Choosing your arrows
Just like the bows, arrows have to be selected to fit the archer and her bow. The taller you are, the longer your arrows should be. If your arrow is too short, it may fall off the arrow rest at full draw and damage the bow or injure you or others. You can do a simple measurement by extending your hands in front of your body, palms flat against each other. The distance between your sternum and your fingertips, plus five additional centimeters, should be the ideal length of your arrows.
An arrow should be light enough to be propelled quickly by the bow, but stiff enough to absorb all the power stored in the limbs. Otherwise the bow itself may be strained, which can damage it in the long run.
An arrow should be light enough to be propelled quickly by the bow, but stiff enough to absorb all the power stored in the limbs. Otherwise the bow itself may be strained, which can damage it in the long run.
Shaft: various manufacturers produce wood, fiberglass, aluminum and carbon fiber arrow shafts. Traditional archers usually prefer wooden arrows (some of them even say that certain types of bows must only be used with wooden arrows). Wooden arrows require special care in bad weather and may easily break into nasty splinters if they hit a hard object. Furthermore, they have to be taken out of the target carefully, or they can snap due to the grip of the archer’s fist. Fiber glass arrows are a cheap alternative and do not need any special care. They also break easily, which makes them better suited for indoor and fair shooting. Aluminum arrows do not break, but they can bend and hold an unpleasantly looking form. Carbon fiber (and aluminum-reinforced carbon fiber) arrows are the most expensive alternative, but well worth the price. When properly made, they can last shot after shot and even survive impacts that may shatter or deform other arrows. Keep in mind, though, not all carbon fiber arrows are the same. The cheaper alternatives have the fibers running parallel to each other, usually along the length of the shaft. Durable as they are to bending and scraping, such an arrow may easily blossom and splinter around the tip if it hits a hard object. The individual carbon fibers, especially the shorter ones, may penetrate the skin and cause pain and itching. The higher quality (and price) shafts have their fibers running in a crisscrossing or a network pattern, making them extremely durable.
Spine: this is a measure of the elasticity of the arrow. Stronger bows require stiffer arrows. The very best arrow shafts, regardless of material, should be very stiff in the front, medium in the middle and elastic in the back, to best accommodate to the physics of flight. Most of the mass-produced arrow shafts have a uniform stiffness, which is given by the spine number. To measure the spine number, a shaft is placed on two supports, 26 inches (66 cm apart). A weight, measuring 2 lbs (907 g), is put on the shaft. The deviation from the horizontal position is measured in thousandths of an inch and represents the spine stiffness. The stiffest commercially available shafts have a spine of 300, which means they are moved by 3/10 inch or 7.6 mm. The most elastic shafts can have a spine of more than 1300, or a deviation of 13/10 inch (33 mm). There are tables, which assign a specific spine value to a specific bow type at a specific draw length.
Tips, fletching and nocks: depending on the shaft material the arrowheads can be glued, tied onto the shaft or inserted into it. Carbon fiber and aluminum shafts can have special threaded inserts, into which different tips can be screwed. The fletching can consist of natural feathers or plastic vanes with length from 2.5 to more than 5 inches. This is mostly a matter of aesthetic taste and desired performance. Smaller, shorter vanes ensure a quick flight, while longer feathers grip the air better and stabilise the flight. The nocks should be narrow enough to securely lock onto the string, yet wide enough to be shot together with the arrow, instead of remaining on the string. Experiment or ask us. And definitely ask us about glow-in-the-dark nocks. They are like tracing rounds, but less likely to ignite anything. And, unlike tracing rounds, they are not illegal.
Arrow mass: as you might have already noticed, archery measures follow the Imperial system. The mass of an arrow and its components is measured in grains (gr), where one grain is the mass of one grain of barley. One gram is around 15 grains. The general rule is that an arrow should have eight grains for each pound of draw force applied on the bow at full draw. For example, a 20 lbs bow should have arrows of circa 160 grains. The tips can weigh anything between 60 and 150 grains, while the weight of the shaft is given in grains per inch. The longer the shaft, the heavier it is.
As with the bows, do not buy arrows online unless you know exactly what you are ordering. Ask at an archery store. Or ask us. We can help.
