First shoot shaft arrow

[Blayne]

I finally got around to building an arrow from local wood that I harvested. A few months back I picked a bundle of Ocean Spray shoots, did a bit of straightening while green and set aside to season. I pulled on the other day and decided to make one fly. A little heat, some scraping and sanding to get the point end down for a taper, glued on some turkey feathers and voila, the toughest damn arrow I have ever shot! With a 125gr Ace hex blunt it weighs in at just over 900gr! I have put this arrow through a pretty good test stumpshooting in the local woods, hitting rocks, defecting off live trees, passing throughs on stumps and bouncing off hard spots on rotten logs. It hasn't shown any damage. The blunt is chipped up, the wood is mint. OS is my new favorite arrow. I can see many more of these in my future. Lucky for me the stuff grows everywhere around me:)

[bjrogg]

Nice job I love arrows especially shoot arrows. They are a lot of work to harvest strip bark straighten spine and wieght match before you can even make arrow. They are very satisfying to shoot.

[archeryrob]

Very nice fletching, but 900 grains!!

Some of the heaviest arrows I have ever made were ash and all came in about 650 or lower. Southern arrowwood and Multiflora usually came in under 600 or around 550

You'll like the shoot arrows as they have concentric rings and it takes a lot of wear and tear to break them. They is no grain run out as in traditional shafts where they can shear easy on shock.

[Pat B]

I love shoot arrows and it looks like you did a good job on this one.  900gr is a bit heavy but if you know its trajectory you should get good penetration.
 I would wrap below the nock for safety sake though.

[Blayne]

This arrow gets crazy penetration on what I have shot so far. It definitely has a different cast than my normal hunting arrows in the 550 mark, but after some adjustment I was hitting pretty good. My first few were hitting way under that's for sure! Normally I wrap the nocks too, I just ran out of time(baby woke up from her nap lol) I will finish that detail soon. I didn't think about why the shafts are so strong Archeryrob, and it makes complete sense. I have been shooting Sitka spruce for the past six months. While they are good, certainly not as resistant to deflections and rocks. Also the glue bond is really surprising. I have had issues with heads coming off, even after wire brushing and acetone on the inside of the points. This one is stuck on there good! The feathers too! Might be a coincidence?

[DC]

I've got a bunch of OS shafts in the shop. They've been there for at least 2 years so they should be dry. I grabbed two and took some measurements. First one 30", .30 at the thin end and .33 at the fat end, 433 gr and 40# spine. Next was 30", .31 thin end and .41 at the fat end, 716 gr and 86# spine. With yours being 900gr minus 125 for the point equals 775gr for the shaft I would guess that your spine is way up there.

[Pat B]

You can use a thumb plane to take those shoots down it they are too heavy. I got my thumb plane from ACE Hardware for about $10.

[crooketarrow]

  Some 80 grit sand paper one those to heavy arrows works better than thumb planins. I know I used them for years myself, removes wood evenly, while lighting spine and weight.

   Make a arrow sander, any 3, 4 inch piece of 2x4. 1/2 DRILL make a 1/2 inch wide 1/2 inch deep, you end up with  a chanel down middle. COVER WITH 80 GRIT SAND PAPER IN THE 1/2 CHANLE THIS WAY WHEN YOU SAND IN THE CHANLE YOU TAKE OFF THE HIGH SPOTS. Straighting the shaft as you sand.

  If you don't use something as a straight edge when you sander or thumb plan to just follow the condors of the shafts low and high spots. My way Crooketarrows way makes you end up with nicer arrows.

  I made this off Crooketarrows sander 15 years ago. It's cut from a sand stone sharpening wheel

  Good job on shoot arrow. I've never made ocean spray arrows before. Always said if you've stepped back to self bows you might as well step on back and make and shoot shoot arrows.

[loon]

Lucky, where do you live? I want to harvest some OS for arrows in Southern California

[wizardgoat]

Nice work Blayne. Keep on cutting.
OS makes a great shaft. I like cut them fat and plane them down to the spine I want.
They are always heavy, and get pretty narrow for the spine

[Blayne]

Thanks Ryan for the encouragement! I have got to build a spine tested. Like Don figures this arrow is probably high spines. It does shoot surprisingly well though, so who knows. I am going to get a small plane and build on of those sanding blocks, seems like a good idea. Loon I am on Vancouver Island, it is all over the place here!

[Pat B]

The natural taper of most shoot shafts makes them more weight tolerant.