Arrow toughness
Equipment
I have had some carbon arrows for years. After a long time I finally broke or lost the original dozen. I have bout others that do not seem as durable. Please offer opinions based on experience not hearsay. What are the least/most durable out of these three selections.
Cabela's Stalker extreme. Easton powerflight. Gold tip Blems.
I have had experience with these as well as a few others but I need a bigger sample than my experience to judge by. That is where you all come in. Thank you, Bob
I have shot carbon express into steel ,bad shot and they come out fine. Now, I am not shooting high speed bow, trad gear but they have held up just fine
Gold Tips have carbon only in one direction and tend to crack and split. I used them for a long time and in my opinion, they suck. That said, they sell a TON of them. Probably because they're cheap. I have been using the Carbon Express arrows with the cross woven fiber. These are much tougher than the unidirectional Gold Tips. I'm sure any woven fiber arrow is going to be a good bet.
I totally disagree with woodswise if you run a razor blade down side of a goldtip nothing will happen you do this to a Carbon exspress you will have carbon in your fingers, I have shot goldtips thru water buffalo, Eland, bison , watusi they are tuff arrows. In my opinion they are tuffest out there.
And I've thrown away countless Gold Tips because they cracked vertically along the arrow at the knock making the knock loose and prone to coming out.
Any arrow with carbon only running in one direction is junk in my book.
To each own.
Broke alot of CX.
Broke some GT.
The only Easton Axis I ever broke glanced of an oak tree. The ones I have stuck in an oak tree are still good. I have been shooting them for 4-5 years.
Every manufacturer makes the arrows certain ways for whatever reason to meet market demands. They are all good and what it boils down to is consumer appeal more than anything else.
I've been shooting CE Mayhem for a few years now and like them but my experience is that the Gold Tips I used to shoot are a more durable shaft without doubt in my mind.
likely our own personal experiences lead us to a conclusion that is not always absolutely correct.
greenmountain,
Those three selections you gave to choose from are the same shaft with different labels on them, all produced in the same factory by the same machines at the same time.
For my money there's nothing tougher than an Easton FMJ. Not on your list but in my opinion they should be!
Don't know what the best arrow is but this brings up a safety issue and procedure many guys forget about and do not perform that I think is important. Some may disagree with me...I always take my arrows after every time I have shot them and grab both ends and flex them in my hand just a little and twist a little to see if they have a crack. If they do you can sometimes feel it and/or hear it crackling. I closely inspect the tips and rub my fingers down and up the arrows feeling for flaws. Cracks under the wrap cannot be seen and even cracks in the part you can see may not be visual.
I told my pal to do these test because I noticed he was hitting his arrows with one another on some of his shots and never testing them. He didn't do what I said and last year he had an arrow blow apart just when he shot it. He was lucky that it left the bow just as it blew up and didn't injure him.
I am sure guys here check their arrows regularly but if someone reads this and hasn't been maybe it will save them a potential disaster or an arrow going through your hand or arm.
Don't bother looking for the rest of the vid. Apparently the guy gets away with no injury but you get the point.
I won't shoot a carbon arrow that's not footed with aluminum.I use a 1" piece on the front and a 1/4" piece on the nock end.That helps a ton on frontal impacts of hard objects.
I started shooting carbons 6 years ago and have yet to break one Gold Tip.This includes hard hits on steel poles,wood posts,trees and rocks.When I started with them,a couple people swore they were the worst thing out there.They are the toughest I've tried.
I've shot the Victory HV's and broken several on side impact shots that the Gold Tips would have taken in stride.
There are a lot of brands I haven't tried.As far as toughness,they are the toughest arrows I have ever used in over 50 years of bowhunting.
I've been shooting goldtips for years and they are tough, I've killed 10+ deer with the same arrow multiple times. Only ones I've broke were from shots that hit the shoulder blades and then broke on trees as the deer went down through the woods. They're the only arrow I'll shoot.
Goldtip.
I get better more consistent groups out of other brands but they break way too easily.
When to use a GT: Bare shaft tuning Long range instinctive Target shooting in rocky area Tuning from scratch Finger shooting compound
Can save you a ton of money.
Here's some pics of a Cabelas FX3 BH (tough head) busted up on hidden rock in a diet bank. You can see the GT survived. No way my ICS shafts would've taken that kind of beating.
I post this knowing it will show a VERY bad shot I made, but does show some arrow toughness. 1st evening shooting my new Easton Injexions. Brain went haywire on a 60 yard shot. Hit the marker sign next to the target. Thought I had ruined a brand new arrow but all it did was strip the feltching off.
I post this knowing it will show a VERY bad shot I made, but does show some arrow toughness. 1st evening shooting my new Easton Injexions. Brain went haywire on a 60 yard shot. Hit the marker sign next to the target. Thought I had ruined a brand new arrow but all it did was strip the feltching off.
I post this knowing it will show a VERY bad shot I made, but does show some arrow toughness. 1st evening shooting my new Easton Injexions. Brain went haywire on a 60 yard shot. Hit the marker sign next to the target. Thought I had ruined a brand new arrow but all it did was strip the feltching off.
Sorry for the double post. Meant to post this one too.
Tuffness... Gold tip for sure. I also have shot a lot of brands and have shot carbons since they have come onto the market. I shoot speed bows, so a bad impact or glance has a higher change of breaking the shaft. I tend to lose or robin hood more than I break. I haven't found any that will survive a robin hood though.
Here maybe this pic will help... This is a Gold Tip .340 spine arrow and you can see massive bending after robin hooding an old arrow half shaft. It straightened right out and we didn't even know it bent like that until we watched the vid. After careful inspection the arrow has no damage that can be seen.
Gold tips kinetics are very tough in my opinion.
Here is the vid. This shows some massive Gold tip toughness!
