Yep. I would suggest using feathers instead of plastic vanes….but I know lots of trad guys that use carbon shafts.

 

You can somewhat equate the correct arrow for a particular bow with the correct size of tire for a particular vehicle. You cannot walk into a tire store and look at the cheapest or most expensive brand until you know what size you need. Arrows are measured by stiffness or "spine"....that means a shaft is measured on a device that applies a specified weight in the middle of the shaft to measure the amount of flex. In simplest form.....weaker spine fits bows of lower poundage and a stiffer spine fits bows of a higher poundage.

In a more complex understanding beyond bow poundage and shaft stiffness are factors such as draw length of the archer and how the arrow is going to be built. It is in vogue today to add a bunch of weight at the point end "FOC", which effects the flight of an arrow....called "dynamic spine". The shaft still has the same stiffness as measured by the maker, but changing the setup can change how it flies.

A traditional bow typically requires less stiffness or spine for the same draw length as a compound bow, so it is very easy to get them too stiff. A compound has the advantage of high performance cams and the ability to turn down draw weight to accomodate the particular arrow. A trad bow you must basically fit the arrow to the bow....making the initial match much more critical.

 

Sounds like another post builder.

 

Maybe that’s what you are doing as well. Going for 21,000?

 

As in barebow or longbow of modern construction? Yes - just choose the right spine and fletch to suit the application and make sure you stay over the bow manufacturer's minimum arrow weight for the draw weight. There is a nice chart online for a starting point to help with appropriate size of aluminum arrows for wooden recurves and longbows being shot off the shelf.

With a self bow - ie one made only of wood, no fibreglass etc - especially a DIY one? Basically no - you'll struggle to find an aluminium or carbon arrow heavy enough to save your bow turning into splinters.

 

It depends on whether you are interested in rules or technical capability.

From a rule perspective usually societies have classes that allow high tech materials, although the specifically trad classes tend not to, you can often move up a class.

From a technical perspective, if it has glass you probably wont have much trouble, self bows especially tend to be very sensitive to the projectile weight although you can probably fudge it with something like a sand filled arrow.

As a general rule your arrows want to be too heavy, not too light, both because they tend to be more efficient and the bow, less likely to randomly deconstruct and because within reason heavier arrows tend to group better.

As a trade off, heavier arrows seem to give you more consistency points than speed gives you range error points, there is of course a sweet spot !

 

Some of my best flying arrows were picked up for $9.00 a six-pack at Walmart after deer season. I stripped off the vanes and put feathers on so that ran the cost up to about $3.00 per arrow. Look for arrows that have a real spine designation printed on them. I try to avoid the stuff that is marked with a weight range. I have some that are marked 50-75. That could be anything from 400 to 250 spine. I can't test spine, so they are useless to me.

 

There are no such thing as compound arrows........just arrows. You may have some events that deem arrows as legal or not but arrows are arrows. Wood may be the only exception.

 

What is a "compound arrow"?

Do you mean carbon, since that is what everybody is shooting nowadays?

I shoot aluminum out of my recurves and my compounds, if that means anything.

I've never shot carbon out of my recurves, but it's completely doable.

 

Simply put....yes.

 

Like others have said, yes. The past six years I have been shooting Easton FMJ’s for both my compound and traditional bows, just different spine and fletching type……vanes for compound and feathers for my traditional bows. But, I know a few people who use feathers for either type bows, and others who use vanes with their traditional equipment.

 

There isn’t “compound” or “traditional” arrows! There’s wood, aluminum, and carbon arrows. Any one of those can be used off any bow as long as they are the correct spine for that bow!

I also use 5mm FMJ’s off both my stickbows and compound.

Bisch


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I've used wood, aluminum, fiber glass in fishing, target and hunting (Pearsons of years ago) and carbon arrows, but you need to know the hows and whys.
Look to post #5