I'm very sorry to ask what's probably a stupid question but what's arrow spine? I looked in the search function for 5 pages and couldn't find it but apparently I need to know this. Anything you can tell me should help as I have no idea what this is. Again, I know this is stupid but school me please and tell me how this relates to everyday hunting situations.
Arrow spine is the arrow’s degree of stiffness. (How much the arrow resists being bent) When picking out arrows for your bow, this will be something that you will want to pay attention to. You don’t want an arrow that is to stiff for your set up nor do you want one that is two limber. Manufactures will list recommendation for what spine arrow to use with your bows setup. They will also have a number system that will be on their arrows to show what spine arrow it is. Example: Gold Tip-5575, Easton XX75- 2213, Carbon Express-4560 etc. Most people think that an arrow flies just like it looks sitting on the shelf, but it doesn’t when you release your arrow it will begin to flex and oscillate. If you shoot fingers it will flex and oscillate side to side and if you shoot a release it will flex and oscillate up and down. Since you now know that, if you were to take an underspined arrow and put it in a bow with a hard cam and a heavy draw weight and released that arrow, the chances of that arrow breaking will be great. If that arrow was to break at release then there would be a very good chance that the remaining half of the arrow could be driven into your arm. Another reason for choosing a properly spined arrow other than safety is that it will help you with your accuracy at the range. There are two types of spine, static spine and dynamic spine. Static Spine: If you take an arrow and support it at two different points a given distance apart and then hang a weight in the middle of the arrow shaft, the weight will cause the shaft to flex. The arrow shaft’s resistance to being bent is known as its static spine. Arrows do not perform this way though, they perform under dynamic spine. Dynamic Spine: Dynamic spine is how the arrow will actually flex when released from the bow. Static spine remains the same, dynamic spine will change from bow to bow. If you were take an arrow that had good dynamic spine for a 70# hard cam bow, and then put the same arrow on a 50# bow it would be dramatically to stiff I didn't write that I googled it.
Also, the longer the arrow = weaker spine. Shorter the arrow = stiffer spine. An example would be a long wooden pencil. While at full length, you can bend it more easily. If you shorten the pencil then it becomes harder to bend. There are a few ways to change an arrows spine as well. If your arrow is too stiff then you can increase the draw weight or increase tip weight. If your arrow is too weak then you can decrease draw weight or decrease point weight. Just remember that the weight of the tip is acting against the force driving the arrow. So if your arrow was too stiff, then adding more weight would decrease the spine. An extreme example would be adding a bowling ball to the tip. That bowling ball is NOT going to want to move as easily when that bow is released. Something will have to give and it will be arrow. You usually have a few (economical) options you can perform to correct arrow spine issues such as increasing/decreasing draw weight or the arrow's tip weight. Try those first before purchasing new arrows. I hope that makes sense. I've started drinking a little early today.
Thanks guys. Given my setup in my sig, do you think my CE 250's are too light? They are 28" and I don't have accuracy problems with them at all. I've found that when I miss my target it's usually me not the bow or arrows.
I wouldn't worry about it then. No need to stress out for no reason. If you're shooting fine then I would NOT change a thing.
