Build your own. All you really need is a bitz and you're set.

Yes it's worth it.

 

Agreed with Doofy. Building your own is the way to go. You get to understand what you really want in an arrow

 

Depends on your needs. I have 3 or 4 blitz fletchers. Lately I just pay for arrows. I love doing it but time is at premium and hard to find. I don't have anything extreme done just have bright wraps and white, white, orange fletching done

 

Depends on whether or not you enjoy paying up to $200 for six arrows with someone's logo on it, when you can buy a dozen premium hunting arrows and the vanes and wraps for the same price and do it yourself.

If you don't care then have someone else do it for you.

 

It's 100% worth building your own custom arrows.

It also gives you nobody to complain to, except the man in the mirror. 🤣

 

what the heck is a "Custom Arrow?"

I usually go on e-bay and have my guy cut shafts to length and I do the rest cause I usually do not have more then 3-4 arrows looking the same

I bought the Arizona ez fletch back when it was 22 bucks, 59 now
never bought a cut-off saw cause I only buy arrows once every 3 to 4 years.

I tell ya what though, I was cruising the web a few weeks ago and xyz [lw will build arrows for you for a fairly good price.
For a dozen arrows they will install your vane of choice with your choice of off-set or helical for 6 bucks, wraps were about the same and glue in inserts for free. Which is cheaper then buying a dozen of your arrows, factory fletched with factory vanes and no wraps and not cut or inserts installed

 

what the heck is a "Custom Arrow?"


I tell ya what though, I was cruising the web a few weeks ago and Black Orvis will build arrows for you for a fairly good price.
I think for a dozen arrows they will install your vane of choice with your choice of off-set or helical for 6 bucks, wraps were about the same and glue in inserts for free. Which is cheaper then buying a dozen of your arrows, factory fletched with factory vanes and no wraps and not cut or inserts installed

So finished arrows with vanes, a wrap, cut to length and inserts installed for $12 an arrow.
I'll take a dozen Easton super drive 23's for a total to my door of $144.

 

I've never really considered my own DIY arrows as "custom", although they are carefully measured and cut, squared on both ends and spin tested with weighed compontents.....prior to personalized fletching. My first Bitz jig was purchased in 1977, when I started to make my own target arrows and it is still going strong.....so I guess it has been worth the investment.

There might be a custom arrow shop that takes more care than I do, but I honestly don't know what the extra OCD is worth in real world results. Since I cut my own Oracal 651 vinyl into cap wraps and have a variety of vane colors of my preferred type, I can build a pretty wide assortment at a fraction of the cost of "custom" arrows and they have met my needs for several decades. The bigger question might be whether it is worth it to YOU to invest in the equipment to build your own vs just buying whatever is offered at the source you use???

 

To me, the ones I build myself are custom arrows. And I’ve never found anyone that cares more about my gear than me!

 

They’re fun to build. A dozen shafts are cheaper than six fletched arrows, and vanes are cheap. I use the Arizona EZ Fletch jig, which is cheaper and faster than a Bitz, but there’s a lot less control.

 

For years I had Jerry of southshore build my arrows. T the time they were the best flying and killing arrows I had ever used.

Then I got the tools and knowledge to build my own. Going the full mile on the build spine indexing l, spine matching, weight matching each component.

And after using these arrows for several years now. There is no way I could ever go back to over the counter arrows or pay someone to just cut them to length and call them custom.

 

Did you learn from someone? Or another resource? Would love to learn

 

For me the customer part is being able to spine sort all of your arrows. Buy 3-4 dozen and then sort for the most consistent spine and straightest arrows. But add vanes and wraps is cool as well

 

Way more satisfaction building your own.
Not really a big investment needed for the proper tools. A good Fletching jig, arrow square, arrow spinner and maybe a arrow saw unless you buy them pre cut.
Get creative with different inserts and outserts, there are endless wrap and vane combinations you can come up with to make them Your Arrow.
Have fun

 

I have been building my own arrows for 30+ years.……I just enjoy the process and not having to rely on anyone else.

 

The pride of building your own arrows, seeing them fly and killing your target animal is well worth every penny spent. 💯 You get the feather/vane colors you want, the off-set to the feathers/vanes for better accuracy and if you order off of Amazon and/or E-Bay, you can get quality parts to build what you want and have less money invested than store bought arrows.

Typically, I have between $140 to $190 in a dozen arrows. This includes shafts, wraps, feathers and glue. Bob Smith Industries has the best glue!

I've been building my own arrows since 1977 and it has been a pleasure!

 

where are you looking at for Custom Arrows? you mentioned worth the premium, compared to what?

 

I see some people offering a custom built arrows for $250+, claiming that groups will be tighter, that is what I am referring to, not just putting your own wraps and vanes on.

I have a LCA VMP and use it to refletch my GT Hunter XT arrows, i would like to learn what folks like Jerry at SSAS do to make their arrows “custom” to each Archer

 

No it is 100% not worth the price. You can do it yourself for so much less and it's really easy to put arrows together.

Careful though next thing you know you'll be spinning up beautiful cedar arrows for a stick bow

 

Never built one arrow! I have refletched many. I have literally killed 100s of animals with stock arrows! It’s a joke among my hunting partners who spend 100s of $ on high priced arrows and still often eat their tags.

 

Sounds like they suck at hunting nothing more.

Weird weak flex bro.

 

I also build my own arrows. I have all the tools and can make all my arrows the same, just the way I like them.

Bisch

 

I used to buy from a guy on e-bay that has a huge archery store on there. But about 6 years ago I changed arrows and he does not carry mine. RRArchery or something like that
Only reason I changed is cause that brand raised their prices up more then I wanted to spend and he had to raise his prices up accordingly

 

I extremely enjoy it and probably fiddle with my arrows more than I should. It's easy, relaxing and seeing something you somewhat put together fly perfect is enjoyable.

 

I used to buy arrows from denbow, I’m not sure if they are still in business or not. I had Adam’s precision quote me on a dozen arrows, I can’t remember exact price but they were insanely expensive, I actually emailed back to confirm that it was correct. I just went to my local shop this time and had them do wraps, vane configuration.

 

Build your own.
Tools needed:
Arrow spinner, Get the OMP one, the plastic one you see from pine ridge always made me chase a wobble.
I have one a very nice one a guy built off etsy, and it works really really good.

Buy quality arrows. I typically just buy the .001 straightness and have lancaster cut them.

Grain scale.

AAE fletcher or the Bitz, or the OMP fletcher. All three really work well.

Squaring tool. The ASD is really good.

A good set of field points, Smith Brothers has some, pricey but you can ensure they are straight.

Prep the arrows by squaring them, both sides, clean out the carbon dust with acetone and a q-tip. Leave the nocks out.

You can use hot melt, but I like to use slow set epoxy.

Glue your insert in and spin it, if it wobbles, rotate and reset until it spins true. Let dry 24 hours

Find your nock point by nock tuning, fletch in whatever rotation you want, I just use the spine alignment off the Victory.

It took me a while to find my process but I have 3 dozen arrows that all are straight with Field points and broadheads.

You can weight match your equipment too but I don't, a spray laquer down the inside with increase a few grains here and there.

 

Build your own.
Tools needed:
Arrow spinner, Get the OMP one, the plastic one you see from pine ridge always made me chase a wobble.
I have one a very nice one a guy built off etsy, and it works really really good.

Buy quality arrows. I typically just buy the .001 straightness and have lancaster cut them.

Grain scale.

AAE fletcher or the Bitz, or the OMP fletcher. All three really work well.

Squaring tool. The ASD is really good.

A good set of field points, Smith Brothers has some, pricey but you can ensure they are straight.

Prep the arrows by squaring them, both sides, clean out the carbon dust with acetone and a q-tip. Leave the nocks out.

You can use hot melt, but I like to use slow set epoxy.

Glue your insert in and spin it, if it wobbles, rotate and reset until it spins true. Let dry 24 hours

Find your nock point by nock tuning, fletch in whatever rotation you want, I just use the spine alignment off the Victory.

It took me a while to find my process but I have 3 dozen arrows that all are straight with Field points and broadheads.

You can weight match your equipment too but I don't, a spray laquer down the inside with increase a few grains here and there.

The part I bolded is key.....every arrowsmith has to learn their 'system' to achieve the desired results. In reality, it is mostly the same attention to detail that comes from experiment and experience. But the satisfaction of shooting well with your hand-built arrows, along with taking game with them is priceless (to quote the old TV ad).

There are a bunch of folks who also dove into the deep end of the DIY pool by building their own bowstrings. I did so during the 30+ years of trad archery, but trust Mike@Catfish Customs to do the job right without investing in the extra equipment and materials for strings.

And while speaking of DIY....check out a bow press, draw board, scale, hand tools and really go down the DIY rabbit hole.

 

I used to buy from the shop and go, easy and fast. But then I collected a used arrow saw, a blitz and all that stuff to build. I find it very dare I say therapeutic to build you own. Are they better quality, probably. Do they work better, I want to say yes but I don't think I am a better hunter than before as far as the actual arrow goes. I was having the same success than I was before. But if you like to tinker it's worth it and can be cheaper if you buy things in bulk and can do it.

with that said if you are really into tuning then you have to build, no better QC than yourself. Buying bare shafts in bulk of quality is cheaper I find anyways. To each their own but I only used ones I make now.

 

OP, looks like the consensus is NO,