Braod Heads, Arrows, and Nocks

[Straight Shooter]

Now that the season is upon us or getting ready for some. I have read in this forum, as well as others about broad heads not flying with field tips, broad heads not hitting consistent. I'm just curious to what everyone does everyone does to prepare their arrows for hunting. I am very meticulous about my arrow shafts, because no matter how good your bow is tuned. If your arrows aren't tuned, then its futile in getting good arrow flight.

Granted, I order my own shafts and prepare them myself. With hard knocks I have learned if your arrow isn't square from the seating of the knock to the seating of the insert and broad head. You will not get consistent arrow flight.

Once I get my bare shafts in, the first thing I do is inspect them for crack, splintering, and flexing. After the inspection, I cut the nock end with my arrow saw to ensure a good flat surface for the nock to seat in. I do this because I have gotten bare shafts in before that had a small nipple from the factory on one side of the end. this made all of my nocks not seat square against the shaft. The shaft is them cut to length, with both ends being inspected thoroughly for any flaws in my cuts.

When fletching my arrows, they are all rotated from the same location on the fletching jig. I never place an arrow back on the jig and start from the last location I ended from the precious shaft. I know it seems anal but I did notice a difference in the fletching spacing when I wasn't doing this and it did cause a bit of erratic flight between shafts.

When inserting the nocks, and this is irrelevant for lighted nocks because I use Easton Super nocks; there is a small bit of plastic that shaves off when inserted into the shaft and gets in between the nock and shaft when seated. I will pull the nock back out and remove any excess plastic then seat the nock back for a flush fit.

I shoot Muzzy's, so this is irrelevant to mechanical head shooters somewhat. I individually inspect all ferals for excess metals in the slots where the blades are inserted. I have found in some cases small bits of metal shavings inside the feral, this will prevent one or more of your blades from rest completely in position once the Trocar tip is screwed on. I also, ensure that the Trocar tip is flush with the feral once its screwed on.

My inserts are screwed onto the broad heads prior to gluing in the shaft, making sure each and everyone is flush against the bottom of the feral. Gluing each broad head/insert into the shaft, wiping away any excess glue, making sure the insert is flush against the shaft end. After all shafts have been completed and drying time has been met, each shaft goes through the spin test inspecting for any wobble from nock to tip.

My bows go through the same rigorous inspect and tuning, so I then take each arrow and shoot from 20 to 50 yards, making sure each and every shaft hits within 1" of bulls-eye. I have had the greatest luck with accuracy in all my shafts since I have been doing all this with my shafts, I just thought I would throw this out there because alot of hunters think since a Pro Shop has done their shafts they are perfect and it must be the bow. Just keep in mind that a lot of accuracy comes from your shafts as well. I know its a long post and I left out the clean preparations too:) Let's hear what you do to prepare? Hunt safe and good luck to you all.

[bowhunter97]

I read it. It seems like a great way to insure what is happening in flight. I build my own arrows too and they fly good but i dont go through inspection to the extent that you do.

[dbHunterNY]

if I was to build an arrow for the season i'd do this.... float bare shafts in water. mark the spot on the shaft that stays at the top. I'm shooting arrows right now with factory installed nock collars (otherwise cut shafts to length taking some from both ends and square up ends of shaft with G5 squaring tool. clean ends with q-tip and acetone). clean shaft with acetone. fletch all vanes on shaft at once with odd vane oriented with previous float mark (I shoot odd vane up). nock is just installed at this point to fit in jig. screw into insert broad head of choice. glue and install. check head and vanes for alignment and wipe away excess glue. spin test and let set to dry. once they're all done go back and swap heads on arrows if it helps get weight as close as possible between all finished arrows.

[dbHunterNY]

already done arrows are spin tested and checked for damage. also due to shafts spines breaking down over time, they are all numbered and if I see one shoots more erradic or not as well as others I leave that for my "small game shots because i'm bored" arrow.

[abrown]

With all that, do you figure your FOC? I have to shoot traditional for a draw hunt I drew out on, and typically for tradional you want around a 500 gr arrow, which puts your FOC,(Front of Center) all the way on the tip, is it good or bad, I don't know, but I'm pretty sure that it applies to compounds though.

[dbHunterNY]

With all that, do you figure your FOC? I have to shoot traditional for a draw hunt I drew out on, and typically for tradional you want around a 500 gr arrow, which puts your FOC,(Front of Center) all the way on the tip, is it good or bad, I don't know, but I'm pretty sure that it applies to compounds though.

my hunting/3D compound arrows I shoot have a FOC of close to 9.9% and weight of 400gr. for a compound I like to stay between 8-12% based on what i'm doing; 3D 9-10%, hunting depending on game around 9-12%, and spots/indoor 11-12%. for my recurve I picked .400 spined shafts full length and then picked point weight to get them to paper tune and fly well. the FOC is what it was going to be. for mine I'm shooting a Super Kodiak recurve at about 52lbs. Arrows are Goldtip trad 5575 at full length with three 4" fletches, 100gr point/broadhead, 100gr brass insert, 20gr insert adder weight, 11.5gr GT nock. finished arrow is at 540gr with a 17.33% FOC.

[abrown]

Makes me feel a little better, my FOC for my tradional arrows will be around 17-18%. I called 3 Rivers, and asked them if it made as much difference, he said it doesn't, just typical of having a 500 grain arrow on anything over 50 lbs.