Good discussion here.

A couple of things I’d like to add and/or elaborate upon...

As Len has made mention of, the push in nocks for carbons are bad news. They are particularly bad for Carbon Express and Beman because they have the smallest inside diameters of the Big Three manufacturers. Goldtips are not as bad because they are sized just a touch bigger (.246 vs. .243 for CX, and .244 for Bemans). If you remember, Carbon Express originally came with Bohnings Signature nock. These were HORRENDOUS because they were a shade too big, and people were cracking the shafts left and right just putting the nocks in. You can hear ‘em crack when you do it. Soon after CX designed their own smaller diameter nock. Easton Supernocks are just as bad because they have a small tab that increases the diameter slightly on them so they will stay secure and not become loose. With the generally poor tolerances of all carbon shafts, which can vary in inside diameter, it made for some really tight fits (causing cracking) or it was not tight enough and eventually you’d shoot your arrow, and your nock was still attached to the string. Bemans were especially bad for this in the beginning though not as bad in recent days.

This is why I ALWAYS stress that folks use unibushings. Not only do they protect from nock end hits, they never are too large in diameter to where they will crack a shaft installing them. In our shop we do a lot of business w/ Carbon Express and we prefer the Redline 410/360 uni’s as they seem to fit a little more snug, AND they are twice as long as an ACC bushing, providing further reinforcement on the fairly brittle nock ends of CX shafts (CX’s are the least structurally sound I’ve found for nock end hits). The Bemans are tougher to work with because the Redline bushings and the 3-60 bushings are a tad too small, so you usually want to install using a slow set glue or epoxy, and spin test them like you would an insert. The ACC and Redline bushings are way too loose in Goldtip shafts, but luckily Goldtip makes their own uni specifically for their shafts (which unfortunately is too tight in the Bemans)

Installing uni’s is the best investment you can make for your arrows longevity. You won’t crack any installing nocks, and they will take some serious abuse from nock end hits. It’s about another 12 to 14 bucks for a dozen bushings and a dozen G-nocks, but worth every darn penny (plus the .098 G-nock is just a better nock for fit on most center servings these days: super nocks and bohnings are way too tight on most strings). I won’t shoot without them.

I have had some arrows go out while shooting them. Beman ICSH used to be bad for this. I’ve had several arrows in some older dozens that would shoot great for a couple of weeks, and then after shooting them fine, just one time I’d walk down to the target, pull ‘em, and they would go haywire after that. And of course I’ve had plenty that while in the target they would take a glancing blow from another, and then would not shoot well after that despite no apparent damage.

I’ve been saying it for a long time, but in the vast majority of cases, you get what you pay for when you skimp on arrows. Cheap carbons suck. I see guys who say they shoot great, but I’ve watched many of these guys shoot, and while I’m no Dave Cousins, the arrows are the least of their worries. Baseball to softball sized groups w/ mech broadheads out to 25 or 30 yards are not a good indicator of shafting quality. Quarter sized groups are. The problem is compounded when you attach a conventional broadhead, no-one has made sure the inserts are in straight, and you have virtually no fletch control (straight fletch low profile vanes, which is the way a lot of shops fletch or buy from distributors ‘cos it’s easier and saves time). However if you A: Purchase some good quality shafting. B: learn how to build arrows properly, C: tune your shooting system (including yourself), and D: insure you have a good amount of control from the fletches , you can get moderate to smaller profile fixed blade heads to fly well. The problem I see is guys buying cheap arrows that are poorly built. They just screw on a thunderhead 125, skewer their outside air conditioning unit then go buy mechs or go back to aluminums..well…duh! Of course you are not going to get good broadhead flight with poorly made shafts, a bad fletch job, and a big broadhead...

While finding the high spine point and fletching your cock feather on all arrows is the best way to do things, you can often make a few seemingly unacceptable shafts pull into your group simply by rotating the nocks. This works very well for those shooting a drop-away or WB because you can minutely adjust the nocks 1/16” (and sometimes this all you need) and not worry about it. On prong style rests you just rotate to the next fletch, and hope for the best. But oftentimes this little trick can pull a “bad arrow” that is out by 6” or so back into your group. I recently had to do this with some Blackhawk ACC copies (so-so arrows in my experience). 3 of the half dozen arrows grouped, 3 were out anywhere from 3 to 7” @ 20 yards. I rotated the nock on each one to a different vane and managed to pull them all into a decent group. One would still consistently fly right 1”. But a 2” group is much better than an 8” one.

I should mention though I’ve been shooting some recently manufactured Goldtip XT shafts and have been thoroughly impressed with them for a mid-range price arrow shafting. Goldtip has definitely upped the Quality Control, as these XT’s shoot very (all of them, after tweaking the nocks) even at longer ranges. I plan to experiment further with them in the future, after basically giving up on them after getting a few horrid dozens in recent years. I will certainly post my findings.