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Native American arrows?

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trail walker:
Ok so i have been a little paranoid about something for a while  and i need some opinions before i go nuts. So in reading the account of Ishi  making arrows and several other sources nowhere have i found that the Native Americans spined there arrow shafts to exactly mach their bows. It seems like they take the time to make the arrow and then use it. :o , It has always confused me that so much attention is payed to arrow spine. So if i am reading correctly (you tell me) they did not wast tones of time making and rejecting shafts. So now the question i lay to you, how did they compensate?

did there alternative arrow releases change things?
shorter arrows?
Would they just get in closer to the animals?

Please i would love all the input i can get. I am a little scared this topic could start WW3, but like i said i have been going nuts!

Pat B:
I doubt that primitive man spined arrows as we think of it today but feel the spine of each shaft by flexing then getting them close. On my primitive arrows I only check spine to find the stiff side so I know how to line up the arrow. Stiff side goes against the bow. Many shoot and cane arrows are tapered at least slightly fo that helps plus, on mine I make them 30" for my 26" draw. I think the extra length helps the arrow get around the bow.

bjrogg:
Anything I say here is just purely a guess. I have absolutely know knowledge of how the natives did or didn't spine shafts. I suspect like Pat says in that some makers could feel the spine fairly well and had a pretty good idea from feel what would or wouldn't match a bow well. I also suspect they became familiar with the materials they were using they probably had a pretty fair idea from physical size and weight. I also suspect that just like today some makers were more fussy than others and had a deeper understanding of how length, point weight, stiffness and weight F.O.C. Effected their arrows flight. It seems to me in my uneducated but unbiased opinion that many different levels of skills would have been scattered around the world.
Bjrogg
PS I also suspect some arrows didn't fly well and were discarded or tried with different bows.

DC:

--- Quote from: bjrogg on December 26, 2017, 08:47:51 am ---
PS I also suspect some arrows didn't fly well and were discarded or tried with different bows.

--- End quote ---

+1

trail walker:
ok that makes sense. how off does an arrows spine have to be to throw you off badly at like 40 yards?

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