Carbon Arrows
For outdoor shooting there's still nothing better Andrew Smith compares
Competitive archers are always looking for an advantage and constantly musing over how they can improve their equipment. Arrows are always high on the list with questions like: "can my choice of shaft buy me points, will one set of arrows be better than another, is one manufacturer the go to brand and how do I ensure that they are the right spine for me?" After all, you do not want to spend all those hours training to be let down by a crucial piece of equipment.
Arrows are the most important piece of equipment that you need to spend time getting right (after you have sorted out your draw weight). Choosing the wrong specification may end up being an expensive mistake and will reduce your scores.
Here I will look at all these questions and concerns to help you decide on the correct shaft. We will concentrate solely on the shaft choice, not all the other items that make up an arrow.
It cannot have escaped anyone's notice that for 22 years the most popular arrow shafts used by top internationals is the Easton X10. For competitive archers, is this still the go-to shaft, or are there other alternatives?
Two types of shaft
'Carbon shaft' is a catchall phrase to cover all carbon-constructed used today. Carbon arrow shafts come in two distinct flavours - 'allcarbon', made up of carbon and resin tubes, and shafts with carbon wrapped around the outside of a thin aluminium tube, usually called A/C shafts. Whilst there are now many companies that produce 'all-carbon' shafts, there is only one that produces A/C shafts Easton Archery.
Using carbon arrows in the UK
Before we start to consider the options, there is a unique situation briefly mentioned above relating to the UK, that needs to be addressed.
The Carbon Express Nano-pro Xtreme is a direct competitor with the X10
Most clubs in the UK shoot on multipurpose playing fields and usually somewhere in the small print of the terms of hire is a statement "all arrows must be found by the end of the shooting session." Consequently, many clubs in this position have banned the use of allcarbon shafts, mainly on the grounds that they are harder to find with a metal detector. However, regardless of local idiosyncrasies, all-carbon shafts cannot be banned at World Archery world record status (WRS) shoots, as it would make a nonsense of WRS status if legal equipment that can be used all over the world