How significant is a too long shaft?

[Naphtali]

I have a short draw length. What, if anything, happens if my shafts are "too long" for my 26.5 inches? At what additional shaft length do problems kick in?

[vermonster13]

Don't worry about length. Much more important to get them spined right for your bow and if they need to be long to do it, so be it. Accuracy kills not aesthetics.

[John Scifres]

If you gap shoot (consciously or unconsciously), it's pretty important.  More important than a specific length is to have them all the same.  I will often adjust spine with length for a set of arrows but stick with the same length for a certain bow for a certain period of time.  It lets me "set" my eye that way.

[Rick McGowan]

Agreed as long as they are all the same length and the correct spine it dosn't matter at all and if you don't gap shoot it only matters if they are the correct spine. I have some very heavy arrows that just happened to be perfect in everyway, BUT are a couple inches longer than they need to be, it was easier to leave them that way, rather than re-engineer them and they are the best flying arrows I have ever shot.

[Naphtali]

AHA! I understand, guys. Thanks.

[Dick in Seattle]

my draw is 25" and I shoot 28" arrows.    most of the bows I shoot a lot are clustered around the 45# to 50# range and It just happened that I found a good spine match at that length early on.   It seemed to make sense to stay at the one length and remove at least that variable from things.  I have never varied the arrow length.  I did switch from alums to homemade woods, but again, stayed at 28".  

I hope that no one will tell me now that that was a mistake and if I had gone to 27 1/2" my groups would tighten up and I'd shoot like Byron Ferguson...  ^)

dick in seattle

[carphunter100]

I have a 26" draw and shoot a 29" arrow and they fly great. Spine and arrow flight is what you are after. Don't worry about the lenght.

[JRY309]

As long as your arrows are tuned to your bow I see nothing wrong.With wood or aluminum there are so many spines to pick from I like to get my arrows an 1" to 1&1/4" longer then my draw.But with carbons you adjust spine by shortening the shaft.Most of my carbons end up 2" to 3" longer trying to get the right combo of spine and total weight.