Cleaning the shaft with a cleaner helps a bunch. I use lacquer thinner. Putting a dab of glue on the tip of the vane after it's applied helps too. They make tips to help ruduce the arrows penitration, just a thought. I don't use them anymore or shoot at ground targets oftenanymore either. Just a pain.Now if I had a long bow with a whole pile of shafts that were cheap and the bow a lot slower then we'd be talking.