[Mailman]

Ordered two dozen bamboo arrow shafts on ebay from China. Cost $25 for a dozen and it took almost 3 weeks to get here all wrapped in bubble wrap. All in fine shape through USPS. :tup: I had to sort through to find the closest in weight and got 9 arrow pretty close to each other. Used my heat gun to straighten a few but most were pretty darn straight for a bamboo stick. Started one arrow at a time cutting and filing the selfnocks on the skinny end of the shaft. Once that was cut, shaped and filed to fit my bow string I started bare shaft tuning. Each individual arrow shaft had to be tuned. All are a bit different in spine and diameter so each arrow is a bit different than the others. Once I got all 9 arrows bare shaft tuned I started in on the fletching of the Missouri Wild Turkey wing feathers that a few of our members donated to me these past turkey seasons. Each feather is attached with real deer sinew from the backstrap of a deer taken in Morgan County (a good friend provided). Also I forgot to mention the selfnock is strengthened with real deer sinew wrapped just below the nock slot also. After attaching the feathers I hand cut to 4 inches with scissors to the shape you see in the photos. I finished up by coating the entire shaft plus in between each feather with two coats of Spar Urethane. Field tips were hot melt glued on so I can remove them to attach the hunting tips I'll be using this September for deer season. These arrows weight between 555 to 565 grains and are from 30 to 32 inches long depending on how much shaft I had to cut off to bare shaft tune them. I do have extra shafts to make more.

 

[ILoveDeer]

Very Nice Bill. I sure do miss hunting the old way. I miss making my arrows and broadheads.
Mark

 

[Mailman]

Very Nice Bill. I sure do miss hunting the old way. I miss making my arrows and broadheads.
Mark

You can always go back like I did. :tup:

 

[ILoveDeer]

You can always go back like I did. :tup:

I would Bill but my shoulders and back just can't take it any more.
Mark

 

[jmp1463]

Pretty nice mailman! Im still new at the self bow thing but im hopefully going to get one made by next deer season. Made a hickory bow the other day and ended up pulling back to far on the string and broke the bow. Now I have to make a new one. Im going to try osage I guess this time. I need to find some dry osage first though.

 

[BackyardBandit]

Neat. It's nice to have friends to kill stuff for you so you can continue your traditional target shooting hobby.

 

[PHhunter]

Real sinew?

 

[Mailman]

Real sinew?

Correct. Not the artificial type you buy.

 

[rat]

Nice! Turkeys had to die for your hobby

 

[dhaverstick]

Bill, I'm curious as to why you fletched the shafts before you sealed them. Any particular reason? Do you know what these arrows spine? They sure look nice!

Darren

 

[Mailman]

Bill, I'm curious as to why you fletched the shafts before you sealed them. Any particular reason? Do you know what these arrows spine? They sure look nice!

Darren

No real reason to finish prior to fletching. I planned on using the Spar Urathane to seal the sinew so I figured why not do both at once. Same outcome as far as I can tell.

The spine of the arrow shaft were advertised to be 45 to 50 lb. Which fits my hickory selfbow.

 

[Mailman]

Nice! Turkeys had to die for your hobby

Circle of life.

 

[Mailman]

Neat. It's nice to have friends to kill stuff for you so you can continue your traditional target shooting hobby.

Not like compound or crossbow shooting where minimal practice is required. I have to shoot year round at "targets" prior to going after game.:wave1:

 

[PHhunter]

Not like compound or crossbow shooting where minimal practice is required. I have to shoot year round at "targets" prior to not going after game.:wave1:

 

[Mailman]

Quote PHhunter "Not like compound or crossbow shooting where minimal practice is required. I have to shoot year round at "targets" prior to NOT going after game."

"Not going after game???"

Let me ponder a bit on that statement....:thinking:

OK......If your life this past year you had gone through what myself and my wifes cancers have gone through you probably wouldn't venture into the deer woods as often as you would normally sir. I forced myself to be in the deer woods twice with her persuasion during bow season and twice during rifle season. I felt guilty doing that knowing what she was going through at home.

Hopefully I can be in the deer woods hunting more this coming season. My wife is still mending from her bouts with two different types of cancer and healing from the chemo and radiation she went through. Have a good day.

 

[CRE10]

Not like compound or crossbow shooting where minimal practice is required. I have to shoot year round at "targets" prior to going after game.:wave1:

Not everyone is as talented as you. Some of us lowly compound hunters have to practice.

 

[20']

CHINA Really, you take the time to make your own bow and knap your ill-advised rock tips and then order shafts from CHINE?? Is it me or is that just a disconnect???? just seems odd

they look nice, hope you get a passtrhrough!

 

[Mailman]

CHINA Really, you take the time to make your own bow and knap your ill-advised rock tips and then order shafts from CHINE?? Is it me or is that just a disconnect???? just seems odd

they look nice, hope you get a passtrhrough!

I had bought a dozen a couple years ago from a dealer of Traditional gear just for an experiment. Turns out they shot very well. The next time I spoke with him I asked where he got them. He told me where so I took a chance and ordered a dozen. Great arrows and are much stronger than any other arrow out there including carbons.