Are Grizzly Stiks Tougher Than Footed Carbons?

[bendotwood]

I currently shoot Easton Aftermaths footed with 2'' of 2117.  They are bomb proof, and have survived hitting rebar, tree,s rocks, steel barrels, fences, and everything else.  I am really happy with them, but I want to shoot tapered shafts.  

Grizzly Stiks have a reputation of being quite tough, but with the tapered design it seems I wouldn't be able to foot them.  Will I have issues with them splitting at the front like I would with normal non footed carbon?  Or are they built heavily enough to take the abuse that my footed arrows do?

Input from anyone who has tried out the Grizzly Stiks is much appreciated, ie. are they worth the money.

[wallybowman]

No need for footing with these shafts. I won't use an arrow that needs footing; if they're not strong enough without a footing you won' find them in my quiver. I have 9 of the Safari shafts. Love 'em! Are they worth what they cost? I think so. Did have one split about 1/4" on the point end but it was due to my loading the brass insert with 12 of the 50 grain insert weights and not gluing the insert in place. Other than that they hold up well. If you have a 3D animal target you practice with these arrows suffer from target burn so a bag - type target is better. So yes I recommend them highly.

[beyondmyken]

I have have 2 hammerheads shafts without a footing ruined when I was stump shooting and the point was jammed into the shaft creating a mushroom effect.  I have used gold tips with a 1 in aluminum footing and the only damage is the nock popping off.

[2nocks]

You can buy a lot of gold tip blems from big Jim for the price of grizzly stiks. If footing works for you why change it.

I use them out of one of my bows. For my arrow with the judo, I put a few small lead washers behind the head.  The inserts are epoxied in and I ran a quarter inch of epoxied fireline serving on the outside of the shaft.  So far, many hard hits and no spitting, but I have bent up the nose of a couple of judo points.

[Paul_R]

Originally posted by 2nocks:
You can buy a lot of gold tip blems from big Jim for the price of grizzly stiks. If footing works for you why change it.

And this weekend Byron Ferguson heavy hunter blems are on sale. They're about as indestructible as a carbon arrow gets.

[wallybowman]

Methinks the op stated he wants to use tapered carbons...

[bendotwood]

So far it's sounding like the grizzly stiks will hold up just fine.  Gonna try a test pack from 3 rivers and see how I like em.  

Wallybowman, I wanna see what kinda arrows you're building!  600gr's in insert weights!  Have you checked out the bigger inserts and heavier weights they make now?  200gr insert and 350gr weight.  Might save you messing with 12 little weights.

And yes I did state that I want tapered carbons.  I like the flight characteristics of em.

[Benny Nganabbarru]

I used-to write critically of Grizzlystiks when I was shooting lots of termite mounds. Nothing can last forever being shot into them, and if you get unlucky and hit a really hard one, then it can break on the first hit.

I've stopped shooting termite hills. And the Grizzlystiks are just fine. They work well on buffalo without the need for any messing around with internal shafts. Two fifty grain internal weights easily screw / glue into the back of the insert, and that's that.

On carbon shafts in general, I have never felt the need to use a collar. Most of my experience is with Grizzlystiks and Carbon Express Heritage.

[Al Kidner]

PM sent

[wallybowman]

I wasn't really building a very heavy arrow, I was just playing around with trying out a really high foc. One of these days I'm going to buy some of the 200 grain inserts Ed sells. And check Ed's site,ABS, sometimes he'll have Grizzlystik shafts at a reduced price.

[Marshallrobinson]

I have a good collection of Grizzly sticks and Sitka's and they have never ever given me a reason to think that they couldnt take whatever I gave them. Great shafts.

[silent sniper]

I just picked up some grizzly stick woodie 500 tapered shafts.  I don't believe they make this shaft anymore.  It is quite a shame because it is a great shaft! At 29" with 175 grain point the shaft comes out at 635 grains. These ones have aluminum inserts, not the brass ones they use now.   The wood grain on them is beautiful and they fly like a dream out of my 50# caribow wolverine.  I am highly impressed with them.  Cheers SS

[silent sniper]

Previous to the grizz sticks I used footed heritage shafts.  I busted the ends of alot of them, but once footed they are very tough.  I've only managed to break one which was my test shaft for the footed heritages.  It took hundreds of shots into frozen trees , rocks, exc.  finally one day it caught an angled rock and busted the shaft 1" above the footing.

For my 3D/ practice/squirrel  arrows I find footing to be a must.  For deer hunting I feel they are not needed as much.  Just my .02. SS

[Benny Nganabbarru]

One thing: Don't bother trying to bareshaft tune them. You'll have a hell of a time. Just fletch them up and check how they fly through paper. They'll work really good out of a variety of bows and draw weights with a range of point weights.

[TURKEYFOOTGIRL]

I break maybe two footed axis shafts a year. Usually in the shoulder of a animal. I broke 5 grizzlystik Sitka's in one week on my target. They would split on the nock end when I'd hit the plastic leg on my deer. This was years ago and maybe they have improved. Based on the response from the company I will no longer try them.

[flyne]

For the money id go arrow dynamic hammer heads iv found them to me a more consistent and cheeper shaft and possibly a bit stronger Then the abs shafts iv only busted a couple of arrow dynamics due to the critter rolling on them never to one being mushroomed from a front on hit that I can recall but stuffed a heap of the abs safari shafts due to mushrooming
Jim