One of our club's trads wanted to try carbon arrows out of his longbow, so I took a handful of my old ones (that I hated anyway) for him to experiment with last night. Should have seen the look on his face when he dumped the string with that first carbon!<img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle> He was amazed at the shock and noise. After 7-8 shots, he didn't want any more of that stuff.

Frank is correct about the other things that could have affected your shock/noise level, but the difference in arrow weight is the main culprit.