How do ya'll inspect carbon arrows before shooting? Just visually or do you tweak them a little bit and see if there is a noticable creaking?

The reason I ask, I was shooting last night and had looked at my arrows they seemed ok. But one shot hit the target and folded over. It had broke on impact about 4 inches down from the nock. it was Beaman hunter it flew accurately and hit where i was aiming. I know it made me nervous and I'm awful glad it didn't break upon release.

Just curious... have you re-fleched these arrows before? I had a similar thing happen to the GT Hunter. I am still trying to figuring out what happened.

No they were never re-fletched.

I had an arrow blow up upon release one time. Scared the heck out of me. What I think happened is I must have nicked it with another arrow while shooting tight groups. Needless to say, I no longer shoot tight groups. Every arrow gets it's own spot. I don't want them shooting near another arrow.

I know that Gold tips have a stamping on them saying " Flex it first". It shows 2 hands bending the arrow. http://www.goldtip.com/company/safety.htm

I have not gotten in the habit of doing this yet though.[&:]

My arrows came with the same instruction though I wonder how far you'd have to bend them. It would seem to me that you'd have to bend them pretty strongly to know for sure.

Tom

I broke an Axis St arrow just last night. I didn't know it was broken until I flex tested it. When I did, it crackled just ever so slightly. A little more pressure caused it to snap just in front of the fletching.

You don't have to bend them too much to find out if they are cracked, but you do want to try and flex it from the very ends as most often the cracks will be towards the ends where the arrows colided. A cracked carbon arrow will definitely make a cracking noise when you flex it.

I'm in the habit of flexing each arrow in two directions right after I pull it out of the target. I just grab it from the nock and the point and flex it with my thumbs

If I have two hit really close together, I'll flex each one in four directions and a little harder than usual.


NOTE: Always bend them away from you and from anything else you don't want to stick sharp carbon fibers in!!!!! LIke your friends, your kids, your dogs, your vegetable garden.....

I've had that happen twice to me using Beeman Hunter's 400. I use the Elite's for hunting same weight per inch just better tollerance.