I spent this past year this past year learning and testing arrows. Why did it take me so long? In my opinion you should not really worry about arrows until you have control of your shot cycle and start becoming consistent in your shot groups.
I like to use a three arrow group, that is what we did in the Army and it is a good standard. I have been able to get my three arrows in a nice tight group and that told me I have gotten my shot cycle down. Now, it was not perfect but it is starting to take final form.
When I first started shooting (using a 47 pound bow) I was using 400 spine arrows, and to me they flew great. But as I got better I would see a little movement from time to time. Then I went to 500’s and for a while they few great, but after a while that movement came back.
That is when I realized something was up. How could they fly great but after a while start to move? Really, what was wrong? Turns out it was me. My shot cycle had so much variance in it that I couldn’t see it moving. But why did they fly straight for a while?
That is when I learned a little trick. Those charts for arrows, you know them. The one we all use to choose the “proper” arrow. Well, they are off!
Yep, those charts are not exact and they do not account for several things that affect which arrow you should choose. The first thing is how your bow is cut. If your bow is bow is not cut to center, you need to subtract five pounds from your draw weight. And ….. If you are using a dacron string, you need to subtract five pounds from your bow weight.
So, my 47 pound bow is not cut to center and I’m using a dacron string. That means I should subtract ten pounds off my bow. What that means is when I use the chart, I shouldn’t be looking at the 47 pound range, but the 37!
I now use 600 spine arrows (still too stiff, I had to use 175 grain heads to get them to fly right). I have bareshaft tuned and paper tuned them and they fly great. In fact this past few months I have shot better than ever. The best part? That bow works really well with 800 spine arrows! But the charts say 500’s.
Lesson learned.
3D Archery with Gregory Richards 