Stiff Arrows

[scott myers]

So I just picked up some Axis Trad 400's on the other site for $60 and thought I would give them a try.  My current set up that I am regularly shooting is an Omega Imperial 58", 51lbs at 27" shooting a Beman Centershot 500 at 30" with a 175 grain tip.  It's a super shooting set up.  I thought I'd give the axis a try to get a bit more shaft weight.  They aren't hitting consistent at all.  I might get 75% to hit where I am aiming.  The heaviest I have put on thus far for point weight is 200 grains.  They seem better with that but still not any where near as good as the beman's.  I haven't stripped the older feathers either.  I normally use a 5" parabolic and these have 4" shield cuts.  Not sure if that makes a difference either.  I like the way they penetrate vs the beman's and maybe I should just sell them and try a 500 axis to see if that would work better or just stay with what I have as it's tuned killer and shoots great.  Does this sound as if they might be too stiff?   I know you can't pinpoint without seeing the target.  
I also wanted to get more info on wood shafts and what to look for as next season I would like to swap the carbons for wood.  How does one go about getting the proper wood arrow?

[dbd870]

Yeah from my rather limited experience with 1 50# recurve and carbon arrows I'm betting those 400's are pretty stiff. I would probably stay with the Beman Centershots that are working for you. I use 500 Beman Centershots as well and I am very pleased with them. With 200gr points they even fly well from my 45# Grizzly.

[scott myers]

Yeah I'm thinking so as well.  I have some heavier points up to 300 grains on our moving truck so I may give those a try and see what happens when that gets to our house next week.  The centershots do fly really well.  I still wish they made the MFX Classics.  They were the sweetest carbon arrow for trad in my opinion.

[Tim Finley]

I shoot the old Beman classics in a 400 out of 48 to 52# bows and get good arrow flight and my points are only 125 or 145 gr. The 35-55 or 500 Goldtips don't shoot out of all my bows they hit my finger on release that tells me wrong spine.

[MnFn]

For wood, I had a 51# Shrew CH 56".  Ron La Clair advised 62/63 spine Sitka Spruce cut to 28.75".  My draw at the time with that bow was 27+.  Ron was spot on as he usually is.  They worked well.  Those arrows shot well out of a 53# Blacktail also.
I don't like messing around with the length of my arrows much, prefer to keep them around 29", so if you want longer wood I'd run that by a good arrow maker.

[M60gunner]

I believe the Axis are stiffer. I tried 400's from my 55# bows with no luck. I do not like long arrows or more than 225 grains up front. I use 500 spine with 75 grain inserts and 145 grain points.

[scott myers]

M6 they seem to be.  I know when I shot compound they were stiffer as well.  Awesome arrows but I think they are going to be too much.  

MnFn - Sounds good.  Were you getting them from Kustom King or did you just go straight through Ron?

[JRY309]

There are many factors involved with stiff arrows depending on the type of bow and how the riser is cut.Adding front end weight to try to weaken the spine of a carbon doesn't always work.You can get a false reading because carbons recover from the paradox much faster the other arrow types.I had the same tuning problems,I had bought some used carbons that were aready cut to length about an inch past me draw length.They were showing stiff so I  thought I could add more front weight to weaken the spine.They got worse and showing even stiffer the more weight I added.They were in effect bouncing off the riser and not flexing around it.I did tune the same spine to that bow but started with a full length and ended up with an arrow about 2" longer then the used ones.The length of a carbon has a greater effect then how much weight you add upfront.If you have an overly stiff arrow on a bow with the riser not cutpast center you may not be able to tune them no matter how much weight you add.This has been my experience.

[MnFn]

wish I knew how I double post. Sorry boys

[CoachBGriff]

I'm shooting axis 340's out of my 54 lb (at my draw) PCH.

I had to put 275 grains up front to get the proper flight, but my point is that you can definitely make those 400s work.

More point weight is rarely a bad thing.

[scott myers]

Got it.  I'm going to try the heavier points I have when our moving truck gets to town and also swap out to my 5" feathers and see what happens.

[Haydenj7]

Scott,

i am shooting axis 400s. 50gr insert and 200points. Cut to 30inches out of a 52lb big Jim buff. I have a 2 inch footing also. Flight is good. Seems like a similar setup to you.

[bucknut]

I have a Toelke Super D 50@27 and it likes the 500s the best with 200 up front. I also shoot RMSG 56# Port orfords @28 1/2 160 up front. They fly awesome.

[scott myers]

So I just did some bare shafting with them with a 200 up front.  They shot great from 25 to 5 yards today.  I know i was shooting in some pretty bad wind the other day but at any rate here's what I found out.  I looks as if I can run them with the 200's.  They tested slightly stiff but flew pretty darn good.  I'm thinking possibly 225 to 250 grains up front should smooth it out.  We'll see.  It would be nice to have the beman's and have these.  Beman's for deer and the Axis more for elk and Mulies.