I recently sat down and had a
long conversation with carbon Express vice-president, Lennie Rezmer, that
simply changed the way I look at archery. I asked Lennie a basic question, “How
do I pick the proper arrow?”, and I came away with a much deeper understanding
of archery performance and equipment.
First off, I asked Lennie what he
felt the three most common mistakes are that people make when choosing arrows
because I am used to learning from mistakes! He gave me the below list to
consider, and then he told me how to properly choose.
1) People spend a lot of money on a high performance bow, and then they go buy cheap low
performance arrows to save money. The arrows will never allow that expensive
bow to perform near its capability.
2) Commonly people choose their arrows without considering dynamic spine. They just go to a
static spine chart and pick a shaft.
3) Many
people choose an arrow that is simply too light because all they care about is
speed. These arrows can be unforgiving, and if you don’t have absolutely
perfect form, you likely won’t shoot well with them.
So Rezmer told us what not to do,
but what should we do to make the right choice? To even begin this process,
Lennie said that we must understand static spine and dynamic spine. Static
spine is how much deflection at a 28” span a shaft has with a weight of just
over a pound hanging from the middle. In other words, how much bend? Dynamic
spine is how much that shaft bends, or reacts, at the actual thrust from the
string when the arrow is released. In essence, this is how quickly the arrow
recovers or how forgiving it is.
So now that we understand the two
types of spines, how do we use them? Most folks just look at their arrow
length, bow poundage and come up with a static spine number and use that to
pick an arrow. Lennie showed me Carbon Express’ Adjustable Weight Chart. This
chart takes in all the aspects of your exact setup, considers in what dynamic
spine of an arrow will do specifically, and then adjusts your poundage number
so you can go to an arrow selection chart and be more accurate.
The Adjustable Weight Chart
starts with your bow’s poundage, then adds or subtracts pounds for specific
parts of your setup and gives you a final adjusted number. For instance, you
will gain 8 pounds if your draw weight is 60lbs or higher and you have
high-energy cams, but you will lose 5 lbs if your bow has 65-80% let-off. There
are a number of features to be considered, then you do a calculation at the
bottom of the chart and get your final number.
You can take that number to the
Carbon Express Arrow Selection Guide and easily pick the properly spined arrow
for your setup.
So after you have done this,
there are still many different options of shafts with the various spines. I
asked Lennie about this as well. “ First, I am a big proponent of Dual Weight
Forward Spine. That means that the front end of the arrow flexes more for
forgiveness while the back end doesn’t flex much, resulting in faster recovery
time. This really helps accuracy, especially with broadheads.”
Rezmer went on to explain, “When
choosing a specific shaft, you have to decide what you are doing with that
arrow. Are you target shooting and only worried about the fastest and flattest
arrow flight you can get? Are you hunting big game like elk and moose? Are you
mainly a whitetail and turkey hunter? All these things will determine which
type arrow is best for you, and of course you must consider the price.”
Lennie gave me a couple examples
of different situations and arrows that fit the bill for each. First let’s look
at an adult male that wants to hunt elk. He will need a lot of kinetic energy
for a big animal and proper penetration. Lennie said in this situation, the
shooter needs a heavy arrow of at least 9-9.5 grains per inch to perform
properly. So after finding the proper spine, he can pick a shaft type that
fits. In this case it might be a Maxima Hunter KV 350 at 9.8.
If this same archer were only
going to shoot whitetails and turkeys, such high kinetic energy isn’t quite as
necessary, so he might want to consider lighter poundage and a shaft like the
Maxima Blue Streak Select 250 that weighs in at 7.4 GPI. This will still get
all the penetration needed for such animals.
Rezmer recommended for youth or
lady shooters that are pulling 30-50 pounds and shooting arrows under 28” in
length, they should shoot a fairly heavy arrow. He said that since they are not
shooting high poundage, weight is needed for proper penetration, but also the
arrow should still be light enough to fly. He recommends a shaft in the 8GPI
range for these hunters.
He ended by telling me that if
you are going to error, you should likely error on the side of being a bit
heavy. This is especially true of novice shooters because with lighter arrows
comes more speed, and speed is definitely less forgiving as far as accuracy
goes. If you have any flaw in your shooting form and you are shooting a light
arrow at smoking speeds, that flaw will show in the form of poor accuracy.
Speed can kill both ways.
So as you can see, there is much
more to choosing the proper arrow for you and your purposes than simply
matching a couple of numbers on a simple chart. One thing is for sure, if you
will take the time and effort to pick the right arrow, your shooting, and in
hunting situations, your harvests, will definitely improve. The Carbon Express
Adjustable Weight Chart makes this whole complicated process very fast and
easy, and I know it has really helped me understand arrows and how to use them
to my greatest advantage.
