There is much more to flight shooting than simply driving out to a dry lake bed, drawing back a heavy bow, and magically breaking a new record. Shooting a bow can't happen without arrows and it can't be done with the kind of arrows produced commercially. Even the tiniest available target or hunting arrows are too large and heavy with too much aerodynamic drag to be competitive for flight shooting.
Due to the trackless design of my bow, my new arrows will need to be a minimum of 14" in length through 17" long. I'm using 4mm diameter high modulus carbon fiber solid rod for the arrow shafts and stainless steel for the points and nocks. Based on past experiences, I have found that the highly alkali salt at Bonneville eats aluminum and attacks the zinc in brass in little time, so I made the switch to stainless steel.
My machining capabilities are pretty limited, but I will try to make up for that with a little extra patience. I had planned to build as many as 36 new foot bow arrows before the US Nationals in August, but quality trumps quantity in this area. I'd be happier with three great arrows than have a hundred pretty good ones.
Here's some pictures of the process:
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| Marking Carbon Rod for Cutting |
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| Cutting the Carbon Rod Lengths Using a Dremel Cutoff Blade |
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| Tapering the Ends of the Rods to Receive the Points and Nocks |
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| Making Nocks - Drilling 1/8" Dia Stainless Tube |
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| Roughed Out Nocks |
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| Drilling an Inverse Cone Into 1/8" Solid Rod to Form Points |
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| Simple Jig to Guide and Center the Bit to Drill the End of the Stainless Rod |
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| Showing Drilled Point to Match the Conical Carbon Shaft End |
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| A bunch of Arrow Shafts and Nocks Ready to be Glued in place |
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