Len, you got my curiosity up so I grabbed a selection of arrows at random out of my arrow bucket. 4 cedars, 4 carbons (Gold Tip Hunters) and 4 aluminums (Gamegetter II, 2315) and measured runout on the tip ends. I figured it was only fair to compare non-premium aluminum to non-premium carbon. Didn' t have any bare shafts and didn' t feel like stripping any off and refletching right now, so I did not check the nock ends. The measurement was taken just behind the shoulder of the inserts on the carbons and aluminums, right behind the back of point on the cedars. The tips were held constant at 4" from the near side support.

Results: The worst cedar was straight within +/- .003, or .006 TIR. On the aluminums, the needle hardly quivered on any of them, less than +/- .001, or less than .002 TIR. The carbons ran from +/- .004 to .008, or .008 to .016 TIR, avg. .011 TIR. Remember that these are full length shafts that I use for arrows, untrimmed.

Now I' m going to be forced by curiosity to strip the fletchings off some of the carbons and check that nock end.