Sticky Arrows

[steve58]

I hope someone out there may have some advice on this, because it is driving me nuts... My arrows pick up a sort of sticky gunk over the first inch or so of the shaft, it seems to make them VERY hard to get out of the boss. This happens both with 11/32" and 5/16" shafts, with plain and field points, indoors and out, whatever varnish I use. My outdoor bow is 53lbs at my draw length and my indoor bow 43lbs. I shoot both of them on Fastflite. Since I started using helical fletchings on the indoor arrows they have got even worse than with straight fletching. Does anyone know what is going on and/or have any helpful suggestions? I can only take so many grumbles from fellow archers pulling my arrows!

[Kae]

Hey,

What glue do you use to attach your piles?

Cheers, Kae.

[steve58]

I use Araldite (the quick setting "Rapide" version). I do try to be fussy about not leaving any on the shaft or the pile when I glue the piles on.

[Miner Willy]

What kind of boss are your shooting at, foam or straw?

I had the same problem with my new arrows yesterday, I shoot a 51lb longbow that's pretty fast too. We have rock hard straw bosses for indoors and the arrows were going in a good 1.5 possibly more. They were a total pain to get out and unfortunately I broke on not pulling it out straight enough.

As for what to do I'm afraid I can't help!

[steve58]

Straw bosses in and outdoors. The brown gunk I metioned soemtimes has bits of straw stuck in it, so I assume it may be the glue that holds the coils of straw together? Perhaps melted by the friction of the arrow going in? I was shooting outside this morning and the arrows were going in to about 2" above the shoulder of the pile. This was even in the harder parts of the boss at 60 yards.

[Miner Willy]

It just sounds like the heat built up by stopping the arrow is melting the glue in the boss. There's been quite a posts about similar occurences when shooting with recurve and compound.

[alanesq]

I have noticed this on my arrows as well (60lb longbow)

I have not tried anything to stop it happening (you can get lubricant to put on the arrow to make it easier to pull, this may be worth a try?) but I have found that scotchbrite and a bit of washing up liquid easily removes it from the arrow

[robtattoo]

It's basically unavoidable. You're correct when you say it's the friction heat, melting the glue in the boss. There's nowt you can do about that other than shoot at a foam boss instead. This is why I no longer shoot wooden arrows into straw, besides the fact I lose far too many piles in them

[alanesq]

I tried shooting the foam targets at my target archery club but as I tend to miss a lot, withing 12 arrows I had almost destroyed the wooden frame to it so decided to go back before they noticed ;-)

[Haywain]

I used to get the same problem with my arrows (5/16 with a field point), even picking up bits of Mckenzie 3D when i pull the arrow out sometime.

I managed to get round it by using Back to Black or similar silicon based tyre spray or lubricant. Spray some on a cloth and rub it on the shaft below the fletchings the night before shooting. It makes your arrows easier to pull and you tend not to have bits stuck to them.