ah the age old question...wood, alum, or carbon.
They all have there merits.
Alum, we all know well enough about. You can buy one anywhere and its still the same arrow, and weights exactly the same.
For many reasons a carbon will out penetrate under most situations. If you could make a wood or alum with equal charactheristics, they would also do the same. Usually carbons even the weighted ones we have played with are to light. I am not a heavy heavy fan, but I also dont like to light. Also I feel the weights start screwing things up with arrow flight to some degree, atleast to the amount of mentioning when it comes to the amount of weight needed to get them acceptable. I have also heard to use fish air hose tubing cut to length and insert in the shaft....just to much work for me. It however must work as he has killed some whitetails that would make ya heart studder and a couple moose with them so he obviously has something.
Woodies, many ya gotta lovem. Its all I shoot since I started this "stint" in trad archery. But I tell ya something. When it comes to shooting EVERYTHING is in the arrow. Its THE MOST important piece of equipment you have!!! Ya shooting form and a few otherthings play into things...but if your arrows are off, forget it! You maybe close, but usually will never be consitent with them! Or you'll be consistently close. To get a good set takes some tools, a ton of knowledge, and or a ton of money. You can buy them outright, but just how do you know they are what they say they are? How close do you want to match them? Then you ask how durable? Well I have taken regular cedar arrows and shot them into a car door with Josh here. I was amazed! I knew they were good, but didnt know they were that good. Usually when a soft wood breaks, particularly cedar, its right behind the head or BOP. Cedar and other softwoods along with even some of the better hardwoods fail with glancing blows...then again so does most alum! If you want super durable, long lasting shafts, try Ash or Hickory. I have used ash enough to put them in the top 3 list, the other 2 being cedar and sitka spruce. If you can get your hands on SS its just a little more resiliant to breaking then cedar. It does seem a tad lighter however...not something the general stickbow chronies cares for, a light arrow. As long as it isnt TOOOO heavy or TOOO light (ie carbons in most cases), they work. Once I find a set that works, I try to sort through shafts to get the same weight and spine groups as before. Pretty simple..yes, but can you afford to buy shafts by the 100 or more, and start culling the rest? They make great flu flus or bird arrows but it can be a real pain!
Ct <BLOCKQUOTE id=quote<font size=1 face='Verdana, Arial, Helvetica' id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>The KE of a trad bow insn't the same as a compound so an errant shot probably wouldn't hurt them much. <hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote></font id=quote><font face='Verdana, Arial, Helvetica' size=2 id=quote>
You maybe humbly suprised what a stickbow is capable. You also need to factor, KE isnt the hole factor to the equation! There are other things at play. Espically when it comes to penetrating game animals as that is what I am personally worried most about. KE, like AMO or FPS and P&Y scores, have been pushed so hard for so long by the archery industry, it stands to reason why people use them so much. Take one of those nice alums out of my longbow I am sure within a shot or too I can havem looking like a snake! <img src=icon_smile_wink.gif border=0 align=middle>!