I found a 7/16" dowel I got at Home Depot some time ago; I forget for what reason. Anyway, it's snowing and thought I'd try my hand at making a barreled and tapered shaft out of it. Used a thumb plane and sandpaper and it took about 15 minutes to produce a good barreled and tapered shaft from it. We'll see how it shoots when the weather allows. In the meantime, I'm pretty happy with the results. Something to do anyway.