Stalkingbear, you are welcome to your opinion. My opinion is based on over 50 years of shooting -hunting and competition- with wood, fiberglass, aluminum, carbon, aluminum cored carbon and carbon/fiberglass composite arrows. I have been a year-round shooter for many years, shooting literally thousands of arrows each year. I've broken and worn out my fair share of arrows. I've also done destructive testing, shooting concrete blocks to see how tough carbons are vs aluminum. So, even though it might be my opinion, it is based on my expriences. So, I firmly stand by my comment.

I know for a fact that sometimes it takes a whole lot of impact to ruin ANY arrow. Sometimes it seems like the tiniest little dink will completely tear one up. It depends completely on the way the arrow impacts and the million and one tiny variables that go into making up that incident. That goes for any arrow made from any kind of material. If you make judgements based on one isolated incident, you are drawing false conclusions.

These wrapped carbons we've got today are definitely far better with durability than the old pultruded ones were. Maybe you've been around long enough to remember those? These wrapped ones snap in two, might toothbrush out a bit, but they most definitely do not shatter into long slivers like those pultruded ones did. I think I'd still cut out the meat for several inches around the wound channel if a carbon broke while going through the animal though, just to be on the safe side. That's one thing you don't have to worry about with aluminum.

Another point, if you hit what you're aiming at, you don't have to worry about arrows breaking when they bounce off rocks and trees. When it comes to putting an arrow exactly where I want it, I have a lot more faith in the arrow to arrow consistency of aluminum arrows than I do with carbon. So an aluminum will bend or break when a deer falls over on it, or smacks it into a tree while it's running off. Big deal! By that time, it's done it's job. I might be a cheapskate but not so much of one that I expect to use an arrow again after it's made it's kill. Any arrow I can use after it's made a kill is just icing on the cake.

A major thing with me.... With aluminum, if I miss I know it is my fault. With carbon, I can never be quite sure because, on a number of occasions, I've had a carbon arrow go bad on me from one shot to the next.

Carbons got popular because of their lightness and speed, making mistakes in yardage estimation on long shots less costly on the 3D course. In the woods, there are no rules saying we can't use rangefinders. There are no rules saying we have to shoot from this stake right here. We can get as close as we want before taking the shot. We can (and, I think, we are ethically obliged to) use a rangefinder to know the exact distance to an animal before we loose an arrow at it. There should be no such thing as shooting at an unknown distance at long range in a hunting situation. When I know the distance, an aluminum arrow has an advantage over carbon. Again, due to it's much better consistency.

With carbons, to get consistency and straightness anywhere close to that of even inexpensive alumninum arrows, you have to go way up the price scale. Between el cheapo carbons and aluminums in the same price range, there is no contest. Aluminums are far and away the better arrows.

Carbon's advantages are vastly overblown and so are the disadvantages of aluminum.