HCH - I had a Beman ICS blow up on me once. Like you, I was lucky and didn't get hurt.

It was actually during bow season when the ICS carbon wrap arrows first came out (maybe 6-8 years ago). I drew on a buck and let him walk into a clearing at about 10 yards - when I hit the release, I just heard a loud snap, and it felt like my bow dry-fired.

I was looking to figure out what happened when I saw what was left of my white feathered cresting fluttering down out of the air, maybe 10-15 yards out. I never did find the other half of the arrow (the broadhead half), but I was able to recover the nock end. It looks like mine broke about the same point as yours, just forward of the front of the feathers. It was a fairly clean break, but that was scary.

I scrapped the rest of the dozen and went back to heavy aluminums, which were also en vogue at the time.

Finally, about four years ago, I regained the courage to go back to carbon arrows - Gold Tip XT - which have performed flawlessly.

I will never shoot a beman arrow again, and that buck should send a personal Thank-You letter to the good people at Beman.