Picked up a dozen of the Easton ST AXIS arrows yesterday at the shop (size 400 to be precise). So far, I'm EXTREMELY impressed with these shafts.

Outside diameter is hair shy of 17/64. They make my 3-49's seem fat . Finish is exactly the same as the Beman ICSH and Easton C2 shafts...VERY quiet and smooth (and needs to be roughed up a bit for best fletching adhesive)

I did not weigh the whole dozen but 1/2 of them were all within 1 grain of each other (bare shafts). Advertised tolerance is +/- 2 grains.

I do not have access to an arrow straightener with a dial guage at the current time, but these arrows are very impressive in that realm too. I spun all of the bare shafts and compared them to several brand new A/C/C 3-71's shafts I have, and the ST Axis compared quite well overall. 3 of the full length shafts had a bit of wobble on one end or the other, but overall straightness is quite good.

I cut them to 28" (27 &1/2" of actual shaft) and they spun as straight as anything on the market. Again I was very impressed.

I fletched them up w/ a full left helical using three 4" duravanes ( put a drop-away on my Liberty over the weekend). I mean this is serious helical. From behind, the fletches look like a motorboat prop

Installation of the inserts is actually quite easy. Easier than I expected.

Once cut to length, you chamfer the insert end of the arrow with the included tool which also squares off the face of the shaft. You put a small dab of epoxy on the end of the insert..push the insert in and rotate it to be flush, then use the insert tool to push it to the proper depth. When you remove the insert tool it also cleans up any excess epoxy on the inside. Very easy.

Easton supplies a 24 hour epoxy. I let them sit overnight and was shooting them this morning. I at least recommend 12 hours before fooling with them. I did try to screw in a point at 4 hours of drying time and the insert was still not set. I suspect you could use a shorter set time epoxy (5 minute or 12 hour) however those may be too brittle and if the insert were to come loose it will be hard to get back out unless it came loose with a point in it already. I prefer the peace of mind w/ 24 hour epoxy.

My Liberty was set up for 3-49's and so they were shooting a bit low due to the smaller diameter. However groups were very impressive at 25 yards..as tight as my 3-49s.

Now the thing I'd been worried about was since you cannot install the insert with a point already in..would the inside diamters be consistent enough that you wouldn't need to, and broadhead alignment (as the advertising says) would indeed be much easier and more precise.

So I grabbed 3 of the NAP new Razorback 100s I've had laying around. I'd fooled with them for hours before trying to get them to spin straight on my Goldtip XTs to no avail (poor concentricity of components and/or ID tolerance on the GTs). They just wobbled no matter how hard I tried.

Well..I was floored when I screwed the 3 razorbacks into my 3 completed arrows and they all spun PERFECT. I mean as pretty as you've ever seen. I even tried the 3 broadheads on different arrows to see if I just lucked out. Every head spun perfect on every arrow.

So..the acid test..and the ST AXis' passed w/ flying colors. My point of impact was slightly low due to the diameter variation (need to move my rest up a tad) but out to 25 yards they all flew perfectly left and right. Very consistent.

Hopefully I'll be able to shoot 'em at some longer distances w/ broadheads during the holidays for further testing.

My dealer has also had the same excellent results and immediately switched from his CX300s. One thing he noticed was that even though he experienced a drop in speed of about 12 FPS due the ST's heavier weight, his sight settings at 30 and 40 yards got much tighter. Looks like there may be less downrange velocity decay w/ these Axis ST shafts. I'm also going to see what I can find out about this phenomena through testing

My only nitpicks are the nock..nothing wrong with it per-se...but I'd prefer a bushing...plus, it seems the new X nock is only available in the color orange..blech.. we need some green, yellow, red, and white nocks Easton! You listening?

If these ST AXIS can hold their tolerances and prove durable, I believe this is going to be a truly exceptional, and innovative hunting shaft, and will likely make it into my quiver for the 2004 hunting season. They are very accurate, and broadhead alignment so far has proven effortless other than the time to install the inserts.

Will keep coming out w/ updates as I test them more, and fletch up more new ones.