Bowhunting Equipment

Carbon vs. Aluminum Arrows :: Strictly Bowhunting :: Strictly ...


A good deal all around that has proven to be just the ticket for my bow set-up.Keep in mind that there are many opinions about equipment choices. A good number of the non-compound archers have adopted aluminum as their arrow shaft material of choice, due to it's availability and durability in comparison to wood. According to the United States Geological Survey, Aluminum is the second most abundant metallic element in the earth's crust, with Silicon taking top honors. Aluminum Arrows Posted by: TomBowBow-on Monday, August 22, 2005 - 12:11 AM The evolution of the arrow shaft began when the first bow and arrow set was invented. Aluminum arrows are commonplace and hold a good portion of the arrow shaft market. Aluminum arrows can be straightened but I think that once you bend an arrow, you weaken the shaft at the inside-bend. Aluminum shafts provided greater consistency of weight, balance and arrow flight, when compared to the wooden shafts used by archers previously.In 1969, Holless Wilbur Allen was granted a U.S. Aluminums will slap together in the target and you can tell by the sound of the impact that one or both of the shafts will be damaged; carbon proved, to me, it's durability over aluminum.I enjoyed the carbon shafts quite a bit. And the price was about � of the C-E 300's. Arrows used with releases require a shaft with a stiffer spine than finger-shot arrows because there is less flexing required to provide good arrow flight. Bottom line: decide for yourself what works best for you and keeps your confidence in your equipment high. Cabela's Stalker Extreme 55/70 shafts were the answer for me. Carbon arrow shaft production evolved to produce spiral fiber-wrapping and cross weaving of the carbon which increased the durability and strength of the carbon. Carbon arrows have the ability to maintain their straightness. Carbon arrows were first developed, again by Easton Archery, in 1983. Changes in aluminum arrow shafts have been few ever since as XX-75's continue to dominate the market and most archers start off using the XX-75 shafts. Changes in thickness of shaft walls and the diameter of the shafts will effect the spine of the arrow shaft, as will arrow shaft length and the weight of the arrow head used by the archer. Due to the narrower shaft, I had to change my launchers on my prong-style rest so the shafts will not fall through. Easton aluminum has provided all archers with the "Easton Arrow Shaft Selection chart", which shows which of their shaft sizes should be used, based on details such as the type of bow, type of compound bow cam, arrowhead weight and draw weight and draw length. Easton Aluminum produced the first trademarked arrows in 1946, model no. Easton uses a 4 digit number to identify their aluminum shafts. Fletching contact was the big issue as the narrow shafts left very little room for arrow because the rest prongs were so close together.A couple years later, I was lucky enough to win some Carbon Express 300 shafts, a whole dozen, in a raffle at a bow-league banquet. I began to do some calculating and study of arrow physics, particularly kinetic energy and momentum. I decided to look for a happy medium between the ultra-light carbons and the heavier aluminums. I did pick up some tighter groups and only broken nocks stopped me from using them. I had just purchased a new bow and the overdrawn 300s picked up 25 fps for me in bow-speed over the aluminum arrows, due to their light weight. I have switched exclusively to carbon arrows and don't see any reason to go back, in my opinion. If the stiffness (spine) of the arrow shaft is too low, the forces applied to the shaft when the bowstring is released can cause the arrow shaft to break. I'll admit I wasn't the tuning "expert" that I am now, (said with tongue planted firmly in cheek) but I had a difficult time with these shafts getting them to fly right. In 1955, the popular XX-75 arrow shafts were added to Easton's arrow line. In comparison to the 2413 XX75 Superlites (aluminum) that I was using at the time, the Beman's were about twice the price, half the diameter and two-thirds the weight. In contrast, I personally have a collection of aluminum shafts, in a box in a back room, that have are no longer useable because they have been bent or dinged by other arrows when shooting. In contrast, non-compound bows apply a steady amount of energy to the arrow when the bowstring is released and travels forward. It became obsolete as a shaft material with the advent of the compound bow, although it is still used today by traditional (non-compound) archers. It has been said that "they're either straight or their broken". It is about 1/3 the weight, by volume, of steel or copper and is more easily machined and cast. It took patience to find the right material to fashion arrows from which will yield good, consistent arrow flight For 1000's of years, man used wood to make his arrows. It was easy to obtain but required proper manufacture and a lot of testing to come up with a wooden shaft which flew well consistently. It was found that when the first metals, such as bronze, copper and iron, were used as arrow shafts, they were much too heavy and will fly only short distances. It's a confidence-in-your-equipment issue.I tried carbon arrows first when I decided to splurge on some skinny Beman's 5 years ago. Jackson's Archery website provides arrow weight calculators for various brand- shafts, aluminum and carbon, kinetic-energy calculators, FOC (front of center) calculators based on point-weight used and momentum charts. James Easton continued to develop production techniques which will yield a more consistent aluminum arrow shaft. James Easton, and other metallurgists, had the technical knowledge required to measure the stiffness or "spine" of an arrow shaft which will be consistent throughout the shaft due to the manufacturing process. Light arrows will lose momentum quicker that heavier arrows. Metallic aluminum was first produced by a Danish chemist, Hans Oersted, in 1825. Not to say that carbon is better than aluminum if that's what you shoot and it works well for you. Now that we have an idea of arrow flight characteristics let's look at the advantages of shaft materials. Odahlen-HinzTom BrisseeRobert Di Palma Classifieds No ad Who is Online Currently no members online.You are an anonymous user. Patent on his invention of the compound bow, which revolutionized archery in the United States. Release aids minimize the amount of string movement from side to side and add consistency because the string movement is the same with each shot. Slow motion film techniques have helped us study these issues to understand the reasons why. Some archers still use wood but, like all of man's activities, study and innovation resulted in improvements to the materials used to make arrows, as well as bows and bow accessories.The first step up from wood was aluminum. Sure, there were early problems but this occurs in the early stages of any new innovation. The aluminum arrow story begins in 1939 when James Easton first began to experiment with aluminum as an arrow-shaft material. The arrow shaft will also flex as the bowstring travels forward. The arrows are produced by Beman, and have internal components. The compound bow also possesses the ability to be adjustable in draw weight. The correct arrow spine will allow for the shaft to handle the paradox and stop flexing a short distance after it has left the bow which will yield good arrow flight as the feathers of the arrow control it's flight. The momentum charts show the theoretical KE downrange from the bow at various distances. These arrows were much closer in diameter to the aluminums and had internal-shaft nocks and inserts just like the aluminums. These metals became useful as points for arrows as they can be more easily sharpened than stones, which were originally used as arrow points. They are a larger diameter shaft, compared to the Beman's that I used previously, so there was no issue with fletching contact and their weight was lighter than aluminum shafts of the same length, but heavier than my previous carbon shafts. They had outserts to screw the points into, external-shaft nocks and the fletching just barely fit on the shaft to allow clearance through the rest. This flexing of the arrow shaft is know as "archer's paradox". This has made it easy for the average archer to determine which aluminum shaft(s) will work well with their bow, simply by using the Easton chart. This invention also helped to give greater value to the aluminum arrow shaft. This makes them relatively inexpensive and easily replaced when needed, simply by going to the local bow shop or ordering them through a mail order catalog. This number is actually 2 2-digit numbers; the first number indicates the outside diameter of the arrow shaft in sixty-fourths of an inch and the second number indicates the wall thickness of the shaft in thousandths of an inch. This will require a greater selection of arrow spines as draw weight changes will change the forces applied to the arrow shaft. Through experimentation, it was found that a straight arrow shaft will fly more accurately than a shaft which was less straight. Two years later, Larry Hughes was the first archer to win the American National Archery Championship while using aluminum arrows. When a compound bow is drawn, the amount of effort used by the archer increases as the bowstring is drawn back and then drops off during approximately the final 3rd of the total draw length, known as let-off. When carbon arrow shafts were first introduced and hunters became aware of their existence, rumors began to fly that the shafts were brittle and , when broken, they will splinter into long, sharp, pine-needle-like fragments. When the bowstring is released and the energy stored in the limbs is applied to the arrow: the bowstring travels forward and the maximum amount of energy is applied quckly to the arrow at the strings let-off point. When the bowstring is released by the archer's fingers, the string will move around the fingers horizontally in one direction and then correct itself by moving in the other direction as it travels forward. Wood began as the material of choice because it can be shaped and straightened into arrow shafts. Wood was the first material to be used for arrow shafts. Wood was used as the sole material for arrow shafts until man discovered that metals can be mined from the earth, heated and molded into a desired shape. Wooden shafts, due to their natural inconsistency in stiffness, will possibly explode into splinters if fired from a compound bow.