# Arrow Spine Discussion



## bow_dude (Aug 20, 2009)

I am interested in your experience with arrow spine and it's importance. For a stick bow shooter, having proper spined arrows is vital for accuracy because of "archers paradox". But for the wheel guy who shoots a drop away rest and release aid, my experience has been that under spined arrows are inaccurate and sometimes dangerous, but over spined arrows have no ill effect on accuracy, infact, I prefer them. The last couple of three years, there has been an emphasis on the importance of arrows being uniformly spined the same rather than straightness being a major factor in accuracy. We used to "float" our arrows and place the ****feather in the same location on each arrow according to the "floating" results. I now shoot overspined arrows which seems to negate the necessity to "float" arrows and be concerned with spine uniformity. I have found this to be true with both aluminum and carbon shafts. What has been your experience? I am really not interested in what the "books" say, as most of that information is out of date, I am interested in your experience, not hear-say.


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## manysteps (Sep 28, 2009)

A heavier spine usually means a heavier arrow as well, and that certainly makes a difference on your pin distance, and how much margin of error you have on odd distances... With my son's bow, it's the difference of him having a 60 yard pin or not.

If we could shoot better than we probably do (I'm making an assumption on your shooting ability, and a statement about mine), we probably would notice a much bigger accuracy difference with not only different spines, but the length of the arrow in relation to that as well.


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## c3hammer (Nov 1, 2009)

I have extensive experience testing target recurves with a plethora of different arrow, point, nock and string options. Got to shoot a few world cups and a number of US tournaments over the years and can say that having consistently spined arrows is the number one contributor to target accuracy after you sort out a consistent shot routine.

I will say that the target game is a bit different than the hunting game for both wheel bows and recurves. Having an arrow travel to the quarry 'in column' is essential for penetration. With target equipment, getting the most forgiving combination is more important, even if that results in the arrow flying somewhat 'out of column' for a period of its flight. This changes the game from desiring a slightly underspined arrow to desiring a slightly overspined arrow. Inspite your experience with the compound, virtually all the top Olympic recurve shooters including virtually every world record holder shoot a slightly underspined set up for target accuracy.

Back to hunting recurves, with which I have less experience, I think you will find that once you acquire a proficient setup and technique, that selecting arrows by shooting them all as bareshafts will determine your best set. It may take multiple dozens of arrows to find a single dozen that all shoot in the same place. In 2006-7 when I was shooting my best scores I tested 3 dozen arrows this way and was able to shoot an individual numbered arrow into a 3" circle every time at 70m (76 yards) on a good shot. The problem was that out of 36 arrows only 16 would group in the same 9" circle. With these 16 arrows fletched up I set all of my personal bests, made the US team to travel to those world cups!

In any case I can attest that consistent spine is imperative to achieving correlation between what you see and feel in a shot and where the arrow goes with a recurve.

Let me know if you ever want to get together and I can show you the technique for testing bareshafts. It's pretty cool !!!

Cheers,
Pete


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## bow_dude (Aug 20, 2009)

Good info Pete, thanks. 

Many Steps, I currently shoot a 62 and a 65 lb compound. I shoot 400 spine arrows out of my 65 lb bow for 3-d and 300 spine when I am hunting. I can stack the arrows one on top of another and often robin hood them. I also shoot 2613 aluminum arrows out of my 62 lb compound for 3-d and can stack them very tightly and often robin hood them as well. My carbon 400's weigh 326 grains and shoot at a speed of 324 fps. My 2613 aluminum weigh in at 530 grains and shoot at a whoping 256 fps. The aluminum arrows have a beautiful rainbow flight. Interesting enough, on the 3-d course, my scores are the same regardless of the arrow I am shooting, or the bow. At a known distance, arrow weight just hasn't played into my accuracy. The spine is near perfect for the carbons, but grossly over spined for the aluminums. If I remember correctly the aluminums spine at about a 250. As far as my shooting ability, I shoot better than average.


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## High Desert Elk (Aug 21, 2012)

I believe that there is a range or happy medium to be in. That is not to say that one should be shooting an arrow that is not stiff enough. We all know that you want the bow to transmit as much of its energy into the arrow. In looking at the Easton arrow chart for example on their website, you can shoot two different spine arrows within the same draw wt. range depending on what they classify as a hard cam and a soft cam. For most hunting set ups a 340 and 400 seem to be the most common. Tip wt. comes into play as well, the more flexible the arrow, the heavier the tip could affect is flight.

I think of an arrow in motion as beam deflection not pinned on either end with a load applied to one end. I do know from my experience in the drilling world, that larger diameter tubulars (drill pipe) is not as flexible as small diameter tubulars.


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## kdog (May 4, 2015)

I can attest to the fact that Bowdude shoots much better than average!

I have read recently that the float method is not a very accurate way to find the stiff side of an arrow. I have noticed that my lighter spine indexed arrows, via a ram tester, shoot better than my non indexed arrows, both arrows are cut to spine well with my bow according to a spine program (OT2) that I demoed but do not own. 

I have tried to keep my arrows in the ideal spine range as I need as much forgiveness as I can get LOL. but would agree that overspined is much less a factor and will help when you throw a broad head on the end.


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