Stickbow Target Archery Forums

Hello all,n
I'm new here, and glad I found this forum. Looks like a good place to get questions answered by those in the know!n
My 10 year old son has a; 60 inch Longbow, 20# @ 24 inches, linen backed red oak...

At this point he is pulling 20", (I would guess at about 18#?)n
Anyway, he is using 24" x 5/16 birch arrows with 4 inch feather fletching, along with both (70 and 100 grain field points).

Do any of you have a suggestion of what his field point weight should be, and maybe feather size, for the 5/16 birch shaft? Would a 125 or greater grain field point stabalize his arrow flight better?n
His arrow flight isn't all that bad at this point, but it could be better... Any thoughts?n
Thanks!

I use both 100gr and 125gr points on my 5/16 shafts with 4 inch feathers and don't notice any difference between the two.

Light shooters have a real problem getting enough arrow speed for arrows to stabilize well. I suggest fairly large fletching to help with this. I also suggest the lightest points you can tune the shafts to work well with, again the help keep arrow speed up a bit. I would try to tune for 70 grain field points at most. Better to try the very light sheet metal points you see on some ready made kids arrows. They weigh just 20 grains and can be very accurate. 3 Rivers Archery carries them. For soft targets you could just use carve the shafts to a point and fire harden it. A lot of small furred and feathered game was taken with those points in times gone by. I'd try to find a lighter shaft material than birch- cedar, cane, even tomato stakes from the nursery. Look for 1/4 wooden shafts.

Finally, with his short draw, he might be able to pull a light adult target bow that draws up to 33 pounds or so at 28".

Joe M, somehow I missed in your post the fact that your son is only pulling about 18#. I would concur with longbowguy's recommendations.

Thanks for the information. I will give the larger fletching, and lighter field points a try.

I have wondered if I should go ahead and have him try an adult longbow of, 66" or 72", that draws, 30 to 35# @ 28"?n
I did give his string a couple twist from each end before we shot last night just in case it was stretched? I did notice a little difference to the plus side of arrow flight, but the penetration is still lacking. His arrows stick into the target, (penetrating 1 to 1 1/4" only), and we use a homemade cardboard backer we post our targets on.

One thought I had was to maybe wrap a little senew near the rear of the fletching on a couple of his arrows, see what might come from that?n
Again, thanks for the information!

Hi Joe,n
If he will be shooting an adult bow, you want to think about both draw weight AND physical weight.

My nieces were about that age, and had the opportunity to shoot a 35-lb Bullseye or a 34-lb Wing Competition II -- the Wing is a beautiful bow but weighs twice as much as the Bullseye, and they all preferred the lightweight Bullseye. As you mention, draw weight was ok for them because they had very short draws.

After debating this over and over last night, and this morning after the post I made, I went ahead and ordered a "Rough & Ready" longbow, (25 to 30# @ 28") from; Woodbows.comn
I felt that this would be the way to go for now rather then invest a large sum of money into a longbow my son may not be ready for just yet.

His current bow is from Woodbows.com, as is one of my favorites that was a, "Rough & Ready" longbow, (35# @ 28)... I feel these make good entry level longbows and they are, IMHO, some very nice work at a very reasonable price!n
'Course, my favorite longbow was made by, Fletcher the Arrow Maker, a 45# @ 28, Hickory Longbow, and I really like this one, but I needed something a bit lighter to work up to that 45 pounds of pull early in the bow shooting season... Fletcher will make me another Hickory Longbow in the fall, 40# @ 28"...

I feel the lighter bow my son is using now, can work in much the same way I am using my lighter bow to work up to the heavier pull.

Longbow shooting is one heck of a lot of fun! We really enjoy it!

Hi,It's nice to see the young ones getting involved in the longbow,it warms my heart ... Just my .02 you might want to get a recurve for him to learn on, he'll get more arrow speed and /or the jazz aluminum arrows are about as light as you can get and they might give him some more penetration.As his form get better and draw increases then the woodies will be better spined for the bow. The other idea is you can just use cardboard boxes with animal shapes drawn on them, you can set up an animal 3d range free from your local supermarket. Good luck to the both of you and welcome to our addiction