Stickbow Target Archery Forums

Good question. I've never competed with anything but cedar. Seems all the other alternatives have an issue with weight, or straightness. I remember Rob posting positive reviews about hex shafts () but I've never used them.

poc is good for lightweight target shafts, where you up the front end wight for a more stable recovering and flying arrow. imo, this is great for a target event arrow, where the marks are long and far away (think: the old 60yd american or 100yd york rounds). i think poc can be had in the lightest weights with good spine ratings for heavier bows. dunno of any other wood that compares in light mass weight and stiff spine - maybe bamboo, but that's expensive and it's grass, not wood the only exception might be hex pines, where the 5/16" size can be had in comparable poc weight/spine properties.

for trad events like 3d and muzzy-type shoots where the mark yardages are not more than 35 or 40, heavier and more durable shaft woods can be used.

i just fletched up some 11/32" hex pines, 29" long, 55/60# spine, 80gr internal front end nail footing weight, 190gr tusker concorde head, 5" chopped banana 4-fletch, 605gr each (no, not the pink fletched carbons!)


here are more 11/32" hex pines, 29" long, 55/60# spine, 80gr internal front end nail footing weight, 165gr ace express heads, 5" parabolic 3-fletch, 585gr

Thanks for the replies. Hexshafts seem to be like "man made" woodies. I would suspect that you get very consitent weight and spine.

i've got a dozen 11/32" hex pines, 55-59# spine left. each shaft is 31.5" long and the weight range is 349 to 358 grains with most running 352 grains.

a few weeks ago i built a dozen 28" hex pines for a friend using the same shaft data as above, with 145 grain field points and 5-1/2" three fletch and mercury nocks, no internal footing weight, heavy sealing and finish with min-wax polyu, average arrow weight is 484 grains.

i built 18 surewood fir arrows so far, very happy with the results! these 11/32" parallel shafts are extremely straight and smooth, fly just great for me. i used a bears paw taper jig for the nock and point tapers, a braveheart internal footing jig to add either a 3" front end 1/8" dowel stiffener or 55 grain nail weight (to boost the foc on some of the arrows, for testing). points are 160 grain field or 135 grain judos weighted with lead to 150 grains. nocks are bohning, feathers are 4.5" 4-fletch high profile banana, chopped from either gathered naturally stripped and ground turkeys or canada geese. feathers attached with bohning tape and a dab of duco glue at each feather end. finish is a minwax stain with minwax wipe on gloss polyu to seal. cresting colors are sharpie pen and pilot silver paint pen. average arrow weight is 540 grains. right now, i like these surewood firs better than hex pines!