hello gents! Just thought I'd share my thoughts on tapered ash shafts as an arrow wood. Got invited to a 3-D shoot yesterday along with fellow tradganger 18thcentman, and decided to shoot it regardless of the fact that he and I were the only 2 guys shooting traditional gear. All distances were set up with the carbon slinging 2 wheelers in mind but we shot at their distance stakes regardless of the fact they were grossly unrealistic for instictive hunting situations, (at least for us!). Brian and I were shooting a mixed bag of cedar and ash for our arrows, which considering the rocky terrain meant a "miss" could result in a catastrophic failure for the arrow. To make a long story short....IT DID! If I shot over the targets back, under its belly or left or right with one of my dipped and crested cedars, pieces flew!! HOWEVER, the tapered ash shafts we were shooting took an incredible beating with VERY MINIMAL failure.They were a bit slower than my cedars, (not much though), but penetrated very well, even on their 45 yard elk shot. WE were shooting Bear 59' repro recurves, (ED HOLCOMB!),his 49# mine 51#. Made firm believers out of both of us. These were spined 55-60# , and tipped with 160 grain field tips, (to mimic broadhead trajectories). I still have 80-90 tapered port orford cecars to fletch up, but from here on in we both will invest in ash exclusively....really impressive performance under tough conditions for a wooden arrow shaft! The other recourse would be DON'T MISS!!!! If you haven't tried ash...give it a whirl...got mine from Bill at allegheny mountain arrowwoods....any comments??...thanks..john