Carbon vs. aluminum arrows?

[Buck Hunter]

Other than carbon being more durable does anyone have any pros and cons about aluminum vs. carbon arrows? Is it hard to get enough weight from carbons to get to 9 grains per draw weight pound? Is one or the other more forgiving when tuning?

[Doc Nock]

This should be good...it's like asking if Blondes or Brunettes are better brides!    

I watched a Gold Tip video when they first came out..it was super high speed..showed that alum arrow wigglin outa the bow like a tortured water snake...and it kept doing that all the way to the target... then darn near FOLDED when it hit..

Talk about wasted energy!

I switched to carbons and enjoy the "straight or broken" part. I enjoy the retained energy for on-target penetration as I don't shoot heavy draw weight. I load up the front with brass weights and have been able to reduce the size of my fletching which quieted my arrow in flight.

They don't smell nice like cedar, but then, I don't break as many to find out for sure!

  :rolleyes:    :D

[eric-thor]

wood is the most forgiving and fastest to recover.
i also like aluminum its very strait and consistant moreso than carbon .and aluminum bends more than it breaks witch can be straitend.


 

[Fishycatfish]

All the deer I have shot with carbons which I'm sure isn't as many as some but if they did break off in the deer it was a clean break with no carbon in the meat.

[sagebrush]

I question those videos of the arrow drastically wiggling when released. I  wonder if they were spined right or they shot a very weak spine to enhance the effect. I would not question them if they were done under controlled circumstances.But maybe the carbon manufacturers were the ones who made the videos. Gary

[Tim]

I'm fortunate to live in a very deer rich area with pretty much unlimited doe tags...a very good area to test equipment.  For 15 years I shot 2018's and 125 grain tips out of a 60lb bow.  In the last 5 years I have shot carbon arrows and 175 grain tips out of a 52lb bow.  

My pass throughs and overall penetration has been significantly better with the carbons, even with the lighter weight bows.  For the most part I'm talking about 100 to 150lb deer.  I don't have much experience with the bigger critters.

I've never ran into a problem with carbon splintering, the few breaks have been clean.

[Doc Nock]

Originally posted by eric-thor:
oh ya one very important thing : if a carbon arrow breaks in the animal you shot you have to throwout a big chunk of the meat around the wound . i hate waisting      

That was true when pultruded carbons first came out (skinny things) that were soda straw diameter. They splintered.

That now is non-existent. Carbons the past 10 years or so are multi-layer wrapped. Snap one over your leg and it will break clean!  You can relax on that point now.    The past few deer I've shot brought back their off side elbow HARD as it passed through and snapped the shaft! Looked like it was cut on a cut-off saw!

The rest of your thoughts I respect as they are your own and match your experience with alum. I do believe that your note on wood recovering faster (than alum) are accurate, but no where as fast as carbon.

Sage,

I know OL Adcock claims to have had access to super high speed video shipboard on his Navy jaunts in the labs and duplicated those effects.  There is a lot of stuff my brain can't handle about dynamic vs. static spine and carbon fiber's ability to recover in 2 occilations...but duh...I doubt till I'm convinced!    I'm convinced...but good call on the quiery.

[rxhntr]

I once slipped and fell while hunting with a quiver full of alums. As I came down and the quiver hit a rock which put a small dent all the way across my arrows. I know most people never slip and fall, but that was the end of alums for me.

[lpcjon2]

Check these out.
 http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=081392#000000
 http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=072350#000000
 http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=070176#000000
 http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=055724#000000
Enjoy!!

[Rackman]

So far I've been shooting aluminums.  I find them easier to tune than carbons.  The problem with carbon is to get the weight of the arrow where you want it, 9 to 11 lbs per inch.  Even if you do get it tuned with 200 or 250 grain points up front, now you have to match a broadhead to the same weight. However , I probably will end up shooting carbons, as aluminum arrows will probably become a thing of the past. Just my  thoughts.

[Pointer]

Carbon is not hard to tune and you can add weight tubes or brass inserts or use steel bh adapters. The possibilities with carbon are endless. I still like aluminum and use 2115's out of nearly all my bows with success. Thing is I had a whole quiver full of arrows bend once when my bow dropped and landed on a huge boulder. Had to go back to the car to reload the quiver. That doesn;t happen to carbon and you can stump shoot all day without breaking or bending anything. I shoot them because to me they are a better more cost effective option.

[SERGIO VENNERI]

Swaged aluminums work  for Me ! I don't have any unecessary components to worry about and it's easy to get the proper spine and arrow weight (9gr,) . Penetration is a non issue.

[Doc Nock]

Thank God you guys like wood and alum...can you imagine the outlandish price of shafts if we all liked the same thing!!!

Diversity is our friend!    

[Ground Hunter]

There is a plus and negative to each.  I like and shoot all three.  I'm glad I don't have to pick one.  H

[eric-thor]

tim : you get better penitration most likely do to you foc increase.

[30coupe]

It is VERY easy to get over 9 ggp with carbons. Here is my set-up:

ARROW   length   28.5
shaft+feathers+nock wt      245
separate insert weight?      30
adapter weight?      100
point weight      135
total arrow weight      510
balance length      21.00
   FOC %   23.68
      
draw wt 53   
arrow wt 510   
GPP 9.62
   
Same arrow with my 46# Kanati:

ARROW   length   30
shaft+feathers+nock wt      245
separate insert weight?      30
adapter weight?      100
point weight      135
total arrow weight      510
balance length      22.38
   FOC %   24.60
      
draw wt 46
arrow wt 510
GPP 11.09

The Kanati shoots through everything with this setup...much better than I ever got with aluminums.

[Night Wing]

For the last 46 years, I've always shot aluminum arrows out of my trad bows.

What I like about cedar is, you make an intelligent spine selection, straighten out the crooked ones, put finish and fletching on them put on the point and go and shoot them. With aluminums it gets a little trickier because there are less choices for weights at my draw and I hate shooting extra long arrows, With 160s glued to long inserts I get perfect flight out of my Robertson longbow 51@26" with 1918s, with less point weight I have to have absolutely perfect releases to get the same flight and the ease of pulling a smaller point out of my soy bean crate bag targets. I do not like shooting any aluminum shaft that is lighter than a 1918. With my Grizzly sticks the arrows shoot to the right with right hand bows and left with left hand bows, no matter which bow I tried with them, even though they appeared to fly perfect. So mixing them with other shafts is inconvenient.  When I used the grizzly sticks that is all I shot,  and I missed going small game hunting during deer season. Now with carbons even though there is a lot a versatility, there can be a lot of pieces a parts and messing around before one gets a hunting arrow.  I guess if one enjoys messing around with pieces and parts it is no big deal, I like my small game arrows and stumping arrows to be at least predictably close to my broadheads. For me stumping and shooting at pheasants is way more fun than sitting on my butt waiting for a deer to come by, so those arrows are important to me.

[stx&strings]

just something about wood when it leaves the bow and finds it's mark! heaven on earth!I see it as being hit with a piece of PVC pipe and then being hit with a solid 2X4 one hurts in a thin circle surface and the other hurts all over..

[Earl Jeff]

CARBON Everything is better except the price.