Choosing the Right Arrows

What Sort of Arrows Should I use?

Once upon a time, not so long ago, that was an easy question to answer: you bought the best quality Easton alloys you could afford.   In the early '80's, when I started shooting, price was a real issue.  A dozen X7 shafts cost around £60 in the UK which, allowing for inflation, put them on a par with ACE's or even X10's now.

Now the question is much more difficult.  Alloy, carbon or composite?  Barrelled or parallel?  Ultra-slim knitting needles or tree trunk linecutter specials?  Thin walls for speed or thick walls for strength?  And so it goes on as more and more options and makes appear on the market.  So, let's have a look at the main choices...

Minimum Arrow Weight

An important part of choosing the right type of arrow revolves about choosing the right weight.  It is tempting to get the lightest possible combination of shaft and point you can tune.  However, it is important not to go below the minimum safe weight.  If you do, you will, in effect, be 'dry firing' your bow and doing serious damage to the limbs.  You may even shatter the shaft as you loose.  I had that happen to me when carbon shafts were in their infancy, and it is a terrifying and extremely dangerous event, to be avoided at all costs!

The following chart, courtesy of Easton, shows the absolute minimum acceptable weight for the whole arrow, including point, nock, inserts and fletchings. DON'T GO BELOW IT!

Alloy Shafts

Alloys are by no means completely superseded by carbons and composites.  They are still the usual - and probably still the best - choice for beginners, because they are cheap and easy to work with.  In particular they are usually the best choice at any level for indoors because of their ruggedness (indoor arrows have to take a lot of battering in the target) and their large diameter which puts a few more points on the card for most of us.

It is worth looking at shaft sizes for indoor shooting a little more at this stage.  Since arrow weight is simply not an issue, it is usually possible to shoot the maximum diameter allowed from all but the lightest bows by cutting the shafts to the correct (long) length.  If you want to do this be careful and make sure your specific shaft is acceptable.  For example not all Easton 23XX's will pass a FITA judge's gauge, and I am told that some of the monster carbon shafts (see below) can cause problems also.  You should, however, consider whether you want to shoot max diameter shafts anyway.  If you are always shooting on multiple faces (ie on arrow per face) then there is an undeniable advantage in having the biggest legal shafts available, provided they group as well as your standard shafts - which is often not the case, so be careful.  However, if you regularly shoot rounds where all the arrows are shot at the same face, like the Portsmouth Round, the balance between line-cutters and kiss-outs has to be weighed carefully.  Personally, as I shoot about 50:50 single and multiple face competitions and dislike constantly changing shaft size, I shoot standard length 2014's whatever the round and find them a good compromise.

Outdoors, alloys have two main disadvantages compared to equivalent carbons and composites: they are heavy and they are fat!  Because they are heavy, they are comparatively slow and because of the area they present to the wind, they are prone to drift - although their weight is actually a help here, so the problem is not so serious as it might seem. 

Overall, alloys are not usually a good choice for shooting unmarked distances, or for FITA-type rounds.  For unmarked distances their low speed makes distance estimation critical, while their wind drift and high trajectory are a problem on windswept FITA fields.  However for IFAA-style field archery, where the distances are all marked and the courses are usually in woodland, the line cutting potential of alloys still has a lot going for it, provided you shoot a reasonably fast bow.

Easton make an ultra-light alloy shaft called 'Hyperspeed' - in effect a thin-walled X7.  These may have some relevance to 3D and IBO shooting, where distances are generally short and unmarked, but they are extremely fragile and as fat as any other alloy, and I can see no point in using them for normal Field or Target.  

Carbon Shafts

Pure carbon shafts have only come of age comparatively recently.  Until a couple of years ago, they were not worth bothering with, but now they are well worth considering for even the highest level of archer, compound or recurve.  With the advent of ultra-slim parallel composite shafts (see below) it is more difficult to place carbon shafts in the weight stakes.  Depending on grade, make and model they are usually a little heavier than the equivalent barrelled composite shafts (see below), and all are very much lighter than equivalent alloys.  However compared with parallel composites, sometimes they will be heavier and sometimes lighter - check the charts before making any decision and remember that point weight is sometimes the key factor. 

They come in two quite distinct types.  The first has the nock and point internal to the shaft.  Easton Redlines and the more expensive, lighter, Vectors are the main examples of this type for outdoor and general shooting, while the Carbon Express CXL and Carbon Tech Hippo are examples of ultra thin walled line cutter specials solely for indoor shooting.  The second is a very slim shaft with 'outsert' nocks and points, typified by the Carbon Tech range, and the older Beman's, which were perhaps the only carbon shafts of their day to rate serious consideration.  There are some very cheap carbon shafts on the market, designed for beginners and club equipment, but the carbon shafts offered for serious shooting are generally a little cheaper than their parallel composite equivalents, but substantially more expensive than alloy.

The Redline and Vector-style shafts are nearly as light as their composite equivalents, but very much cheaper and they do not have the disadvantage of 'outsert' nocks and points.  Outsert nocks must cause drag and turbulence, and the points are a pain to pull from even a moderately tight butt.  I am well aware that some excellent, indeed record scores have been shot with Carbon Tech's, but I can't help feeling that whatever the score was, it would have been higher with internal components. 

The disadvantage of the redline-type carbon shaft is that they are prone to wind drift - although their speed helps here, and although I have no personal experience, the slimmer Vectors should be better in this respect (at a price).

The main advantage of the slim carbon shafts is, as will have become apparent by now, the fact that they are less affected by wind, because of their small profile and their comparatively high density.

In summary, I regard Redline-type carbon shafts as the ideal choice for most archers for IFAA-type marked distance Field archery, where wind is not so much of an issue.  If you are heavily into FITA-style target archery, then slim, Carbon Tech-type shafts, or composites (see below) may be your best bet, although Vectors should be worth a try if you particularly want to shoot pure carbons.

Composite Shafts

Composite shafts have a central core consisting of a parallel-walled alloy tube, and an outer layer of carbon, spun around the central tube.  Some composite shafts are parallel walled, for example Easton ACC's and Navigators and the similar Cartel shafts.  These shafts are considerably lighter than their alloy equivalents, but  may or may not be heavier than pure carbons, depending on grade and point weight.  Like slim carbons, they are good in the wind and are still, possibly, the most popular shafts for compounds although they have little to offer for most recurve shooters. They tend to be more expensive than pure carbons, but a lot cheaper than their 'barrelled' counterparts (see below).

Top of the range composite shafts - currently this means Easton ACE's and X10's - are 'barrelled' in an interesting return to the traditional form, used for centuries on wooden arrows.  The outer, carbon layer is thickest about two thirds of the way along the shaft, near the front, and thins out evenly towards each end.  This means that the shaft is stiffest where it needs to resist the bending force of the shot and since it carries no unnecessary stiffening, it can be lighter than if it was parallel; ACE's are, currently, the lightest, slimmest, fastest shafts of all.  However, it is not all good news.  Because ACE's are so light, they are prone to wind drift, despite their slimness, and also, while ideal for recurves,  they are dangerously light, in some grades, for compounds (see chart).  It was for these reasons (among others) that Easton developed X10's, which are heavier, but even slimmer than ACE's.

The other bad news about barrelled composites is the price.  ACE's are nearly twice the price of any other shaft, and X10's, are more expensive still.  This is made worse still because ACE's and X10's are - or should be - only sold in matched dozens as the carbon outer layers have to be machined to give the barrelling and it is not possible to control the weight and spine accurately over long runs (Easton say).  Consequently individual shafts have to be matched after manufacture.

Overall, parallel, composite shafts are worth considering for compound shooters, particularly for FITA-type shooting, although I wonder if they are worth the extra money compared to pure carbons.  ACE's are a necessary evil for any serious recurve shooter, as nothing else gives the same overall results.  For compound shooters I am not so sure about ACE's or any other barrelled shaft.  Some people use them to great effect, but few archers of my acquaintance think they are worth the extra money, especially as they are fragile as well as expensive.  I know of no compound archer who buys X10's with his/her own money.  A few sponsored compound shooter use them and speak highly of them - but they would, wouldn't they!

Summary

As always, you pays your money and you takes your choice, but here are the main points to guide you:

ALLOYS: Cheap, easy to work with.  Take a permanent bend, but easily straightened if not too serious.  Heavy, large diameter and therefore slow, but size also gives line-cutters.  Not good in wind.  Avoid ultra-thin walls (eg Hyperspeed).

Good for: all indoor archery

Worth considering for: marked distance Field archery, especially with a reasonably fast bow.

Not good for: unmarked distances.  FITA-type outdoor rounds.

INTERNAL COMPONENT CARBONS (eg REDLINES or VECTORS): Redlines are cheapest of the decent carbon shafts.  Do not take a permanent bend, but fairly fragile.  Very light - almost as light as barrelled composites - but comparatively large diameter, therefore very fast, but less good in wind than other carbons and composites.  Vectors are more expensive, slimmer and a little lighter.

Good for:  all forms of Field archery.  3D shoots.

Worth considering for: Everything else.

Not good for: Least good for FITA-type outdoor rounds.

'OUTSERT'-TYPE CARBONS (eg CARBON TECH): About the same price as Redline-type carbons.  Heavier than Redlines - about the same as parallel composites.  Do not take permanent bend, fairly robust.    Good in wind.

Good for: All outdoor archery.

Not good for:  Indoor archery.

Doubts about: 'Outsert' nocks - cause drag and can foul non drop-away rests.

PARALLEL COMPOSITES: Expensive.  Heavier than Redline-Type carbons and barrelled composites.  Will take a permanent bend and cannot usually be straightened.  However, very robust - don't bend easily.  Good in wind.

Good for: All outdoor archery (compound).

Doubts about:  Use in recurves.  Not as good as pure carbons in most cases, and more expensive.

Not good for:  Indoor archery.

BARRELLED COMPOSITES: Very expensive.  ACE is lightest and fastest of all shafts and fair in wind.  X10 heavier - about same weight as ACC - but very small diameter and therefore low drag.  Best of all shafts in wind.

ACE's

Excellent for:  - All outdoor archery with a recurve.  

Doubts about: Use in compounds..

X10's

Good for:  The manufacturer's profits and a tiny handful of elite Olympic-style recurve shooters (who are also the only people who seem able to tune them).

Doubts about:  The sanity of anyone who buys them

Not good for:  The bank balance.  The size of your groups.