Once you start to shoot reasonably well, it's worth weighing and spineing your arrows. This helps you to find a matched set, and will help with your consistency.
You need to get a set of arrows that are all within a similar weight and spine range. The closer they are, the better the set.
It's worth noting that damp arrows will weigh more, and the centre of balance will be moved if the dampness is mostly at the point of the arrow, for example if you've been dragging them out of the ground a lot! So protecting your arrow body with varnish or oil can help with your shooting.
For example, here is a set of my arrows:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
So although these are all supposed to be around 35 in spine, I'd probably use numbers 1, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8 to shoot with. As I don't have enough, I can't do much to match weight as well.
Weighing Arrows
Arrows are weighed in grains. You can use kitchen scales, but I'd go for something that is sensitive enough to detect small differences. You can buy grain scales (usually for gun ammo) easily, most Archery shops sell them.
Mine cost about £16 from eBay, and is pretty good. Make sure they can measure up to the weight of a full arrow.
Spineing Arrows
Spineing arrows is more complex. For a start, you need a Spine Tester, which is over £200, and is very bulky.
Basically it involves hanging a weight from the centre of the arrow, and checking the deflection. This tells you the poundage of the arrow and allows you to match them to your bow, and make sure you have a consistent set.
As spiners are expensive, I created my own. It's quite simple, four bits of wood, a 2lb weight, and an electronic measure.
A long piece creates the base for the spiner. This should be long enough to allow a gap of 26".
Two uprights are added to support the arrow at either end, and a third upright to get the measure in-line with the arrow.
The arrow is placed so the fixed point of the measure rests on the top of the arrow, but doesn't create any deflection, the arrow should sit so it's straight.
You then need to close up the jaws, and zero the counter. This gives you a baseline to measure the deflection from.
You then add the weight to the arrow, making sure it's as close to the centre as you can.
You can then read the deflection. Note that the measurement is in inches.
You can work out the poundage of the arrows using the Spine Chart.
I then write the poundage on the arrow itself, as well as the weight.
I created my spine tester so it folds down for easier storage, they are quite large items!
Comments
Post a Comment