I decided not to tempt fate and try to "improve" the near perfect results I had with Black Death. My standard ICS Hunters were grouping better than any bow I shot them out of previously, despite all the wobbly. But I only had a few left, and needed to get some new arrows soon.

Lo and behold, my dealer just got in his first shipment of ICS Hunter Elites- first time I had seen these shafts and I have to admit I have (despite some issues) always had a soft spot for Beman ever since the pre-Easton days. I'm a sucker for Beman arrows. $-wise ($100 per doz. bare shafts) I felt these would give me the best combo of spine consistency (SAS and arrows to arrow) and straightness- assuming they held up to tolerance. I've messed with IDK how many dozens of the things and I've yet to see a bad dozen of ICSH for spine- the vast majority are well within my own acceptable range- the real issue with them is straightness and over time they can lose some spine and/or take a set (heavy use on 3D targets are bad news for any easton C2 or Axis type construction, IME)

So how do these Elites hold up for straightness?

Out of the packaging at full length, I've seen much better. A/C/C, CX Maxima Selects, CT XP series. While these Elites are much better than an average dozen of regular ICS Hunters- I'm not sure the "Elite" moniker is appropriate. Here is the rundown-

I got 5 shafts that were absolutely dead nuts A/C/C end to end straight. Not a wobble to be seen. def "Elite"

5 shafts had some slight nock end runout/wobble. Not horrid, but def not "Elite"

2 shafts had slight point end wobble like the nock end ones- more of the "not quite Elite" grade.

To be fair, Beman measures this (+/-) .001 straightness over a 28" span only. And lord knows how much runout past that span is the issue on most all carbon arrows. That said, I felt after spinning these that taking the middle 28" of each would make the .002 TIR for nearly all of them.

So I went to work, and cut off the nock end 2.25" from all 12 shafts, and then cut them as normal from the point end to my finished length- which is 27 3/4" of bare shaft.

If they were long enough I'd take them back to the shop on Monday (tomorrow) night and get actual measurements on the RAM but theya re too short, and it's pretty obvious all of them now would hit that tolerance- 10 of the arrows are as straight as anything I've owned, and the other 2 have a very slight wobble on the nock end. I'd still be pretty confident putting fixed blades on those 2 (if I shot fixed blades). In essence I doubled the number of shafts that are more than acceptable by cutting them how I did. Considering the cost and past experience, I'm happy with the end result. My yield was similar to or better than what I would get with a typical doz of Goldtip Pros or original CX 3D Selects.

So my advice would be to spin before you buy if possible- Or, if you have a finished arrow length greater than 28", I'd reccomend you pay the extra $25 for Carbon Tech XP, Maxima Selects, etc.

Heres a couple pics I snapped- I fletched them up yesterday with AAE Max Hunters and they (for now) have Easton 3D Super nocks- I'll likely be installing some Bohning Blazer/Double lock nocks as I prefer the string fit of those.