matching spine and weight

[jeffp51]

When you are making arrows how close in terms of spine and weight do you consider "matched"?  I know when shafts are sold they match to within 5#.  I have been trying to match spines closer than that, but it sometimes means the weights tend to drift apart.  I am trying to figure out what a happy medium is.  How close should shafts match in weight?  At what point do shafts no longer match?

I know some of you don't worry about matching too much, and that is cool.  I am trying to match shafts well enough that when I miss, I can't blame it on the arrows, but on my bad shooting.

[willie]

I remember something about how Howard Hill used to select arrows.  My memory might not be the most accurate, but he would take a batch of new arrows, and as he practiced with them, he kept track of each arrow as to high and low and left and right. Arrows that shot consistently wild, he weeded out of the batch. I suppose that an examination of the weeded arrows could tell one something about spine or weight tolerance needed to keep your qroups as tight as you are capable of when shooting with your best arrows 

[Danzn Bar]

I do what willie said to come up with my best shooting set of arrows, as far as spine and weight when making arrows, I keep the spine to within 5# and the weight to about 75 grs.  at 20yd I don't think 75-100 grs makes much difference.
DBar

[bjrogg]

For my tapered shaft Red Osiers I file them down to spine first leaving the front 6" a bit thick. I like thicker shoots than I need to start with. When I get my spine within about 3 or 4 lbs then I file front down to weight. If I get really fussy I can get them very close this way.
Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

Of course this could be why I never have a bunch of extra arrows and look very hard for one if it does miss the target.lol. Might make more sense to just get kinda close and make a bunch. I get pretty fussy with my stone point hunting arrows though because I really want them to shoot good but don't want to practice a lot with them. I do shoot them enough to make sure they fly where and how I want them to. As Dbar said under 18 yards small changes in weight don't seem critical. At very close range I think spine matched good to bow is probably more important than weight. I'm talking Hunting close range. I'm not really target practicing at longer ranges. I hardly ever shoot at targets further than 20 and mostly 15 or less. At those ranges I usually don't have to look for arrows either.lol

Bjrogg

[jeffp51]

I remember something about how Howard Hill used to select arrows.  My memory might not be the most accurate, but he would take a batch of new arrows, and as he practiced with them, he kept track of each arrow as to high and low and left and right. Arrows that shot consistently wild, he weeded out of the batch. I suppose that an examination of the weeded arrows could tell one something about spine or weight tolerance needed to keep your qroups as tight as you are capable of when shooting with your best arrows

My problem is of course the exact opposite of Howard Hill's:  He was a good shooter, so if an arrow went in a bad direction, it was obviously the arrow's fault.  most of my wild arrows are likely my fault, but I won't know unless the arrows I shoot all react the same and consistently.  I am stuck in a chicken and egg scenario.

But I am within Dbar's limits, so that makes me feel a little better.  I sometimes need to know when I am taking perfectionism too far.

[Pappy]

I try and keep the spine as close as possible, 3 or 4 lbs off max, the weight not so much, about like Dbar said, closer if I can but 50/75 grains don't make much difference at 20 yards or so.
 Pappy

[BowEd]

It can be tough perfectionism but not a fault really.Everybody who likes hitting the mark has the same problem.Weeding out hand made arrows for accuracy takes time.What others have said is all a person can do I think.Spine is more important than weight at those ranges.
Everyone seems to want to get to that 20 yard coffee cup group accuracy level.Including me.Truth be told in a hunting situation 5 to 15 yards is the norm and I target shoot at the 5 to 15 yard range a lot during hunting season.I still miss.So don't feel so bad it happens.Hunting to me is more about getting close than hitting at a distant range.Practicing at realistic type ranges.
While shooting it seems if I focus properly on that small area and everything around it is fuzzy and I follow through properly I know on release it'll hit the mark.Point of aim process seems to help me at different distances.High or low is ok to me but side to side variance I don't want.Not much consolation I know but just my two cents worth.

[bjrogg]

Very well said Ed and worth way more than two cents. It really does depend a lot on what type of shooting you want to do. I'm not sure why but it always seems harder for me to shoot targets than to hunt. Be it with shotgun, rifle, or bow I don't have the tightest groups of all my buddies. For me it's like Ed said. I love the hunt and I want to get crazy close. I always have even with gun and make that shot a point and shoot.
       I'm thinking for target shooting at longer range the weight will be much fussier. I don't see anything wrong with being a perfectionist if you are enjoying doing it.
Bjrogg

[archeryrob]

I match only by spine and sand or scrape them until they are exact. I use the protractor spine tester and might want a deflection of 42°. Every arrow will be sanded until it hits that make, then bare shaft tested wit the point on. Then fletched.

The last arrows I made last year with 8 targets and 3 broadheads. Of the 8 targets, I broke one being stupid, 6 group well and one hits right all the time. Measured that one again and spine and everything seems fine. Just can't figure out why he's he odd ball, but I cant use that one.

[DC]

I wonder if where the shaft bends makes a big difference. A tapered shaft is supposed to be more forgiving with spine. A tapered shaft bends more toward the back of the arrow but we still measure the deflection in the middle. What if a parallel shaft bent more toward the front, due to grain or density? Would it be less forgiving with spine? 

[bjrogg]

Where it bends change it's the way it's spine acts. My parallel shafts shoot 8 to 10 less for bareshaft from my bow with the same length tappered shaft and same weight point. With fat end forward shaft bends further back and this puts more weight forward of bend acting like a heavier point
Bjrogg

[DC]

There has to be some kind of reason here. Some arrows, like Rob's rogue, shoot consistently right, others, like some of mine, seem to go all over. It would seem to me that with a consistently wrong arrow it has to be spine or nock point whereas the ones that go all over would maybe be a fletching issue. I did have one that went all over and I fought with it for two days. I got my back up. After I was redoing the fletching for the third time I happened to sight down the bare shaft. It had a slight bend right in front of where the fletching would be. When the fletching was on I couldn't notice it. Straightened that and the arrow was fine. I've had bigger bends farther forward that didn't seem to do much. I'm guessing here Arrows can be tough but if they are doing something wrong there has to be something wrong, they ain't magic.

[mikekeswick]

When making arrows for 3d shoots I like to be within +/- 10 grains and +/-1lb spine. Ditance can be upto 70yards at our 3D comps here in the UK.                                   
I tend to make up a few hundred shafts at the same time then I have automatically matched sets once I've gone through them all and tested /weighed them.