I'm going to get some gold tip arrows.I can get the .003 arrows, xt, for $50 total and the .006, hunter, for $40 total. Is the .003 straightness worth $10? Thanks

Yes, get the better quality arrows. $10 really isnt that much in archery.

Yes, definatly go for the straighter. I switched from a .005 easton to a .003 gold tip XT hunter, and i can really tell the difference. They will last a lot longer.

Spend the extra money and get the Gold Tip 3-D Pro's. They have a straightness of .001 and a weight tolerance of +/- 1 grain There won't be a flyer in the bunch!

To be honest with you, it probably does not make a bit of difference for most shooters but if you want to have peace of mind then go with the one that has a better advertised straightness variance.....at least initially.

I am not a good enough shooter to need that extra .003 of straightness. For hunting you dont need that perfact of stuff.

I have always bought at least .003 arrows and everyone always told me that for hunting that it would not make any difference. Well, they are full of crap. Even with field tips my groups were not as tight as they were with the straighter arrows. Then add a fixed blade head on the end and there was no consistancy at all with them. Either spend the extra money on straighter carbon arrows or buy alluminum Easton super slams.

I want to add something so that you will understand what those numbers really mean. 6 thousandths of an inch does not sound like much but what that means is that they can vary as much as 6 thousandths of an inch one way and 6 thousandths of an inch in the opposite direction. So you could end up with an arrow that from one end to the other could be out 12 thousandths of an inch total. That's a lot for an arrow to be out. You may as well be shooting cedar arrows.

More animals (men and food types) have been taken with eyeballed arrows straightened with a bone with a hole in it than all alum and carbon arrows put together. In hunting situations I just can't see .oo3" making that big of a difference. That said, for $10 I would get the .oo3 arrows.

Yeah, and they were also using self made bows, strings made from animal sinue, heads made from flint, and feathers made from real turkeys. They were flinging 800+ grain arrows at a blistering 100 fps from 5 feet off of a horses back.[&:]

They were also drawing on rock walls and living out of animal skin tents.


I didn't believe it would make a difference either until I tried some .006" arrows but it made a big difference.

Bigbulls,

Ofcourse, you are correct in that explanation of how .006 might actually be 12 thousandths of an inch from one arrow to the next......and a .003 might actually be .006 variance from one arrow in a group to the next. However, as has often been pointed out in the ICS carbon debate threads, not all of the arrows even meet those advertised specs initially and then they tend to degrade over time with extended usage so a .006 difference in arrow straightness is probably the least of someone's concerns when considering two different carbon grade shafts.

I have no doubt that you shoot better with the slightly straighter carbons but I do believe that this is not necessarily the case with the majority of shooters out there. One also needs to consider the specific brand, and the subsequent quality control of that brand, when making references in this discussion. Some brands, such as Goldtip, might see a large difference between their low end and mid grade to high end shafts where others, though they advertise a sizeable difference, are not really that different in terms of consistancy for straightness, spine or weight from one "grade" shaft to the next.

I cannot argue that point but I have found, more often than not, that the cut of the arrow and the subsequent insert alignment is more often at fault than the straightness of the shaft....again, at least in what I run into regularly.

I am not trying to be argumentative but rather just offering a different point of view on the subject.