I shot alu for 10 years or so....before there were carbons.
Advantages; Good spine consistency, easy to pull from targets, cheaper [usually]
Disadvantages; They can hold a bend....and IME they will over about one year of practice sessions. I think the carbons are a little tougher.
You must have been shooting thin walled aluminums. I have been shooting aluminum for almost 40 years and carbons on & off since they came out. There is NO doubt carbons are tougher and much lighter shafts. But the reason I don't like them are:
Having to flex them everytime or risk injury
They pull HARD from a 3D target which is what I shoot 90% of the time
I build & repair my own arrows and carbons are harder to work with all the way around
I don't like to use lubes & soaps on my hunting arrows or arrow I might later hunt with
They can leave carbon fiber in the meat
Aluminum does all that better plus:
More consistent in spine & weight
Naturally heavier (if you want that.....I do)
I can rotate the inserts to align broad heads after the arrows are built
I think they pull across the rest more quietly than any of the carbons I have tried because the texture of carbon arrows
Also IF you like heavy arrows they are naturally heavy. No extra weights, outserts, inserts etc....or harder (less selection) broad heads to look for
I have a long history with aluminums and I really like to be honest here. If you were bending your arrows after a while you must have been shooting a thin walled aluminum arrow trying to get the weight down a bit. I have shot XX12's up to XX19's and there is a world of difference in those two shafts and what lies between. What you will find is the XX12's are very easy to bend, the 13's better but too fragile for me. The 14's are the thinnest I'll go and I expect to damage them about half the time I shoot an animal with them.
The magic starts at the 15's they are much tougher and really start to shine. The 16's, 17's and 19's are very tough but they are also very heavy......mid 500's to mid 600's for most average Joe's.
But my point is I'm shooting some 2315 Super Slam Selects this year that I bought for a trip to TX in 1997. Those arrows may be older than many of the people reading this thread and they still shot great. Some have even been though some hogs and Javalina. I haven't been "shooting" them since then but on & off over that 21 year period.
From decades of shooting both I really think if you want to shoot an arrow that weighs less than 500 grains (and most people do) the ONLY way to go is carbon. If you want to shoot a arrow in the 500 & up range aluminum arrows offer a lot of advantages and that's why I still use them. I have literally bounced my 2315's off tree's trying difficult shots and many times they are still straight when you find them. I have also seen 2312's bend just pulling them form a target. My point is aluminums shouldn't be lumped together as a whole.....just as some carbons are tougher than others.
If I were going on a pronghorn hunt next week I'd grab some Gold Tips off the shelf and drop 100 grains...........lol. But if you do shoot aluminum to hunt with and choose the XX15's & thicker they will serve you well for many many years.
The only gotcha' I'll add is you shouldn't group shoot with aluminum arrow because you will crease them if the shafts touch. But IMHO most of us that have been shooting awhile don't do that anyway because with any arrow slapping them together is the main reason they get damaged. Looking for cracks, repairing nock & vanes isn't worth the time when shooting different dots tells you the same thing without the risk.
Of the three, carbon probably takes more of a beating without breaking. As has been said, aluminum arrows WILL bend. I've never had much luck trying to straighten them, so once they bend, they are stumping arrows at best unless they fly really funky. I haven't used them from a compound, but with the correct spine, I don't see why they wouldn't work just fine. If you are chasing the perfect spine, you have way more choices with aluminum. There is a reason why they are still making aluminum arrows.
