Author Topic: Snake dogwood shafts  (Read 3551 times)

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Offline BowEd

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Snake dogwood shafts
« on: April 06, 2022, 08:37:04 pm »
The title is'nt because they are wiggly or snaky though.The dark charcoal grey/white speckeled ones represent the black speckeled king snake and the natural ones with a little cambium left on the have the colors of the copperhead snake.
48 to 49 spine weighing from 551 to 599 grains with 125 grain field tips and 30" long TTT.9/32" nock and 23/64" tip.4" long parabolic shaped feathers.
A lot of the variance in grain weight is due to how soon it gets to 23/64" thick towards the tip.In other words one will have a slight more weight up front than another.Overall they have a FOC percentage of around 13%.

« Last Edit: April 07, 2022, 12:59:04 pm by BowEd »
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Ed

Offline Trapper Rob

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Re: Snake dogwood shafts
« Reply #1 on: April 06, 2022, 09:59:44 pm »
Those turned out nice

Offline BowEd

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Re: Snake dogwood shafts
« Reply #2 on: April 06, 2022, 10:55:30 pm »
Thanks Rob.
To keep all these different shoot shafts identified in 3" tubes I've gone to color coding them by their feathers.2 reds and a white are dogwoods/2 yellows and a white ocean spray/2 green and a white multiflora rose/2 blue and a white bamboo/2 white and a green hill cane etc....Oh yea 2 barred turkey wing and a turkey tail privet.

« Last Edit: April 06, 2022, 10:59:21 pm by BowEd »
BowEd
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Ed

Offline BowEd

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Re: Snake dogwood shafts
« Reply #3 on: April 07, 2022, 10:06:48 am »
The time consuming process  mostly for me making shoot shafts is the reducing spine process.I use the spin them in a drill process while keeping the  natural full length taper on them.Although you can make parrallel shafts with them if you want and they will still shoot fine.
You kinda want to sneak up on your spine slowly much like tillering bows to desired draw weight.
If shoot is oversized after being dried and the bark removed I'll start out with 60 grit to get within 5#'s of my intended spine.Go down to 80 grit then 100 grit then 220 grit for final sanding.By then usually all major sanding scratches will be removed.
You should have a spine tester to do this but not totally necessary.It can be done more quickly though I've found.
I made my spiner for $20.00.

From this book which cost $30.00.There are many other projects in there though which are very useful.Overall though buying a spiner will cost well over $100.00.
I've made dozens and dozens of arrows with that $50.00 investment and the pay back will keep rising the more I make.

I grain weigh them also while I'm reducing.There will be a grain weight that the finished ones generally fall into on the certain species your making shafts from.Once that is achieved I start to spine test them.That grain weight usually is about 50 grains more than a finished one is.
The work is not done yet though of course.Field tip needs to be glued on.Self nock cut in and then wrapped.Bare shaft shot.Then finally fletched.
« Last Edit: April 19, 2022, 11:48:02 am by BowEd »
BowEd
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Ed

Offline Buckskinner

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Re: Snake dogwood shafts
« Reply #4 on: April 07, 2022, 11:04:36 am »
You have a great process there and excellent results.  I'm going to have to build a similar spine tester...

Offline bjrogg

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Re: Snake dogwood shafts
« Reply #5 on: April 08, 2022, 10:20:44 am »
Nice work as always Ed

Bjrogg
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Offline BowEd

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Re: Snake dogwood shafts
« Reply #6 on: April 10, 2022, 07:06:24 am »
Shot the new dogwood shafts at a 3D shoot saturday.Fun shoot with a half dozen other fellas.1 was a little weak on spine but the rest were dead on.The rest did their thing....ha ha.3 other fellas made their own bows in the group.2 compounds along too.Shot the salt and pepper bow.Shots ranged from 10 yards to 45 yards.Had a blast.
All others along shot carbide arrows.
Had some interesting discussions about shoot shafts and bows in general.It's a blast to convert the main stream back into the past.
Might pick up some different shoot types from a fella from Louisiana he says grows locally there.Don't know the exact name of them yet though.
BowEd
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Ed

Black Moshannon

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Re: Snake dogwood shafts
« Reply #7 on: April 15, 2022, 09:11:37 pm »
Those are nice. Can't believe you're getting 13% FOC with only 125 grain points. I measured mine tonight and they're around 11.5%. And my points weigh between 180-200 grains. Maybe its because I mostly dowel my shafts before finishing them. It looks like you leave more of the natural taper.

Offline BowEd

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Re: Snake dogwood shafts
« Reply #8 on: April 16, 2022, 04:24:18 am »
I'm using the calculator from bowhunting.com to figure out my foc number.
When harvesting these natural shoots I like a lot of natural taper.Most times the nocks on mine are 9/32".
4" low cut feather fletching.
Balance point of parallel shafts will balance about an inch closer to the middle of shaft.
Balance point on these to tip is close to 1/3 to 2/3 to nock with 125 grain field tips.Going to 145 grain field tips does'nt gain me all that much but a little though,but then I need to increase the spine 5#'s and that makes the dogwoods into the +650 grain range and I don't really need that.
« Last Edit: April 16, 2022, 09:50:32 am by BowEd »
BowEd
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Ed

Black Moshannon

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Re: Snake dogwood shafts
« Reply #9 on: April 16, 2022, 03:58:04 pm »
That’s a pretty good balance. I left the front ends on my last several bigger because I put light bone points on. I’m thinking that may have been a mistake as it might hinder penetration, but I’m just playing around with these. I saw Ryan Gill released a video explaining the differences between modern steel point arrow balance versus using a primitive point in which a small light and pointy end is needed. He said you can’t try to have a stone point with a heavy front end… got me to thinking bone would probably be the same…