Fletching your own arrows?
Hi guys, I'm not new to archery... but I'm also not experienced, I've yet to take an animal. However, I really do like it and while it may be more of a hobby than a means of hunting for me at the moment, I enjoy getting better both at hunting with it and being more accurate.
I want to move more to traditional archery and with that I'd like to start fletching my arrows. I was wondering, do any of you fletch your own arrows? If so, where do you buy your arrows, the glue, and the bare shaft arrows? Do you use wraps? Where do you get the wraps from if you do?
Thanks in advance!
Re: Fletching your own arrows?
I usually do my own fletchings. Over the years I've done spliced fletching, dip and crest, and self nocks, footed arrows. If you need to hide out from the world for a while its a great way to pass time. lol
I used to be big into building my own wood arrows and even made the shafts and have picked up bamboo from ebay but lately there has been to many other time consuming hobbies and interests so now I just get a dozen trad gold tip shafts from amazon and go from there.
Here's a couple of items from back then...
Dipped and crested:
https://i.imgur.com/6xbyt69.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/3uKUWUq.jpg
spliced fletching
https://i.imgur.com/D2NjIbx.jpg
rose wood self-nocks on bamboo
https://i.imgur.com/BsrfMKQ.jpg
RC
Re: Fletching your own arrows?
Its you get into the single string game I can't see how you can not build your own if you're tuning.
If you want wood sticks, go to a specialist, my man Blayne on the Island (Stumpstalker archery - you'll find him on IG & FB) is that guy, he is on here but I forget his forum name. If you buy wood shafts from (most) other places you'll get bendy, mismatched crap, a decent arrow smith will sell you consistent straightness. Not important if accuracy is not your thing.
Monty at Windfeather in Cranbrook is another "Traditional Archery" specialist who will help you with you peripheries, tremendous dude and very knowledgeable.
If you're not shooting woodies, and you want to get anything else without the hassle, unfortunately you're going stateside, specifically Lancaster Archery. They will have anything you need and give you great service, the dollar sucks right now and the CBSA will likely take their time but they are undoubtedly the best. 3 Rivers are good but their postage charges are hilarious.
Wraps, again the States and Onestringer.com, if you can get a few sets even if you can some in for your mates as the postage is the same for one set or 20
Glue I get from KMS, its the thicker superglue and just spotted with Fletchtite on the tips and rear of each fletch, points and inserts I use a for purpose adhesive which is basically an impact resistant CA glue but my favourite is "insert iron"
Points on woods then is hot melt and super glue for their nocks.
Then its the usual generic stuff like if you're buying feathers just buy a jig clamped to suit (if buy right wing, buy a right wing helical jig/clamp, straight does not matter). It does not REALLY matter if you get left wing or right wing just match it, in theory right wing should keep any screw in tips in better but that's it.
A couple of weeks ago I bought a set of nice built wood arrows at the Longbow Safari from my mate Blayne, I think they are the only built arrows I have ever bought for my "traditional" archery. If you are in any way serious about this game you are making your own or having them made for you in your specs. Once you can shoot, tuning them is very important but until you can shoot constantly then tuning is not a big deal.
Re: Fletching your own arrows?
Tuffcity,
That is so cool. All of those are great looking arrows! Time consuming, but so rewarding when they turn out like that - almost too nice to shoot after putting in all that time and effort would be pretty painful to watch one of them ding into a rock after a miss and break.
Where do you get the feathers and knocks?
How do you find the arrows fly?
Re: Fletching your own arrows?
Outsyder,
Thank you for all that information. Very helpful.
Yes, I'm pretty much just starting with my recurve - although I've had it for a few years now. I'm now trying to actually work on my form and focus on consistency instead of just flying arrows for fun. So I'm not quite at the point where tuning is important but I enjoy the hobby aspect of it as well so fiddling with the arrows now will be practice for later when it will make more of a difference.
I'll have to check out all of these different websites and people when I get some time tonight. Like anything, when you're new there is so much information available and so many different ideologies.
Out of curiosity, what is your archery set up and how long have you been doing it for?
Re: Fletching your own arrows?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Tuffcity
I usually do my own fletchings. Over the years I've done spliced fletching, dip and crest, and self nocks, footed arrows. If you need to hide out from the world for a while its a great way to pass time. lol
I used to be big into building my own wood arrows and even made the shafts and have picked up bamboo from ebay but lately there has been to many other time consuming hobbies and interests so now I just get a dozen trad gold tip shafts from amazon and go from there.
Here's a couple of items from back then...
Dipped and crested:
https://i.imgur.com/6xbyt69.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/3uKUWUq.jpg
spliced fletching
https://i.imgur.com/D2NjIbx.jpg
rose wood self-nocks on bamboo
https://i.imgur.com/BsrfMKQ.jpg
RC
these are super cool!
Re: Fletching your own arrows?
For feathers and plastic nocks I buy them from whomever has the best price- either online or in store. For specific trad items I have gone through Wind Feather. The self-nocks I make myself.
My arrows fly very well. But it can take a bit of messing around to find the right recipe. As Marc B stated, getting good shafts (especially wood) is key to decent arrow flight. Straight, consistently spined, and similar shaft weights are important. It might take a few spine weights to figure out what your bow likes. I have a spine tester so grouping like-minded shafts is easier (especially if you end up making your own shafts). A reputable shaft vendor should have already done that though.
RC
Re: Fletching your own arrows?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Golddust
Outsyder,
what is your archery set up and how long have you been doing it for?
I'm mostly a competitive 3D shooter and for that its a Mins riser, Uukha VX limbs around 42# string by me. For hunting I have Caribows, 2 amisk longbows which I use for wood arrow shoots like the longbow safari too and I have a tuktu recurve which is shorter for when that's needed.
I also have a couple of Dryads, of which one is for sale!
I don't shoot too many bows often, I need to shoot to a high level during tournament season, mixing things up in this game is not sensible for me!
Think I've been committed to the single string game for 10yrs now, shot some compound and FITA recurve before that.
Re: Fletching your own arrows?
Also relatively new to traditional bow hunting. 1st purchase was a vintage recurve & I added a takedown several years ago. This provided options on getting limbs of different strengths. Am up to 50 lb limbs currently and can comfortably pull that with good accuracy & consistency. Shoot carbon shafts & ordered arrows online from an ebay vendor in the US. 1st batch was very good quality so I ordered another batch from him. Didn't really set out to fletch arrows, but have found myself damaging fletchings during practice sessions, so replacing them has become a necessity more or less. Got the glue from West Kelowna store before it closed out & ordered feather fletchings online.
The vintage 40 lb recurve on my 1st bow hunting excursion 2017. Like the noob I was, a mish mash of arrows, some with vanes instead of fletchings. Didn't take long to figure out vanes were not good for my feather arrow rest! I've cut vanes off all arrows that had them & replaced with feather. Actually a good source of cheap carbon arrows with vanes can be found in local stores. Sometimes worth the effort to cut off the vanes & refletch.
https://2b1epw.dm.files.1drv.com/y4m...&cropmode=none
The new takedown out in the field
https://ojb0sw.dm.files.1drv.com/y4m...&cropmode=none
As practice improves grouping, the fletchings take a beating.
https://btj7yw.dm.files.1drv.com/y4m...&cropmode=none
Looking forward to early archery season coming up! No success bagging a large animal yet, but I did harvest one of these little guys.
https://0r3xka.dm.files.1drv.com/y4m...&cropmode=none
Re: Fletching your own arrows?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
OutsyderBC
I'm mostly a competitive 3D shooter ...
mixing things up in this game is not sensible for me!
Ya, I imagine that even mixing up arrow and point weights would have quite an effect let alone switching bows to change things up even more
Re: Fletching your own arrows?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
mike31154
Also relatively new to traditional bow hunting. 1st purchase was a vintage recurve & I added a takedown several years ago. This provided options on getting limbs of different strengths. Am up to 50 lb limbs currently and can comfortably pull that with good accuracy & consistency. Shoot carbon shafts & ordered arrows online from an ebay vendor in the US. 1st batch was very good quality so I ordered another batch from him. Didn't really set out to fletch arrows, but have found myself damaging fletchings during practice sessions, so replacing them has become a necessity more or less. Got the glue from West Kelowna store before it closed out & ordered feather fletchings online.
The vintage 40 lb recurve on my 1st bow hunting excursion 2017. Like the noob I was, a mish mash of arrows, some with vanes instead of fletchings. Didn't take long to figure out vanes were not good for my feather arrow rest! I've cut vanes off all arrows that had them & replaced with feather. Actually a good source of cheap carbon arrows with vanes can be found in local stores. Sometimes worth the effort to cut off the vanes & refletch.
The new takedown out in the field
As practice improves grouping, the fletchings take a beating.
Looking forward to early archery season coming up! No success bagging a large animal yet, but I did harvest one of these little guys.
I want to fletch my own because I want to shoot of the shelf instead of a rest but I never thought of just cutting the veins off carbon arrows and re-fletching... might be a worthy endeavor. For now as I transition. Would also be a good use of my older beat-up arrows I was shooting on my compound.
Is that a Samick Sage? thats what I have right now. Starting at 30lbs but I'll be looking to change the limbs once I get more consistent and accurate.
and nice bird! Hopefully I can at least get a few of them this year and build a bit of confidence for next season.
Re: Fletching your own arrows?
If you're only shooting 30# then expect to buy new arrows. somewhere around a 700 spine for carbons, if you are shooting woodies then speak to an arrow smith.
If you wanna be good at the single string game then you need an arrow at least close to a tune for any level of consistency, then you know if it's you or the gear thats messing up!
Re: Fletching your own arrows?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Golddust
I want to fletch my own because I want to shoot of the shelf instead of a rest but I never thought of just cutting the veins off carbon arrows and re-fletching... might be a worthy endeavor. For now as I transition. Would also be a good use of my older beat-up arrows I was shooting on my compound.
Is that a Samick Sage? thats what I have right now. Starting at 30lbs but I'll be looking to change the limbs once I get more consistent and accurate.
and nice bird! Hopefully I can at least get a few of them this year and build a bit of confidence for next season.
The take down bow is a Fleetwood Edge, updated clone of the Samick Sage I think. I like it, shoots well. I ended up buying 2 more as gifts for my daughter & son in law. Between the 3 of us we now have quite a selection in different weight limbs. The older bow is a Canadian build, "Wildcat" by Dunmark Mfg. Co. of Brantford Ontario. Once I got comfortable shooting it, a take down was a logical next step, the 40 lb limbs of the Wildcat being just within the legal limit for hunting certain game animals. Not even sure my draw length takes it to that 40 lbs. I purchased the Fleetwood with 45 lb limbs and wasn't long before I added the 50 lb limbs which I'm quite comfortable with. 500 spine carbon arrows with the Wildcat, 400 spine carbon with the Edge.
Here's a closer view of the Wildcat when it still had the sight on it. It's much lighter overall than the Edge.
https://z729yg.dm.files.1drv.com/y4m...&cropmode=none
The side by each for comparison. I made a diy sight for the edge, but no longer use a sight on either bow.
https://ohv24g.dm.files.1drv.com/y4m...&cropmode=none
Re: Fletching your own arrows?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
OutsyderBC
If you're only shooting 30# then expect to buy new arrows. somewhere around a 700 spine for carbons, if you are shooting woodies then speak to an arrow smith.
If you wanna be good at the single string game then you need an arrow at least close to a tune for any level of consistency, then you know if it's you or the gear thats messing up!
OK good to know. I thought that I could get away with my current arrows. Maybe I'll buy the new heavier limbs as the poundage isnt much of an issue for me and just shoot 400 spines.
From what I gathered though it seems like its better to start light and work your way up to keep your form quite clean
Re: Fletching your own arrows?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
mike31154
Also relatively new to traditional bow hunting. 1st purchase was a vintage recurve & I added a takedown several years ago. This provided options on getting limbs of different strengths. Am up to 50 lb limbs currently and can comfortably pull that with good accuracy & consistency. Shoot carbon shafts & ordered arrows online from an ebay vendor in the US. 1st batch was very good quality so I ordered another batch from him. Didn't really set out to fletch arrows, but have found myself damaging fletchings during practice sessions, so replacing them has become a necessity more or less. Got the glue from West Kelowna store before it closed out & ordered feather fletchings online.
The vintage 40 lb recurve on my 1st bow hunting excursion 2017. Like the noob I was, a mish mash of arrows, some with vanes instead of fletchings. Didn't take long to figure out vanes were not good for my feather arrow rest! I've cut vanes off all arrows that had them & replaced with feather. Actually a good source of cheap carbon arrows with vanes can be found in local stores. Sometimes worth the effort to cut off the vanes & refletch.
https://2b1epw.dm.files.1drv.com/y4m...&cropmode=none
The new takedown out in the field
https://ojb0sw.dm.files.1drv.com/y4m...&cropmode=none
As practice improves grouping, the fletchings take a beating.
https://btj7yw.dm.files.1drv.com/y4m...&cropmode=none
Looking forward to early archery season coming up! No success bagging a large animal yet, but I did harvest one of these little guys.
https://0r3xka.dm.files.1drv.com/y4m...&cropmode=none
That's some great accuracy. Nice bird as well!
Re: Fletching your own arrows?
Hi there, yes I do fletch my own arrows. It’s like tieing flys to me. I buy most of my supplies from cabelas, just shooting arrows (NV), point inserts, nocks, field points. And then I buy bulk arrows online, all carbon fibre. There is a bit of research you’ll need to do for shaft spine weight to bow. For my recurve #40 I used to use a 500 spine and for my compound #60 I run a 300/320. Fletching is the fun part, where you can experiment with different lengths, straight mount, helical mount. I use guerrilla glue to glue my fletching. I use a plastic jig, but I have a good buddy that uses a aluminum jig, which is way better. I’d go aluminum jig if you haven’t bought one yet. I don’t use wraps.
Have fun
