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Dis is where its at From the trad gang ;

John "son of Glenn" Pardue's "Tree Rat Specials"

Hey Boys, Lance got to talking about the cost of carbon woods and the cavalier way I fling arrows at tree rats. Usually cull p.o.c.s. Now my p.o.c.s. are lite and uh hit high. So I went and redid some arrows I made a couple of years back. Now these arrows are cheaper than Van/TX and tougher than a raw hide milkshake. How cheap? 71 cents. With salvaged fletches. Whole arrow. Shaft .48, nock .20, head .03. Check my ciphering if you like. I ain't gone to school for a while now. Broke one today shootin my 1/2" steel pistol target. They weight around 630-800 grains. So you don't shoot over many squirrels.
Get the hardware store to order you a 100 3/8" dowels. Get a box of 7/16 nuts too. Sort the dowels by weight. Roll them on the table while you mark um at 8-12 inches.
Roll and plane at the line, and then plane again at 20" or mid shaft. Think making an octagon, and then make it round again. Lance timed me at 40-42 seconds a shaft. If you are taking more than 2 minutes, you are straining toooo hard. Just bust them down and move on.

Lance gets all fancy and sands his, then spines them to boot. (see pic of me sandin one of Lance's to see our fancy schmancy sanding jig) Me, I'm shooting rocks, trucks, and hornets nest, so I don't get all Prom-nitey with them. Lets all take a sip of sweet tea and move on. Arrer ain't gonna last long nuff with what I'm shootin at to matter.

Fletch them up, screw the nut on the end, and shoot it. If it kicks, plane a little off the love handles till it shoots straight. I burnish, straighten them, they fly straight. Remember to use salvage feathers to keep cost down, got to get a Morrison or a shrew one day you know.

You can use a fletching jig if you want'ta. I don't dance any more but I will ride a plastic barrel. But that's best discussed at a different camp fire.

After I fletched up a couple for Lance. He went and stuck Grizzly/Grandes on some. And shoot for groups with his carbon woods. (Now y'all don't pick on the lil coony cuz he hadda stand in a chair to be tall nuff ta shoot out the shop window!)

Here is proof the carbons are faster. Hits a quarter of an inch higher at 25 yards than my couthless-arrows. Yellow feathers penetrate a quarter of an inch deeper then white feathers. So keep this in mind as well. If you hit a rock or an engine block and knock the nut crooked.......just shoot a chunk of pine board. It will bust the board, but the nut will straighten right up.

Bone-apperr-teat!!

John "son of Glenn" Pardue

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In all seriousness folks you can spend a short bit of time and get a fine shootin twig this way. You can adjust your own weight and own spine accordingly to get them shooting right for you. The planning takes from 75-100grs off the shaft as well as around 20#s in spine as a rule of thumb. Fine tuning with the sanding taper can adjust your spine by a couple pounds at a whack.
It ain't rocket science and it ain't difficult at all. John has a way of inducing simplicity into it and making it stupid simple to get scary close spines and ugly heavy arrows.
Like John said don't dawdle.. move on. You spend too much time knit pickin and you'll over analyze it . Like John said bust'em down and move on.
Oh yea. The big nut screwed on the end works a trick too. Johns not kiddin. Get one crooked?? Just shoot a tree or a board with her from about 30yds and it'll straiten the nut right up! And these combo are tough. I mean you can literally bounce a metal water pail 'round the yard with em and cave in the sides of it like it was a beer can.
Hunt Hard,

Lance