Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Flight Bows => Topic started by: RyanY on September 29, 2025, 10:38:27 pm
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I had the pleasure of talking with Arvin at the TN Classic this year about flight shooting. I've always wanted to get into it but was intimidated by the natural materials strings and arrows. He showed me which linen thread to buy and one of his broadhead arrows. It has inspired me to get started on some flight gear so I wanted to share my projects and progress.
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Started with an extra wide seat for my tiller tree and a scraper shave for the extra wide limbed bows.
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Heat treating a practice bow. Tried using some foil tape to reflect the heat away from the belly side. Just made a sticky mess. :o
Tied a piece of wire to the heat gun to keep the distance consistent. I think I'm going to get one with a bit more power after using a better one at the classic.
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Arvin has got to be the absolute best guy to talk to, he is a pretty smart fella, despite just being an old Texas cowboy type and his humble appearances lol. He has more records with his bows than maybe anyone, and he did it fast too. You also could have met a better guy in general.
Looking forward to seeing your progress, Ill do my best to help you along as well.
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Finished up a practice pyramid bow. It is hickory. I was hoping to heat in 5" of reflex in anticipation of keeping close to 3". I think the reflex could have been more aggressive because there was a lot of spring back with such a gradual curve. Only ended up keeping around 2" after a few heat treats. Also ended up light closer to 46#@28". I think if the humidity goes down it'll pick up a couple pounds. I'm also working on my shooting here and there and was short drawing it. Was getting low 170's FPS with a 450 grain arrow so not too fast. Also wanted to try a short handle and shaping the arrow pass. I need to shoot it for distance but am still working on finding somewhere to do that.
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Thanks Kevin. I've been texting him and it's been great. Honestly thinking about taking a trip down to his place to work on some bows. What do you say Arvin? :BB
Started some arrows. Use the heads Arvin recommended. Took a while to figure out. I bought some bulk bamboo shafts on Ebay and the majority of them are very light for broadhead use. I also struggled to figure out how to get the weight close to exact. Talked with Alan about adding some filler to the ends of the bamboo which Arvin also recommended. Also used tape to cut out the fletchings which helped. Still need a better way to hold them while cutting but it got them close.
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I am working on my issues with perfectionism and avoidance which has definitely come up with the thought of flight shooting. There were a few months between working on this stuff but I finally got a hand full of arrows done. The last few went much faster. If I can figure out how to get shafts close to weight then they would be fairly simple for the broadhead arrows. They ended up a bit light I think because of the humidity. 1-2 grains shy for a couple of them. Hopefully good enough to test.
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After getting a few arrows done I am allowing myself to work on more bows. ;D :BB I had cut some hickory in April last year. One of the logs was cut quite low to the base where the trunk flares out. I thought I'd use that section to add some deflex at the handle for a deflex recurve bow. This will be for broadhead is the goal. The rings are pretty thick. Same wood as the pyramid bow. MC with the meter is about 10-11% at the wide end and just under 10% at the short end. I have a dehumidifier running in my shop to keep humidity at 40% so hopefully they can get lower and it'll be easier to keep it dry in the winter.
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I got a new bandsaw a couple years ago and recently tuned it up. Never been better! I need a new blade but it cut good enough. Did a practice splice and the bow one turned out well. Got the alignment just about perfect. Cut it down a bit to let it dry out more.
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Last update for tonight. I also got a bunch of old osage billets from a guy in Ohio. He said someone had cut them off a military base down south and the rings are very consistent. Not many wide ones as he was going to use them for backed bows, possibly even with edge grain. I picked a good looking pair and chased a ring. This will be a deflex recurve flight bow hopefully. I drew out a shape I like for the form. Took inspiration from that Yeoman Flight Bow from the Vintage Projects article.
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Flight archery is definitely a niche sport, probably because it isn't exactly an easy sport to be competent in. I know I get a kick out of reading about people trying to send an arrow over the horizon far more than someone throwing a bullet long distance.
Keep it up and keep journaling on this thread!
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I'm lurking in the bushes watching... ::)
Del
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If anyone can get it right Ryan I got faith you can, although I ant in to flight I really enjoy watching and listening to you guys That are. I will be watching. Pappy
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Those billets are beautiful! Color me jealous! To give you a speed goal, you need 185 fps to seriously compete. Less speed may do the trick if you make a perfect arrow and get a perfect arrow release.
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Ryan you are on the right track. The bamboo is no different than the wood shafts . You need enough mass for spine and weight requirements. You can cut one inch off of a shaft and get close on how much length you can reduce to hit your length of draw and not exceed draw weight. You don’t want a lot of foc!!! It kills you on the backend but f the shot. As far sad coming and building and testing that could be a option. You just need to pm me or call me.
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Thanks for the feedback friends.
Arvin, I am wondering how much wiggle room I'd have with a wood shaft. I probably need to start making my own. Poplar would be very easy to get.
Did some work tonight. Got the form for the smaller flight bow cut out. Made a few adjustments to the line to simplify it a bit. Got the billets cut down to a more reasonable size. They're a bit wedge shaped and not super wide so I need to be careful to get as much width as possible. Shaved down a piece to do a density check at some point. It's definitely hard, aged osage but not necessarily the most dense stuff I've used. I think I'll be able to get 1.75" wide. I have a lot of wiggle room for the length but I was hoping to keep it short, close to 54-56" for primitive flight.
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Ryan that’s to narrow for that short a bow. It’s going to take more set than you want for flight. Just a opinion. Please prove me wrong. That width needs to be probably 66” minimum. That will help on the set problem.
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This will also have a shorter draw for 23” arrows is the plan. They’re the widest billets I have so I’ll have to see how tillering goes. Definitely a high stress design. 2” minimum would have been better.
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What are the dimensions of that limb? I can run it through my bow calculator program, calculate the surface area of the bending section, and tell you how much that bow can weigh and not take set.
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What are the dimensions of that limb? I can run it through my bow calculator program, calculate the surface area of the bending section, and tell you how much that bow can weigh and not take set.
I haven’t finalized it yet. I’ll probably keep it 1.75” to mid limb or a bit further and then taper into the recurve. It’ll end up being around 24” long if I go 56” ntn with an 8” handle and fades. I’m not sure how much reflex it’ll end up with but I’ll be adding some deflex at the splice. 50#@24.5-25” from the back of the bow is the goal.
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What are the dimensions of that limb? I can run it through my bow calculator program, calculate the surface area of the bending section, and tell you how much that bow can weigh and not take set.
I haven’t finalized it yet. I’ll probably keep it 1.75” to mid limb or a bit further and then taper into the recurve. It’ll end up being around 24” long if I go 56” ntn with an 8” handle and fades. I’m not sure how much reflex it’ll end up with but I’ll be adding some deflex at the splice. 50#@24.5-25” from the back of the bow is the goal.
Put 2.5 and end up with 1.5 to 1.75 reflex. Make that bow as wide as possible for as long as possible, start your taper as far out as you can.
When you decide the front profile of the bow, give me the width for every inch of length and Ill tell you what that bow can do without set.