Shaft Tolerances

[Matabele]

Hi all,

I realise it's possible to completely overthink some stuff...but I was wondering if any of you see a difference in accuracy or broadhead flight between different straightness tolerances ie 0.001" vs 0.003" vs 0.006" ??

The shafts I'm looking at are $5 cheaper per shaft for the 0.006" vs 0.003"...just wondering if this is a case where you get what you pay for?

Any advice welcome!

[Charlie Lamb]

You'll never tell the difference.

[Michael Pfander]

If you can keep your anchor within 1kth, then maybe so.  I find the .006 to shoot well enough to win and kill stuff.
MAP

[forestdweller]

Those differences will only show up (if they even show up) when shooting extremely lightweight arrow target compound set ups at longer distances at 50 yards and beyond.

If you under or overdraw 1/16th of an inch it will show up more so than those straightness differences you mentioned especially shooting fingers.

[Matabele]

Thanks guys, saved me some money!

[kennym]

Spine difference means more than .006" in accuracy. IMO

[Matabele]

Kenny I was sorta thinking the two might be connected...tighter tolerance in straightness meaning a more uniform shaft with less wall thickness variance...therefore more closely matched in spine too. What do you think?

[kennym]

I just built a spine tester with a dial indicator. Need to fine tune it a bit, but can check shaft straightness and spine also. So far haven't seen that to be the case, but wasn't really looking for that and it didn't jump out at me.

I did find that 2 batches of the same brand and spine carbon arrows had enough different spine that broadhead arrows  wiggled with the new ones and not with last years.

I, like most, think you won't be able to tell a difference. I can tell you for a fact that some carbon arrows are not spined real consistent, and others are very tight. I learned this by hand spining a lot of shafts. Some are so bad it will blow your mind!

Bisch

[forestdweller]

Originally posted by Bisch:
I, like most, think you won't be able to tell a difference. I can tell you for a fact that some carbon arrows are not spined real consistent, and others are very tight. I learned this by hand spining a lot of shafts. Some are so bad it will blow your mind!

Bisch

I'm curious as to which brands/models of carbon arrows have poor spine tolerances that way I can avoid them. LOL.

[Gdpolk]

Originally posted by forestdweller:
 

Originally posted by Bisch:
I, like most, think you won't be able to tell a difference. I can tell you for a fact that some carbon arrows are not spined real consistent, and others are very tight. I learned this by hand spining a lot of shafts. Some are so bad it will blow your mind!

Bisch

I'm curious as to which brands/models of carbon arrows have poor spine tolerances that way I can avoid them. LOL. [/b]

x2.  Curiosity has me on this one.

[screamin]

Originally posted by GDPolk:
   

Originally posted by forestdweller:
   

Originally posted by Bisch:
I, like most, think you won't be able to tell a difference. I can tell you for a fact that some carbon arrows are not spined real consistent, and others are very tight. I learned this by hand spining a lot of shafts. Some are so bad it will blow your mind!

Bisch

I'm curious as to which brands/models of carbon arrows have poor spine tolerances that way I can avoid them. LOL. [/b]

x2.  Curiosity has me on this one. [/b]

x3! me too, or at least which are the best although I suspect aluminum and in carbon something like the fmj is the way to go    

[Matabele]

Interesting stuff Kenny, sucks there is so much variation in shafts considering the price of them.

I'd be interested hearing which brand is more consistent too! Spill the beans    :D

[forestdweller]

The good news is that with adequate fletching (4-5" feathers) you probably won't be able to tell the difference in spine either (I can't tell the difference).

It probably makes a big difference if you are shooting a very very fast bow with very small vanes like spin wings though.

[AZ_Longbow]

Shooting trad you'll never see a difference. And rarely even in a long range wheelbow.

[Petrichor]

If our ancestors could make a stick shoot straight, I'm sure you'll be fine with whatever you choose.

[Bladepeek]

What we need here is someone as anal as I, but with enough money and time to test 5 or 6 dozen of all the popular brands of .001, .003 and .006 tolerance and give us a complete report   :D

[AndreasLundin]

This will be my first post and even though I shot recurves for target as a teenager I am rather new back to the sport as I have been hunting with wheels for the last few years. However I do have an opinion on arrows. I spine test and index my arrows for the compound and I can say that spine consistency will make more differance than straightness. Bareshaft and broadheads makes differance more.

I have tested a few different shafts and other then FMJ which where better than norm the are some decent differences in spine index.

My last batch was labeled .250 but I have variances from .243  to .264. I am pretty sure you would notice a differance on that spine differance. Most arrows I have tested have similar results. Rotations nocks would probably help hence I index my arrows.

My current recurve which is a loan don't have spine indexed arrows but I am looking forward to building my own sets once I purchase my own bow. (Will buy a Dryad Orion RC ACS) in November.

[The Whittler]

You mean if I buy some $600 Olympic arrows I won't shoot any better.  :-)

I have been quoted several times in this thread. So here goes. I really only have experience with spine testing 2 different shafts. Gold Tip XT Hunter black shafts, .003 straightness (NOT blems), and Easton FMJ carbon/aluminum shafts, .002 straightness.

I shot the GT shafts for years. I was very successful with those shafts, both in competition and in hunting. BUT.........in nearly every dozen shafts I got (and there were a bunch over the years) there was 1 or 2 shafts that just did not act like the rest. I called them flyers.  I would weed them out and just use them for stump shooting and such, never for 3D or hunting. Some were so bad that I would just break them in two and throw them in the trash. When I first started shooting them, you could buy a dz shafts for about $50. They kept going up, and nowadays they are upwards of $100/dz.

3 years ago, or so, I picked up a very good RAM carbon arrow spine tester. I started testing all my shafts before I would build my arrows. I also indexed the nock on all my arrows to the stiff side of the shaft. Once I started spine testing the shafts, it was obvious why I had those flyers mentioned above. In any given dz of the shafts I would have most in about a .020 defection range, and then one or two that would be as much as .050 off from the group. I started buying dz's of shafts and sorting them into .010 spine groups, but the ones that were way whacked, I just threw in the corner. Once I started doing this, I NEVER had flyers like before.

It really bothered me that I was paying $95/dz for these shafts, and having to chunk some in the trash because they were no where close to the specs that they were supposed to be.

So I started to look to see if there was something better out there. I came across an unbeatable deal on a dz Easton FMJ shafts. Like I always did with the GT shafts, I put them on the spine tester to sort them out. The FMJ's are consistently more tight in both straightness and spine. To date, I have put about 5dz FMJ's thru the spine tester, bought at different times, from different sources. EVERY SINGLE SHAFT has been within a .015 spine range, with most in an .010 range, and I have never had a "flyer" with the FMJ's. The FMJ's are hands down a better, more consistent shaft. They should be though, because they about 30% more in cost than the GT's are.

Anyway, sorry I got so longwinded. Just wanted to tell my experience to those who were asking.

Bisch