RE: Arrow question?
I shot Beemans out of a longbow for quite a while, back when those were the only carbon arrows around. Two things you will need to watch for--enough arrow weight and proper nock fit. Take them to an archery shop if you don't have a grain scale--you'll want at least 8 grains of arrow weight per lb. of draw weight (if you are pulling 50#, you'll want a finished arrow that weighs at least 400 grains, or real close). Nock fit may be a different story--you may have to do a little bit of adjusting to the nock or your serving size, since those arrows won't usually accept just any old nock.
For my part, I don't worry about what folks consider "trad"--I'm going to shoot what I like and what works for me. My laminatedbowsare made from modern materials, my strings are made from one of the mosthigh-tech materials available,and my wood shafts are made on high-tech machinery.Even my selfbow was made using modern tools. I'm not about to chew a bow and arrow out with my teeth or scratch one out with a sharp stone, and I don't have the time or experience to flake out a broadhead; I don't hunt in a loincloth with the rest of my "tribe", soI don't feel qualified to determine what is traditional for someone else. There are some things that were traditional for some people that I want no part of--like chasing a herd of buffalo over the side of a cliff--but I'm not dependant on buffalo meat to feed my family either.
Lots of traditional shooters are going to carbon arrows, and a lot of tournaments are allowing them in competition. I'd bet my bow that if carbons had been around during their time the English, Indians, Turks, Asians, Fred Bear, Howard Hill, Pope and Young, etc. would have shot them. I still love my wood arrows, but as the price of wood shaftskeeps increasing and my spare time to devote to buildingwood arrowsdecreases,carbons are looking better and better to me also.
Chad