First, dealers do NOT make the product. Like all things, no matter what product you purchase, there will be a certain percentage of " cheese" , no manufacturer is dead nuts perfect, anywhere. In arrows and shafts, this usually ends up being anywhere from one or two out of a dozen on the straightest .001 shafts, to as many as 4 or 5 on the lesser shafts/arrows.

Fact---MOST of my hunting customers could give a rat about straightness tolerances. Most are looking for an " inexpensive" hunting arrow. Thus most buy the " lesser" straightness tolerance arrows, .006 or so, due to price more than anything else. It is up to each individual to decide for themselves what he/she wants to shoot, we dealers can only give our opinions of what we feel is best. Tournament shooters and serious hunters go for a bit better shaft/arrow, granted---these guys can choose .001 tolerance shafts from practically any company, even " selects" that are hand chosen and bundled in dozens with even tighter tolerances. Those huge conglomerate arrow companies that have their stuff built in china now and only cater to those mega-stores who sell 5 bllion shafts/arrows per year are certainly not concerned about this, they only care about the dollars they bring in, so there is really little we dealers can do except maybe offer alternative products which we feel will do a better job to those who feel they want to shoot the better arrows. If everyone starts falling into line here, not only will there be true " Pro-shops" continuing on in the future, but maybe the comglomerates will wake up and find that there is much more to this industry than simply how many million units you can sell the fastest. (megastores) I look at it this way---if the true Pro-shops fall, and you are only left with the larger megastores, WHO is going to work on equipment for one, and WHO is going to give two cents about any quality issues then? Answer---NO-ONE.[] Unfortuntely there are currently major archery-industry companies trying to force us " normal" dealers right out of the industry by giving substantial " breaks" to the megastores. There are far less Pro shops today than there were 5 years ago, and sadly this trend will continue until we squash the beast that has become the Pro-shops enemy.


Another point of contention--

A .001 arrow is a .001 arrow, doesn' t matter if it' s aluminum, carbon, wood, glass, whatever. The alternating factor is what the arrow is made of, and the way it is built---aluminum bends easily, so a .001 arrow that takes a good schmuck or hits a target at an angle will then quickly become .040. A pultruded carbon arrow with unidirectional fibers built with a lesser process will of course lose it' s spine quicker than an arrow made of biased-wrapped construction and newer, better manufacturing processes. Technology moves forward, and I have a hard time belieiving that anyone truly believes that todays' arrow designs are weaker or give out quicker than those of yesteryear, if they do I feel they have been asleep for a dozen years or so, hehe. Wood worked fine, fiberglass worked better, aluminum worked better, pultruded shafts worked better. Biased-wrapped carbon works better still also.

More later. Pinwheel 12