THE STRAIGHT AND ARROW PATH

Confounded arrows! Nothing is so frustrating for a beginner in traditional archery than arrows, particularly wood arrows. Yes, I know, we all like the idea of wood: it is how archery has been done for centuries, it is traditional, and it is aesthetically more pleasing than aluminium and carbon. But let's face it: they crack and bend too easily, and they are not as proficient as their modern counterparts. So thanks be to Apollo and Artemis and Cupid! There is a way of marrying the beauty of a traditional wooden look with durability and efficiency: carbon arrows painted to look like wood with feather fletchings. I acquired such arrows from Merlin Archery (image below). They look beautiful and perform wonderfully.

I was told that when shooting with a horse bow or longbow, one should really use wood arrows, as they flex better around the bow than do aluminium and carbon. Experience taught me this is nonsense. It is simply a matter of discovering the right arrow measurements for your particular bow. While this is also true of wood, there is a great deal more luck in finding the right wood arrows.

Whenever I tried to consult the more experienced on finding the right arrows to match my horse bow, I was met with much hesitation and doubt. I have been told that there are so many variables that one could not possibly provide any suggestions, lest they be proven wrong at my own expense. "It is trial and error" I was told. While it may be true that one must test arrows until (s)he finds the right ones, I would like to proffer some suggestions for beginners in the hope I may spare you a few shillings here and there on your quest to finding what works for you.

Here are some basic but important factors regarding arrows:

Arrow length

One of the first things that would be determined when you first have a go at an archery club or when you wish to purchase your first bow is your draw length. The average draw length (against which the poundage of bows is generally measured) is 28 inches. It is therefore customary to refer to the poundage of a bow at this draw length. So a 50 ib bow usually means it pulls 50 ibs at 28 inches. The arrow length is measured from one end of the shaft to the other, and does not include the heads and nocks which are placed at each end. Nonetheless, one's arrow length should be at least a couple of inches longer than the archer's draw length, since it is possible, particularly after a bow has been used a few times, to pull beyond the average draw length. An arrow too short could lead to impaling one's bow hand with the arrow. So for a 28 inch draw, one should acquire arrows of 30-31 inches. While one may think that it is safer to get a longer arrow, the length does effect the flexing of the arrow, so do not go too far with safe lengths. The shorter the arrow, the stiffer it will be.

Spine thickness

One of the most difficult measurements to figure out with wood arrows is spine thickness. Fortunately, some arrow makers and sellers present arrows suited for bows by poundage, which makes life a lot easier. When this is not the case, it can be hard to know how the arrows will behave. One way of knowing whether your arrows are too thick or too thin for your bow is by whether the arrows are penetrating your target straight or are entering in from the left or right. If one is a right-handed archer and arrows are persistently entering their target with the nocks to the left, it means the arrow is too weak. If they are entering with nocks to the right, the arrow is too thick. Generally, arrows being shot from bows without a shelf need to be weaker in order to flex around the bow. If arrows are penetrating the target from all angles, it is possible that the problem is your release, not your arrows.

In my experience, carbon arrows are suited to a broader range of bows than wood. For example, with a 500 spine and 100 gram arrow heads, my 31 inch length carbon arrows shoot straight from my 30-35 ib horse bow, my 40 ib longbow and my 30 ib modern recurve bow. My wooden arrows (available from Amazon - see image below), 82-85 cm in length and 8 mm in diameter, shoot straight only from the 40 ib longbow.

Arrow heads

Another important aspect of the arrow is the weight of the heads. The greater the weight of the head, the more the arrow will penetrate, but too heavy and the arrow will lose velocity in flight too soon. 

Fletchings

Thankfully, there is little for the archer to really worry about in this regard save for aesthetics. At least three feathers are required to stabilize an arrow in flight. Nearly all arrows are fletched with one feather of a different colour, as this is the feather that is supposed to be facing away from the string when nocking the arrow to avoid knocking the arrow off course as it flies past the handle. However, this is not as important with feather fletchings as it is with plastic, since the former are more flexible and forgiving. For traditional bows, feather fletchings are better than plastic, since the arrow has to further to bend around the bow handle to find the straight path to the target, and this feather interferes less with these kinetic shenanigans.

But even fletchings can get complicated. When customising or making arrows, one may be faced with the choice between right and left wing feathers, or the choice between straight or helical fletching. Helical, or offset, fletching is where the the vanes/feathers are twisted, which makes the arrow spin in flight, providing greater stability and therefore accuracy. Whether they spin right or left depends on whether your arrows are right wing (taken from the right wing of the bird) or left wing. I am not aware of any significant difference between right or left wing feathers, and they have no bearing on whether one is a right or left handed archer. The only important thing to consider is that the two are not mixed up, or one is likely to end up with inconsistent results. 

Material

With carbon, fibreglass and aluminium arrows, one need not worry so much about the quality of the material. Not so with wood. Arrows made of high quality wood are expensive. Considering how much more likely they are to crack when one arrow scrapes against another, or when you split the nock of your previous arrow with your next shot, or how much more likely they are to bend, you might really want to consider "traditional" carbon arrows, such as those available from Easton. 

Spruce and pine are a popular choice of wood in England these days, as they are fairly cheap, but I have been unimpressed by arrows made of these materials. I find cedar wood make for pretty consistent shooting, but even more impressive is bamboo (example bellow, available from Amazon), which is obviously the material for arrows in Chinese and Japanese archery.