@KidCurry
Thanks for your nice post... I'll try and continue in the same spirit!
The vertical flex you illustrate is small compared with that exhibited by a
longbow arrow.
IMO You are falling into the energy trap.
Imagine an arrow accelerated at rate you'd get from say a 20# bow but applied for say a minute !!! It would acquire a huge velocity and have had a huge amount of energy put into it, but it would be under no more stress than if it had been shot from the 20# bow. (I haven't worked out the numbers and it may be going supersonic and burning up by now... it's just an illustration!)
It's
not about the final velocity... it's
not about the energy. (excluding the impact with the target)
There are two main considerations... how quickly that energy is put in (e.g max acceleration) and any forces that will start to bend the arrow.
A 3/8" Ash shaft with a spine of about 80# is going to consider being launched from a
compound as a gentle stroll in the park. As it impacts the target it may muse to itself "Ooooh, i'm going faster than I thought! Such fun"
TBF. I've looked up my reference to early compounds ("Billets to Bows" by Glen St Charles) and it doesn't actually specify the type of arrow being shot. In further reading about the history of the
compound, I found this:-
Compound Bow – Facts and History of Modern Bows
One of the pertinent paragraphs says:-
"Arrows for compound bow have less “spine” (relative to the
recurve bow) because compound bow will accelerate an arrow more gently and linearly"
Interestingly, it immediately contradicts that by saying:-
"Wooden arrows are not used because compound is too strong for them. It could break them and even hurt the archer".
Maybe, here we find the root of the problem/disagreement ???
I cannot reconcile those two quotes... they make no logical sense.
How can it be "too strong" and yet accelerate it "more gently" ????
Further reading on various forums produces lots of anecdotal stuff on both sides, many breakages but also people having "no problem"
I think the key is "an appropriate wooden arrow". So if you take an arrow suited to a 60#
ELB it will likely be spined at 50# and may well be unsuitable for a 60# compound. However a 3/8" Ash shaft arrow spined at 70# would doubtless be fine... it's pretty obvious that no one is going to do the necessary testing to find the optimum spine for wooden arrows from a compound.
It is also likely that the impact could be the thing that would damage a wooden arrow and thus cause failure on the
next shot.
I think the only logical sensible conclusion is :-
Yes you
can shoot wooden arrows from a compound but it is a
bad idea due to the potential failure probably cause by the high impact energy from prior shots.
Del
PS. I expect another major reason for not shooting woodies from a compound is that they wouldn't give the consistency required to score well.