Spine and weight for bamboo arrows shot off a thumb ring

belleserene

New member
I shoot a 42' (@31") composite Turkish-style bow with a thumb ring. (If you don't know about the different dynamics of thumb release, this question's not for you.)

I make my own arrows and I'm looking to get some decent bamboo shafts and make up some arrows. The informed sources about Asiatic archery and bamboo arrows say that (because of bamboo's different resonant frequency/ something else; no-one really seems to know why) you want to choose arrows of about 20lb higher spine for bamboo than you would with wood.

So I'd be looking at 55-60lb or 60-65lb bamboo shafts. (I'm buying 33" and cutting them to 32" or 31")

Question for anyone experienced in shooting bamboo: is this right, and what results have you had from what spine of bamboo shafts?

And what about the arrow weight?: bamboo shafts seem to weigh about 550 grains, so all up I'd be looking at about 700 grains. That's about 17 gpp (grains per pound) on my bow - wouldn't that be really slow?!
 

cave dweller

New member
I like bamboo arrows. I buy the shafts from Aliexpress that have a nock cut in one end and do the rest myself, two or three vanes (2 x 3" or 3 x 2") and use either glue on points or arrow adapters from the same site for screw in points. I always get 8mm because that's just what I'm used to and 8mm I.D. points and adapters are easy to get.

Because it's bamboo there might in rare instances be some REALLY SLIGHT deviation from totally straight but never by any significant amount. The quality has always been really good.

I find that the characteristics of the 8mm bamboo are pretty much like having 8mm fiberglass shafts. The flex and weight are pretty much the same and I think the bamboo are even stronger generally. I like fairly stiff arrows and my shortest bow is 51" and 50# and shoots 26" bamboo extremely well. Almost like a crossbow. My lighter bows are less happy with the bamboo. Anything less than about 34# gets 7mm fiberglass or something similar.

I haven't been too concerned about arrow speed. I have some fancy pants skinny ally arrows that zip faster than anything else I've got, but for overall stopping power (penetration) the bamboo wins. It's always my first choice of arrow nowadays whether I'm target shooting or outdoors. I generally use a heavy arrowhead to simulate what I would have out hunting and I find the bamboo has really good distance punch compared to ally, fiberglass, carbon or other shaft material. For indoors target shooting it's probably overkill to use 8mm bamboo but I've never tried smaller diameter bamboo, it might work well and fly faster for indoors.
 
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