Longbow arrow spine theory question

Just wondering about arrow spine and longbows. It seems to me the most important part of longbow outside being able to shoot the thing, is getting a good set of well spined arrows.

I'm not considering longbow just now as I have lots to do with my compound , however I ever do I need to know the best way to match arrows to the bow.

My plan would be to get a selection of jazz arrows...wait for it.

Say a selection from 1716's up to 2016's or whatever I needed, of a standard length, say 29" long all teh same point weight of 100gns. I would probably shoot a 50 lb long bow. Shoot a given set of ali arrows from it and see which one flys best!

So with my well matched ali arrow in hand, off I go to a spine tester and a stack of POC and spine match the ali arrow to the wood staves. Bingo! matched arrows that will fly like the wind!

I know the wood arrows would not fly as far.......

But in theory would this work???

[laminatekid]

Theoretically this should work.....but why not get a few well matched spines of poc that have been weight and spine matched and just go from there as I am sure ali shafts would react differently to timber.

[wingate_52]

I agree with Laminatekid. Buy a variety of POC spines and shoot them. You will get a more accurate comparison. Can you not borrow a selection of clubmembers wooden arrows to narrow the choice further. Measure the draw and weight of your bow an send off the details to 10 or so arrow makers for a spec and quote to find out what spine they would build you. Some will sell you bare shafts.

[Macbow]

Personally I wouldn't shoot lightweight aluminum shafts from a longbow, certainly nothing lighter than 9 grains per inch. Buy a test pack of wood shafts - for an ELB of 50# a range of 35-55 should be fine depending on your draw length. Bareshaft test them and cut them down 1/2 inch at a time until you are in the right ball park. Then buy a couple of dozen in the right spine, weigh them, spine test them and sort them into batches. You will always get at least one or two shafts that are way too stiff (often its the heavier ones but not always). Stick the point end in a drill chuck and spin them through 120 grade sandpaper until they match the spine of the rest of them then finish them with fine grade. You can actually get your shafts very closely matched in spine doing it this way. If I need to take a little bit of weight off I take it from the back end using a taper plane although tapering can reduce spine by a pound or two.
Remember that a spine tester only measures static spine which does not always equate to how a shaft performs when shot. I shoot the most closely matched set and use the drill/sandpaper to fix the arrows that fly right of the group - basically tuning the arrows to my bow and to me. The ones that fly right I can either lighten the point and/or cut them down slightly to stiffen the spine (fine for practice but technically they are not a matched set). Final tuning can be done by small tweaks to brace height and nock point position.
Just my tuppence worth.

[English Bowman]

That's how to get a good set of arrows. (I must try it one day)
I just got an arrow that flew straight, measured it and match to that one, but Macbows post is brilliant advice

Dan

Thanks everyone, it seems the flaw in my cunning plan is the weight of the arrow..Oh well. So I will do as advised, find a wudun' that flies well, and match to that.