I don't think it would work because of the increased drag and just trying to get it stay straight on the bow. I've never heard of or seen one though.

It would also be tricky trying to get them into the arrow holder. I forget the term.

I'm decidedly an amateur myself, but it's my understanding that the fletching on an arrow serves much the same purpose as rifling a gun: it straightens the trajectory and improves range (by providing a small amount of lift), etc. For "hard to remove" various cultures have developed a variety of barbed heads. (As well as heads to penetrate armor, fletching that made whistling noises as it flew, and more other variations than I can imagine.)

Remember that rifling is a change to the gun, not the bullet. Twisting an arrow (or, rather, carving it to appear twisted; you probably wouldn't want to make an arrow out of anything that you could easily twist) would, I'd expect, increase drag, worsening its flight. What's worse, while changing the head or the fletching (or making the arrow out of a different material) would make an arrow fly somewhat differently, changing its shape entirely (as in this "twisting" business) would, I'd expect, change its aerodynamics drastically. To say nothing of Varon's point (good thinking!) about getting it to stay straight on the bow, which in my experience (recurves only, I'm afraid) is a non-trivial task in and of itself with normal arrows.

Quiver, yes! All I could think of was sheathe.

Yes, getting the arrow to just stay where it was supposed to be has always been the hardest thing in archery for me.

I hadn't thought about the rifling as being a change to the gun.

Yes, the little rifle bullets are not twisted. They just have a groove so they catch on the rifling in the barrel.

I think that one could possibly make the arrow spin by having the fletching be twisted. Ya know? Have the feathers be in a spiral around the shaft?

I'd think that, like having the shaft be twisted, would do more harm than good. I think the fletching imparts some lift, and I'm certain that it keeps the arrow on a straight course, while having it not be straight along the arrow shaft would add drag and make it less likely to fly straight.

I suppose it might be possible to create a bow and a kind of unfletched arrow (i.e. no feathers, just the shaft plus some small protrusion for the modified bow to manipulate) to get the unfletched arrow to spin like a rifle bullet ... but I would expect losing the benefit of the fletching to not be worth the gain of a spun arrow.

*likes this thread*

*nods* I agree with Varon and kingjon.


Interesting thought. I also can't imagine this being helpful with a bow, but what about crossbows? Would that be practical for a bolt and crossbow?

Actually, a crossbow was more what I was thinking of when I made the suggestion ; a recurve or (I'd think) a longbow doesn't have enough space in the grip to get much spin going. Rifle barrels are very long compared to the size of a bullet.

I note that even the most advanced crossbows and dart guns nowadays seem to still be using some sort of fletching, if not authentic feathers anymore, on their bolts and darts. I suspect that either crossbow bolts aren't fast enough for the benefits of spin to outweigh the cost of no stabilizing vanes (which is what the feathers are), or the feathers-on-the-projectile solution is simply superior to the rifling-the-weapon solution when the former is even possible. We can speculate ways to spin an arrow; it's not possible to fletch a bullet, and designing a gun to take a vaguely arrow-shaped projectile without losing most of the explosive force of the gunpowder would be a highly non-trivial problem. I also note that larger modern projectiles, i.e. rockets and missiles, always seem to have protrusions in much the same places as feathers on an arrow that would serve much the same purpose.

*nods* Too bad. It would look kinda cool.

So. I guess the answer to the titular question is: Not.

I'm sure it's quite impossible. But at the same time... it's fascinating to think about. It's one of those really odd twists that makes fantasy... fantastical. The concept is really cool. It would be awesome used in artwork. In a novel... it would be harder to explain away.

Yes, it does look really cool. It is too bad that it wouldn't actually work...maybe there could be ceremonial arrows. Those wouldn't have to be functional!

I think we've all come to the conclusion that twisted shafts wouldn't work so well. Can you just imagine trying to shoot one of those around an accident prone person?

As for them being harder to remove (you probably already know this, but I thought I'd mention it anyway), in medieval times archers would use wax to put their arrowheads on the shaft. When trying to remove an arrow from a person, the arrowhead would fall off. And if a broadhead arrowhead was used in this case, a victim could bleed to death without proper medical attention.

The vanes on most kinds of arrows are given a bend in order to make the arrow spin as it flies. Some are straight with no rifling so that they don't go as far (and thus making them easier to find if you miss when hunting -- they act like parachutes).

A note on crossbows. They actually go incredibly fast, and rival modern sniper rifles as far as accuracy, power, and range go (with the exception of the computer guided technology in extremely modern rifles). The problem is that they are so heavy, hard to move and set up, and require multiple people to use it. The hand-held crossbows are different, but still have similar problems (with the additional one of a comparatively low firing rate) and strengths. And yes, they do use fletching as far as I know.

Twisting an arrow shaft is actually not as bad as it sounds, as long as you don't do too much of a twist. Making it look like a corkscrew is quite obviously a bad idea in all cases except for decoration or as a torture instrument. But if you look at the rifling in a gun, it's really very slight. If it was a steep twist, you'd create too much resistance. So if you had the arrow not perfectly round, with a slight oblong shape to it or a slight ridge that makes maybe one full turn along the length of the entire shaft, it might indeed be a good idea. It wouldn't mess with aiming, and it probably would improve the flight and accuracy. It would be harder to make, of course, and thus raise the cost, but for a top-notch archer, it might be worth it.

Awesome...

Very, very mean looking. I would hate to be on the other side of the bow using that arrow.



- Terra

That's a drill... never thought of that one. Very awesome.

We should do a thread on crossbows in here.

That's something else!

@Emeth: Make one - I'd read it

eru

Curved fletching will make the arrow spin, and even a straight-fletched arrow will spin a bit as it flies. So if you're interested in making the arrow spin, they already do. Just curve the fletching. If you're looking for a 'look', then carving twisting shallow grooves along the shaft might serve the purpose. It would decrease aerodynamics, but if the people who use them are more worried about projecting a frightening image than sending the arrow half a mile, it would be worth it. You might even figure out a way to make the grooves whistle, so not only would the sky be filled with hissing arrows, but they would make a noise worthy of screaming demons as they did so. That would be rather bad for morale, don't you think?

There's a scene in Paul Anderson's historical fiction novel With the Eagles (the "Eagles" in question are one of Julius Caesar's legions in Gaul, I think) where someone in the legion invents a way to modify the fletching on their ballista bolts to whistle as they fly, and shares it with the rest, and this apparently does more damage to the enemy's morale than the losses from the shots themselves does.