arrows again
 

So a couple of weeks ago i asked about deer crossing archery and the owner actually took time to respond to me. i haven't pulled the trigger on getting them yet like i planned on but i think i am soon. before i do i was looking for some reviews that anybody had. Does anyone know if they are worth $50? they are 100% carbon and i ran into some guys shooting them that said they were very straight and really strong. Just need some reassurance before buying them. is there anyplace to get them other than www.deercrossingarchery.com? some used ones that somebody is selling so i dont have to spend $50 on a dozen?

$50 per dozen is a pretty decent price for carbon arrows... just something to think about.

My carbons I shoot are $112 a dozen so if your worried about paying $50 a dozen not sure why. Thats a great price and not sure you can even buy aluminum arrows for that anymore. Not any decent ones anyhow. Anyways thats an incredibly good price. Hell I pay $90 a dozen just for my carbon Xbow bolts and their half the size. Good luck

What arrows are you shooting? the guys i was talking to were saying that these shot just like their carbon express blue and red streaks. are those good arrows?

I personally haven't used them but the guys on archerytalk.com love them.

DCA does have good prices. Seriously, you're going to be hard pressed to get used arrows for $50/doz.

I shoot CE Blue Maximas. I can tell a big difference between them and cheaper carbon arrows. Don't know about the ones you are talking about, but at $50, I doubt they shoot as good as the CE blue or red. To answer your question, yes, they are great arrows, but they run about $14 to $15 apiece.

Random thought:

Does anyone know who winds their shafts? There really aren't THAT many places that actually manufacture carbon shafts, and even fewer that manufacture high quality shafts (part of the process for which is producing a TON of shafts, selling off the culls, and letting someone else throw their brand name on them).

Not saying that DCA's are low quality, I have zero experience with them. I'm just curious as to whom is actually producing them?

Oh, I forgot...

I shoot GoldTip Velocity Pro 300's. My "practice arrows" are Gold Tip Hunter XT 7595's or 300's. The Velocity Pro's cost an arm and a leg, I rarely-if ever-shoot groups with them, and I spend a long time walking to find them if I shoot one into the brush. BUT, they are worth it in terms of accuracy (flight regularity from one shaft to the next) and durability (shoot one into a target 1,000+ times and it still rolls straight as the day I bought it).

If you don't have high expectations from your arrows, then you don't need "pro" level arrows. Hunters don't NEED $2000+ bows, don't need heavy barreled rifles or $2000 scopes. Some hunters DO hunt at ranges or conditions that do NEED that level of precision. If you're that person, then you need better than $50 arrows. If the DCA's were equivalent to their competitions high end shafts, then DCA would be charging 3 times as much for their arrows, just like their competitors.

They say they are "imported" but assembled in the USA. The are rated at .001" tolerance.

Sounds like a good buy to me. The ones I shoot run about $175 a dozen

Always used beman arrows. I bought 12 dozen hand dipped crest for 84.99 on ebay brand new. 6 arrows at stores around here are 49.99 so I think I got a steal.

Thanks for the headsup
 

Saved it on my carbon arrow computer post. Not in the market right now. But been using less expensive things for years.
Quality is quality, but less is sometimes near enough. And there's an art in finding those. And someone always buys the top of the line. And I welcomed that, even if it wasn't me.

So I got some arrows from DCA. I ended up getting some SD hunters for my elk trip that i just got back from and some regular hunters for whitetail season.

These are NOT cheep arrows by any means that i've noticed. They are just inexpensive.

I think a good shooter can group some cheep walmart arrows good at 20 yards, but 35, 40 50 ect, is where you start to realize that they are not that great. I have my DCAs sighted in for over 60 yards and they still fly like a dart. I don't see anything with the arrow that wouldn't make it well over $100 a dozen.

They fly right out of my bow. It feels right. it might not for others, but I know that my bow sure shoots them great. I'm not ever going to pay more when I can get just as good quality for less. Thanks Deer crossing!

I bought a dozen a few months ago, price was great and they shoot as good as I do. I normally shoot Bemans and they shoot as good to me.

Hi BrimBuster, I'm the Sales Manager for Deer Crossing Archery.

I'm glad you liked the arrows and I hope you had good success with them through out the span of the season. I was searching around some forums and I came across this thread.

To anyone else who was interested in getting some new arrows, I would suggest checking out Deer Crossing Archery. We have a very broad selection of arrows and we try to meet the needs of everybody. Like BrimBuster mentioned before, we have some SD Hunters which are our smaller diameter heavy arrows. We offer custom work on all of our arrows except our ECO Hunters which are coming in at $50 a dozen with inserts, nocks, and pre fletched.

We have Targets, LD targets, and xbow arrows. Shaft options also for those who like to do their own work.

DCA is truly at the intersection of quality and economy. HERE is the link to all of our arrows, and if anyone has any questions please feel free to shoot me an email or PM. [email protected].

Also, save 10% on any orders by using the discount code Jesse10!

I hope this message doesn't come across as "Spam". I seen that there was some talk about my company so I felt the need to address the folks and offer some more information.

Thanks for your time fellas!

Like others are saying here, $50 for a dozen carbon arrows is a heck of a deal....hope you like them!

I have given them some thought in the past but then heard they were made over seas somewhere. I shoot Gold Tip Kinetics 300"s and they are $113 for bare shafts...would be nice to spend half that lol then again I feel you get what you pay for in the end.

you can get Goldtip shafts on ebay 4 the same price with free shipping. I think I would go with the GT's

Hatchet Jack

I bought DCA arrows last year and I'm not much of a fan now that I've had them a while. I had the fetching come loose on a couple. A couple others the fletching was pulled off and the carbon came off with it. The worst part is I've had several split on the end and it was not by abusing them. I do think they fly well but these are NOT a tough arrow.I've never had other arrow split as easily as these have. I will not buy any more.

Having the same straightness and weight tolerance specifications as competitors high end shafts seems all well and good, but shoot them into a block 5 or 10 times, or skip one off the top of a target, then measure your straightness... It becomes very apparent why some "pro" shafts with 0.01" tolerance cost more than others, AND why those shafts have high reputations. I've gone through a lot of shafts, and I'm not at all saying that DCA doesn't turn out a great hunting shaft at an affordable price that almost makes me want to convert to buying lower grade shafts and replacing them 3x as often, but when it comes to running arrows a lot of shots on target through an aggressive cam bow, you really do get what you pay for in terms of arrow life and resiliency.

In due respect, I don't think it to be fair saying that our arrows lose their straightness after so many shots without testing it.

I totally understand where you are coming from though. You get what you pay for, right? Well, that's been one of the hardest things for us as a new company with real low price to overcome. Our market focus is indeed the budget archer. We have affordable shafts, and many think that because of that they are "cheep" shafts. That's not the case.


If you have personally experienced a problem with DCA arrows, PLEASE get in contact with me. If it's faulty product then I would love to help you. If you haven't tried them yet, and you might be interested in doing so later on, i would suggest our ECO Hunters that start at $49.99 a dozen fletched arrows.

Respectfully,
Jesse

I've heard good things about DCA arrows and I know a few people who shoot them. Straightness isn't an issue because carbon arrows are generally gonna be straight or broken. They're not like aluminum, which can bend. $50 per dozen is a hell of a good price for carbon arrows, too. I'm pretty sure you can't touch a decent aluminum shaft for $50/dozen. If I didn't already have a bunch of GoldTip 7595s already ($100/dozen) I'd try some out.

If these are the arrows that you want to shoot then $50 is cheap for carbon arrows.

This is not accurate.

Sure, aluminum shafts could get a LOT worse and still 'look straight' than carbon arrows can (i.e. the mythology of "it's either straight, or broken"). But when you spin a few different brands of +/- 0.01" shafts against an indicator after a dozen shots into a bag target with each, you can see the difference between higher end shafts and lower end ones (or better still, the difference in quality/durability between two HIGH cost shafts).

I left carbon express after many years for this reason. A dozen shots into a bag with +/-0.01" GT's and I'd show +/- 0.06", simply rolling on the spin rack with light pressure and they'd true up to +/-0.02". I did the same with a set of Easton's and a set of CE's, same 0.04-0.08" range, then after a simple truing attempt, they just didn't get any better.

Buying +/-0.01" shafts only means they were +/-0.01" straightness when the representative shaft from the lot was tested at the factory (some manufacturers validate ALL shafts, not just straw samples). What happens to it between packaging, retail sale, and a few dozen or few hundred shots into a bag can change that.

Also, to DCA/Jesse...

First off, assuming you are who you say you are, then I do appreciate:

1) The fact that you're expending the time and interest to come on here and talk about your products. It's encouraging to see producers in our industry take part in conversation forums like this.

2) The level of professionalism with which you're doing so. We have had experiences here (and on other forums) in which producer representatives like yourself haven't been able to speak candidly about their products or manage consumer criticism in a professional manner.

That out of the way - what I have lost patience about, regarding the online discussions about your products, which is NO fault of the company nor products themselves is this:

These threads inevitably posture that the $49/dz ECO shafts are in some way superior to competitors "pro shafts". Does your average bow hunter have a NEED for a $100+/dz pro shaft? Nope. But does that mean an economy class shaft is BETTER? Maybe "better value for bowhunting purpose," but not necessarily "better quality." That's the piece that always seems to get lost in these threads.

Even within DCA's product line, if a guy wants a +/-0.01" shaft, they're going to be spending over $100/dz.

I do have to ask, what's the weight tolerance specification for your "Standard," "Custom," and "Select" shafts?

I have no doubt that the $50/dz ECO shafts deliver value beyond that of their price point. BUT, a $40k Ford pick-up is NOT in the same class as a Lexus. A +/- 0.06" $50/dz economy class shaft just isn't in the same competitive class as a +/-0.01" $100-180/dz Pro grade shaft. For $50, I'd gladly take you up on the challenge to spend more than a few dozen shots playing with your ECO shafts - BUT rated at 55-75#, I'll assume that the ECO's are 0.350-0.330" spines? If so, unfortunately, I don't own a bow that's appropriate for that stiffness, and the ECO isn't available in .250-300" spine. I'd be more than happy to put the +/-0.01" .300" Hunters or SD's up against the 2dz GT Velocity Pro 300's that I have in the rack ready to get fletched for this season, but again, based on the website, this is a $100-130/dz shaft, NOT the $50/dz price point that gets associated with all of the DCA products online.

Nomercy,

When we started out the company April of last year we had a one spine arrow, at least .006" straightness, with the 3 color options of the R2 vanes.. $49.99. We marketed it to the budget hunter who just wanted a tough arrow at a great price. That worked get our feet on the ground and make a name for ourselves.

During the summer time we started making 300, 350, 400 and 500 spines. We started making SD Hunters, Target arrows, and then we started sorting them in straightness'. Not only that but then we launched our custom department. We offered custom fletching on all .003" and .001"..

What we did was we broadened our market. We started making arrows to not only the budget hunters, but also to the folks who wanted the best. The target archers that demanded perfection... But we are still less expensive than our competitors. We are not making our money by high profits on each sale, but making a profit on a quantity of sales.

Then it hit us that we had ventured away from what we started with, so we re-launched our one spine, one straightness arrow for $49.99. We don't advertise that it's the superior arrow of the market, but we absolutely do not say that it is any less quality. It's just limited options that keeps our cost down on these.

Like I said, we do have the .001" premium top of the line shafts, and yes, they are a good bit more expensive than our ECOs. Mainly because our cost in them is a good bit more. But keep in mind that we are still trying to stay $20-$30 below our competitors...

Not sure if I've done more rambling on or helping, but thank you for your willingness to have an adult conversation on here. I've come across to many people that are just plain hateful for no real reason. So Thanks!

Speaking in terms of practical accuracy, I think you might be able to tell the difference between .001 and .003 straightness if you can shoot like Cam Hanes or Levi Morgan. Otherwise it sounds like you have a runout guage and a case of OCD. Not to mention, when they say it's .001 or .003, it comes in the package within those tolerance, not that they'll stay that way forever. Of course things are gonna get a little outta whack after they smack a target a dozen times at 260 or more fps. I used to check all of my rifle cartridges on a runout guage to make sure the neck was perfectly concentric. For all the headaches it caused me trying to make em perfect, I never saw one darn bit of difference out to 500 yards and beyond. Once I realized that, I got rid of that stupid guage and I've never been happier. Lastly, .006 is far from bentBent is when you spin the arrow in your hand and you can see the wobble with the naked eye. Aluminum will bend like that. Carbon will break long before it gets to that point. I will agree with you on one thing, though. Carbon express arrows are about as overpriced and over hyped as they can get. Their broadheads are pretty questionable too, but that's another story.