Primitive Bamboo Arrows

Way back when I had more time on my hands I went through a period of building and hunting with stone age equipment. From my river cane arrows right down to the sinew bowstring, stone points, and brain tan buckskin clothing, everything was made from materials as old as time. Each item I carried represented hours of time invested. The brain tan hides were made from whitetail deer I’d killed with a selfbow, hundreds of shoots were searched over to find a few perfect natural shoot arrow shafts, and so on. This all required skill and knowledge but most of all it required time – something that I have less of these days.

Although I haven’t hunted in buckskins for many years, I still like the looks and performance of a well made river cane arrow. The natural taper, weight forward structure, performance and durability are unmatched by any other natural arrow material in my opinion. But unless you’re keen on spending hours in the construction of one arrow, you should look elsewhere. Luckily there’s a readily available commercial alternative, bamboo arrow shafts!

A while back I ordered several hundred bamboo arrow shafts direct from the manufacturer in China. Although the spine ranges were off a little, I was very happy with the straightness and consistency of the shafts. I had high hopes for durability as well, thinking that they would match a well made cane shaft, but was disappointed in that regard. During the manufacturing, they sanded the nodes down too much creating weakness in those areas. They’re still just as tough as any POCedar shaft but not even close to a good river cane. But with all that said, they do make very nice, small diameter arrows. Even though you can get very high spine ranges, the shaft diameter is still very small, averaging around 5/16 which I’ve found to aid significantly in penetration. They’re also fairly light weight which allows you to achieve over 20% arrow FOC while staying within a manageable total arrow weight.

This video will take you thorough the process of making high FOC bamboo arrows. If you want to make self nocks like these, check out this video to learn how.