c903 said "Excluding the fact that there are no REAL measurable advantages to using carbon shafts for hunting,"
Aside from lighter weight- I think JeffB noted the primary advantage of carbon arrows very succintly in his gigantic message...
ORIGINAL: JeffB
I did an interesting informal shaft memory test several weeks back using some Beman, CX, Goldtip, and Easton all carbon & carbon composite shafts...... 100% carbon shafts recovered from the bending before I even got them on the roller 99% of the time..
As to spine degradation, I think 95% of the confusion comes from a person not being careful to measure spine at the same place every time on an arrow. It is true that carbon arrows have greater variation in spine than aluminum, due to their construction. One arrow will have different measured spines depending on what axis it is deflected in. I think if anyone measured the same arrow on the same axis over time, they would see results dramatically different from what a casual observer would see...
As to using a dryer to try to bend a carbon shaft, it won't work. If you got the epoxy hot enough to change the orientation of the graphite fibers, you would ruin the arrow.