Atlatl help

[ozy clint]

Been working on a set and got the atlatl roughed out enough to start throwing.

My spears/darts are 7' long before I add 2' foreshafts.

The spears are bamboo I can source by roadsides. No rivercane anywhere near me.
This bamboo is quite tapered. Over that 7' they are about ⅜" at the nock end and about ⅞" at the point end where the foreshaft socket is.

Throwing the spears without foreshafts they are badly nose diving and flying point left. Now I don't know weather this is my technique or the equipment.  A really weak underpowered throw seems to fly better.

Could these big heavy bamboo spears really be underspined? How can I correct this and get them flying straighter? Scrape the front end to try and get the front more flexible?

Oh, and my throwing forearm is really feeling it. The muscle on the top of the forearm is seriously tense and strained. Loss of grip strength.

[Pat B]

You are using different muscles throwing an atlatl so that should explain the soreness. Are your bamboo shoots green or are they dry? Sounds to me they are under spined. Shortening will stiffen them so you might have to experiment with the lengths. Also I remember folks using a bathroom scale to measure the spine. Seems like 10# was the goal but I don't remember where I saw this or how it was measured. Maybe on Utube.

[ozy clint]

They are dry.

Might try shortening one to the next node on the back end and see if that helps.

Maybe the taper of this species of bamboo is too much.  Makes them extremely point heavy and stiff in the front.

I know it's no good for arrows because within 1 arrow length it would be ¼" at the nock at 9/16" at the point end.

[Pat B]

Point heavy works well with arrows. I don't use atlatls but I'd guess they would be the same. Let us know how it works out for you.