Just recently purchased 3 doz shafts from wapiti and decided to spend the extra couple bucks and get the weight matched premium poc. I ordered 40/45, 45/50, and 50/55# spine shafts. Intuition would have me think that the higher spine would be a heavier weight just due to the nature of density in wood. And I was wrong, sort of.

The 40/45 were heavier than the 45/50 by 30 gn and the 50/55 was the heaviest. I've only built maybe 200 some arrows in my life and don't yet own a spine tester. For the folks who have made many more than myself, have you noticed a spine to weight ratio at all ? Or can it be all over the place? I know no two trees are the same even in the same species, just wondered what the old hands have seen in this regard.

It can and does vary. And more or less so with different types of wood.

I used to buy a box of ACME shafts by the box of thousand of a spine group then wheigh them out into 10 grain piles

quite a variance (had a lot of piles)

would start at one end and make up and shoot to the other end

in reality you don't note much difference in shooting with in 20-30 grains doing what most of us do

Never was concerned with weight matching...just spine.

Within any given 5# spine range, the weight an vary by up to 75 grains or more from the lightest to the heaviest. The vendor, or course groups them into similar weights as well as spine. If you want your shafts to weigh the same, you need to specify the weight shafts you want from the vendor (as well as the spine, of course). Otherwise, the vendor will likely just send you the weight grouping that he has the most of within the spine range you order.

That being said, there is a rough correlation of weight to spine. That is, higher spined arrows will generally weigh more than lower spined arrows, but not always.

The chart above is accurate. I've made perhaps a thousand shafts, from scratch, with hickory, doug fir, and cedar. Within any of these species, the weight and spine can vary substantially at the same basic diameter.

In general, the tighter and denser the grain, the higher the spine, and the heavier the arrow. But this isn't stamped in stone. Sometimes very dense grain will yield arrows a couple spine groups lighter than others with the same looking grain. I simple spin sand the arrows to the spine group I want. I don't weight match. If I was a very accurate shot, I would.

Thanks guys, I'm not a good enough shot to notice the difference in 30 grains myself. It was just one of those "ponderings". It's what makes wood arrows more fun than other materials for me. They have their own personality! Most are like good friends and there's a couple ya run across, ya just hope they get lost in the tall grass.

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