a yew selfbow of 1" riser width) and here's how they scaled by quantity.

I don't worry about the grain runout on cedar much. They never seem to break on the growth anyway. Douglas fir is a different story and can be dangerous.

Sure glad YOU are OK there Craig!

Ouch

I just bought some 32”, 5/16”, 35/40 Sherwood Hunter Grade Doug Fir shafts from feathersnwood for $38.00dz. This is the 4th dozen I have bought from him and they are weight matched within 10 grains, and as straight as any Ihave ever bought right out of the bundle.

With DF you definitely want to align the grain correctly but they are tough. I just came from a 2 day 3D shoot that had a lot of brushy shots and I shot a total of 150 shots with the same arrow (40/45 spine) out of a 50# selfbow with at least 5 shots ricocheting off of trees with no damage to the shaft.

Lucky? YES, but cedar would not have withstood those 5 deflections. Just my 2cents worth.

I hand plane white pine stock or make natural shoot arrows. It is all here. http://traditionalarchery101.com

To further add to Craig's comments--a little off the thread but important--this is what was left when one of my son's or grandson's arrow (two inches shorter) ended up in my quiver and I over drew it, causing it to fall below the shelf as I released it.

It was not Doug fir, but likely chundoo. I usually wear a glove and eye protection (from on old eye injury) and was glad I did that evening. The steel blunt slide into the base of my thumb as the shaft came apart from nowhere to go, and a piece of the arrow hit my safety glasses. I can feel the arthritis in that dumb now every day, but still shoot.

So safety does matter, grain orientation on woodies is important, and paying attention to stuff like checking the nocks and nicks and flexing and even wearing safety glasses helps. At least it did for me this last time. And I have blown up a few arrows over the years, but none like this one.

A cheap bow good; cheap arrow bad.

Sorry to hear you got busted up, Bob!

This thread makes me wonder if shaft makers recoup some investment by selling their culls to the hardware stores as dowels… It’d be great for them if they could….

I bought 100 “kids” cedars from a highly reputable seller; spines and weights were all over the map from about #20 into the low #40s. Weights were pretty variable as well. That was a bit of an eye-opener.

$75 was not too much to pay for them… but it might’ve been close if you were to pay me #15 an hour to spine and weigh them.

I think 2bears has a supplier for bamboo that he likes. Not gonna open that can o’ worms but yes, they’re Imported….

After having been in the custom arrow business over 25years I can tell you why prices are so high on wooden shafts produced and sold in this country. Its primarily because of Excise taxes.

A major carbon shaft manufacture in this country was complaining about Chinese carbon shafts being imported and not subject to taxes. They contacted their congress person about the problem and had the tax code changed. When the change was made instead of having rates on the various shaft materials everything was based on the retail price of Carbon shafting. So wood shaft manufactures pay the same rate on a wooden shaft as the Carbon shafts. Its one of the reasons I got out of the business.

Bob

Dowel rods...

Poplar is a good arrow wood and has a lot of the same characteristics as cedar. I've shot a lot of them.

If you got time learn to make your own.To keep cost down salvage wood from demolishion sites.I get heaps of well seasoned Douglas fir or Baltic pine.I have over many years made thousands that way. Osr

If you have already registered, please

sign in now

For new registrations

Click Here