Baldar Blunts

[Will Ritchie]

On Sat, 29 Mar 1997, harry billings wrote:

> To help keep the Baldar blunts from breaking shafts put a very light coat of
> petroleum jely on the "pointy end" it should last all day and will keep the
> aerrow from "grabbing" when it hits at an angle.

Personally, I _want_ my bolts to grab; that's precisely why such a
high-traction rubber was selected for them.  Note that an arrow that hits
but lands past its target rather than falling down or bouncing back
towards the archer is usually considered a glancing shot and not to be
counted.  What I've done to good effect is to put an 1/8" dia. bead of
rubber in the head before inserting the shaft.  This seems to have the
effect of a shock-absorber, and seems to cut down on bounceback a bit as
well.  The vaseline (silicone spray is less messy) trick sounds like a
good thing for war practices, but I'd rather lose a shaft than the
opportunity to fell an opponent at war. 

With crossbows at least, going to 3/8" shafts makes a noticeable
loss of range, but pretty much eliminates breakage entirely.

Morric