As a relative newbie myself, I'd go with aluminums to start. There's a certain romantic nostalgia with shooting wood, and when I first started, I bought a dozen beautiful wood arrows that shot great (or as great as a bad shot like myself can shoot!). Problem was, my poor shooting resulted in not only a few lost arrows, but also in the breakage of all the remaining wood arrows. I didn't know this at the time, but wood arrows (like carbon) can eventually splinter and explode during a shot, risking potential injury to the bow arm. A lot of my shots ended up missing the target and hitting concrete, hardened tree trunks and stumps, etc., weakening the wood arrows and resulting in small, almost imperceptible stress cracks (at least on those arrows that didn't end up breaking completely upon impact). So in about a 2 to 3 month's time, I eventually destroyed or lost all of them.
Aluminum, on the other hand, won't (or shouldn't) splinter and explode like wood or carbon, but they can still bend upon a hard impact or develop some kinks and dents if hit by another arrow. Still safer, though, in my opinion, to bend or kink aluminum than it is to have wood one explode and go through a bow arm. Of course, if the aluminum is kinked, or bent so badly that it can't be safely straightened, then it's lost, too, (I've bent and kinked quite a few that I've had to throw away!). But even with that, I've still found them to last longer than wood.
For the more experienced archers, though, wood should last longer simply because their shooting skills will be better and they won't miss and impact hardened stumps, walls, etc. as much. So for that reason, I'd wait until your shooting improves before trying wood.
Topic: wood vs aluminum (Read 822 times)
