I know it is getting close to many seasonsand it is practice practice for most of us so I thought I might bring up the subject of inspecting your arrow shafts for defects that might cause catastrophic failure. I personally shoot carbon shafts and have never had one that I would consider bad to throw away, or maybe I was not looking close enough. With that being said can you "Vetrans" give us any tips or tricks, are the cracks or flaws really difficult to see? I have read a lot of personal horror stories from exploding arrows and just want to remind you to all check your equipment.

I don't need to hear from all the people "that is why I use aluminum" been there done that.

I have had a couple that had cracks in them, if you shoot an arrow into something hard you might want to inspect it for cracks (esp. if you are shooting higher KE). That is how both of mine were cracked and the cracks were very small in size. I have found these two arrows over the last ten years, it doesn't happen often but it does happen....

Did you have to bend or distort the shaft to be able to see them or did you just notice them on careful inspection.

I run my thumbnail all the way around each end of the shaft, by both the nock and insert, checking for small, hard to see cracks. Then I flex the shaft and hold it that way while I roll it in my fingers, looking for a spot that suddenly flexes more, or to see if there are any cracks. At the same time I'm listening to see if the shaft makes any cracking noises. If it passes those tests, it goes in the quiver. If not, I remove the nock and point and toss it in the busted arrow bucket to use for tomato stakes.

If you've got an arrow with a nock that used to fit well but is suddenly loose, then that's a good tip-off that you've got an arrow that's cracked at the nock end.

No, I did not bend or distort the arrow in any way, I just found them with careful inspection....