Carbon arrow rant
Equipment
Am I the only one that still prefers aluminum to carbon? Maybe it's all in my head but if I miss a target with a carbon arrow and it finds its way into wood, or the ground, I just don't trust the arrow anymore. Even if I bend it and have a listen, I still don't trust it. Ive heard all the arguments about carbon being stronger than alu but Ive got to say Ive never heard of an aluminum arrow blowing up. I've been using xx75s for hunting and x7s for 3d and target for decades. But I recently got talked into some Bemans. Every one of them that ever sunk into wood or the ground, I put back into the quiver upside down, to check. But even when I check them, I'm reluctant to use them. Am I the only one that has this psychological discomfort with carbon?
No carbon or aluminum here..just straight Port Orford Cedar.
I much prefer carbon to aluminum. There pretty durable. The only time they don't hold up is hitting rocks. I have sunk arrows into trees. Either I have to carve the tip out or unscrew it. The shaft always seems to hold up though. No more worries about bent shafts.
I've been using carbon since 1998 or 1999. For me they are far better than aluminum arrows.
When I sold my mom's house last year I sold several dozen XX75 shafts. I got about ten dollars for the bunch. I only use carbon now and really like them. Years ago when kathi shot the leg off a wolf, I think it was a wolf, the only arrow that wasn't bent was Bowdad's carbon. I switched right after that. Sorry Kathi about bringing this up again.
I only shoot carbon their either straight or their broke.
What Pat said!
They shoot straighter and are lighter, meaning there is less drop.
They also penetrate very, very well!
Agreed.Carbon. Many hours have I spent trying to straighten a bent shaft. No more.
I hate aluminum arrows with a passion.
I have one recurve that I feed carbon, everything else gets the best....a quality wood shaft :-)
Easton A/C/C. The best of both carbon and aluminum in one shaft. If you want aluminum on the outside, go with the Easton FMJ. Straight, tough, and very durable.
It is not unusual to kill several animals with the same A/C/C shaft. A friend of mine has the local record.....11 deer, one arrow.
Carbon Gold Tip Hunters for me. There is just so many ways for aluminum to bend, and carbon penetrates better. I would think it best to hunt with whatever you are most comfortable with.
I don't think there's a bad carbon out there. Carbons are the only arrows I will shoot.
early carbons were iffy, newer versions are much better
i never reuse after a kill or an errant miss into the ground, but thats just me
no issues when used for target practice, hundreds of shots, then straight to hunt quiver, but i still roll them 3-4 times in hand to listen/look for cracks n splinters before they're nocked
curious what posebeau thinks..
Easton FMJ. Super tough. Slim arrow. Rocks, bone and the animal breaking the arrow are its only enemy. Scott
I think your fear of them blowing up is a bit exaggerated. I just found out one of my Axis 340's was fractured from being hit by another arrow at ~10" from the tip. I've shot this arrow plenty and it never blew up, of course when I discovered the flaw I culled it.
I know for a fact early in the carbon arrow epidemic there were plenty of guys in my archery club shooting fractured (GT 75/95) arrows until I showed them how to find the cracks.
In my limited experience they'll have to be noticeably disabled to truly blow up. To date I have not known anyone nor heard of a blown up carbon arrow.
Yep, can't beat FMJs. I've been using them since they came on the market.
I've used Axis for years and no complaints, but I have enough FMJs now to make the switch, and that's what I intend to use until I can't.
Carbon all the time everytime! I'm actually the opposite of you. I had considered switching to Easton FMJ's for the weight but decided to stay away because of the aluminum outer shell. Once an arrow is bent AT ALL you will have problems especially shooting these high speed compounds. Todays carbon is dam tough!
There's a reason that everyone uses carbon now. They're the superior arrow. Some folks use wooden arrows for romantic reasons and some still use aluminum due to personal preference, but carbon arrows are just flat out superior hunting arrows.
I can't afford to shoot aluminum.
Stopped using aluminium in 2004. Tried a hybrid during the 2014 season then back to straight carbon.
No you're not the only one at last count there were three people in Wyoming to in West Virginia a guy in Georgia and some woman in Connecticut who preferred aluminums to carbon
I bought 2 dozen carbon tech rhinos 3 years ago BC, {before made in China}. If i don't lose them I may have enough arrows to last 10 years or more.
Blue tick,
Do you think aluminums have been phased out?
If yes, do think there is a reason why they have been phased out?
If you want the best of both carbon & aluminum then shoot FMJ. I don't think you will be disappointed.
I went to aluminum 5yrs ago, no more carbon, I also use wood, I stoped using carbon because they where way to light .
r-man, you can weight carbons to whatever weight you want them.
"I've bent aluminum arrows pulling them out of a target. You'll never do that with carbon."
Yep, there was a prick at our archery club who would bend the snot out of your arrows pulling them, he did it purposely. Needless to say he wasn't well liked.
Pushing 20 years since I last shot aluminum arrows.
Fmj's for me, they are the right weight for all big game in North America
FMJ's for me as well.
My wife had carbon arrows and while I was tuning her bow, I notice a faint weird sound when I put the arrow on the rest. Took the arrow off and GENTLY flexed the shaft and the last 6" of arrow snapped off with almost no pressure. SCARY! That arrow had always been shot into the target and had never hit anything solid or been hit!!! In fact, I doubt that arrow had been shot more than 10 times at that point!!!
Easton FMJ's for me.
I've been considering the carbon Piledriver's but I like the smaller diameter FMJ's better and am going to stick with those.
There are definitely some pro's and con's to both but I think the pro's of the FMJ's outweight the con's in my opinion.
Another vote for FMJ's! The best of both worlds! Every hunter in our family shoots them now, I'm done messing around with other carbon shafts.
Well, so much for that rant...
...I use carbon too, by the way
I believe the original post was actually asking if no one else worried about carbons blowing up during the shot.
And though not answered directly, it appears the answer is no, no one worries about that.
Personally, I have had that concern, but it never impacted my choice to shoot carbon. I have seen some nasty pictures of carbon explosions though. Still overall, I believe the reward heavily outweighs the risk.
Yikes, I feel sorry for you. The guy selling you arrows must just be smiling. Buy carbons and use 10% as many arrows as you used to.
Well, I'll throw my hat in that ring Bluetick. I'd take a heavy aluminum (16 wall or thicker) over a carbon any day. XX78 Super Slams were my preferred shafts but after losing my gear I find they don't make them anymore. I've moved to FMJs now to get what I want as the XX75s are not quite to my liking.
I formed my opinion on the range one year when I was going to hand a carbon to the guy I was shooting with. Just as I was going to I did a curious flex of the shaft and it was busted. Couldn't tell in any way at all looking at it, only by flexing it was it noticed all the fibers were not bound anymore. If he had shot it, it would/could have turned very bad!
I also have a text photo of a friend of my nephew's who just recently sent one of those carbons through his wrist/hand. It's a very disturbing picture. Always known of the "someone on the internet" photos of these but this one was recent and actually from my nephew who was shooting with his friend when that happened.
I knew back at the previous experience that there's no way to realistically do a thorough carbon visual and physical flex inspection with every arrow before every shot to mitigate those hospital emergencies.
So I stuck with aluminum of weight that wasn't fragile. Of the one's that might have gotten a slight bend in them misting a target, straightening them was silly easy and would be complicated only for those same people who couldn't fletch an arrow or tweak a broadhead true.
Never could get on the "but it's so much lighter!" bandwagon others around me were on at the ranges. I would have settled on the XX75s if the FMJs weren't available because 2216s and 2219 are still stout arrows.
As with everything though, each to their own.
Andy
Yes, the thought of a failure at release does cross my mind every now and then. But, I've also seen a bow blow up because the nock failed at release, so, anything is possible I guess.
I do check my arrows occasionally by bending them in a circular motion as opposed to just back and forth. Maybe not as often as I should.
I also use FMJ's and really like the arrows. However, I did have an FMJ blow up on me a couple of years ago. It fractured in half on release just beyond the vanes and the "tail" hit me in the wrist. No major damage to my hand but it surely scared me. The cable guard on my bow had broken so not sure which came first - arrow fracturing or the guard but I suspected that the guard broke and resulted in the arrow failure. I called Easton and they said it can happen with FMJ's (I had sort of already tested that fact!) and recommended always checking those FMJ's carefully like any carbon arrow by flexing them and so forth. I actually bought one of those Kevlar hand/wrist guards after that event. At least it makes me feel better. I hated looking at those images of carbon fibers sticking out of a hand like a porcupine. I think this was a one-off with the FMJ's and likely due to bow failure - but they can blow-up so always check them!
WOW!! Scary stuff Elk4Doc! I'll check mine on occasion.
Andy
I still shoot aluminum. It's getting harder to find them though.
I have been using carbons since the they came out, over 25 years ago. Was using Beman's carbon Hunters with EXTERNAL inserts and nocks no less. I still have 14 of the original 18 I bought. I lost two while practicing and destroyed two by being stupid trying to shoot at distances WAAAAY beyond what I should have and both arrows flew over the target and hit the brick wall I was using as a back stop.
I don't wish to be misunderstood as being smug, but there is simply no reason WHAT SO EVER that anyone can possibly give to choose aluminum over carbon arrows, especially for hunting.
I have inflicted wear and tear on my carbons countless hundreds of times that would have ruined aluminum arrows and my carbons remained perfectly fine.
To me it is simple economics and practicality.
Simply stated, for a purely HUNTING application carbon arrows are superior in every way to aluminum.
To put it another way; aluminum VS carbons are like a P-51 (aluminum) being compared to a F-15G (carbons).
Both great but one clearly is superior to the other for their intended application.
I just bend my arrows prior to each range session. I also have some excellent leather/Kevlar cut resistant gloves from my work that I shot a already failed arrow into without a point and I have no doubt it would hurt, but the arrow didn't penetrate the glove.
The fact I have shot carbon arrows at least several thousands of times over the last 25 years and never had a single issue with them unless I hit a object along the lines of a brick wall or similar solid object is a testament to carbon arrows toughness. If you were to add up the shot count total of my friends and myself made with carbon arrows, I am certain it would easily exceed a 10k shots all without incident.
WTH are you missing the target so much for! ;^D.
Seriously, I shot aluminum for 30 years. Finally switched to carbon in 2008. I've bought 48 carbon arrows since then. I've broken 6. Four were because of robin hoods. One was because I shot my deer target and it tipped over and landed on my arrow snapping it in half. The other one I embedded into a tree too far and couldn't get it out without breaking it. I still have all the others. With aluminum I was buying a new dozen every couple years.
But don't fret! There is nothing wrong with using aluminum arrows. They are still an awesome option IMO.
Still shooting 2016, can shoot the same tin out of my recurves. longbow and Elite and fly like darts. Have AD, Beamans and FMJ and everyone of them fly different from the bows stated and take the broad heads different also. It is either the 2016 or 50/54# cedars that go into the hunt, it just comes down to longtime trust.
Carbons are cheaper in the long run but the initial hit stings a bit. If you aren't worried about having a certain brand, logo or flashy graphics, check out the Fleetwood arrows. $60.00/dozen fletched with 2" vanes and includes a dozen field points. A little more with 4" feathers. I looked at them at a show recently.
I have been buying Gold Tip blemished shafts and fletching them myself but even that costs a bit more.
You're definitely not alone! Lol. I've shot carbons for the last 10 years or so but recently went to FMJ's. Ive shot Easton, CE, Beman, and GT over the last ten years. IMHO, carbon arrows break too easily. I don't miss often but when I have, my arrow is gone. I've also had them break off just carrying my bow through the brush. So far I've been happy with the FMJ's I have been shooting for a few months.
