When shooting target archery, I used 2312 arrows, this wall and 180 grains of weight. I shot those arrows for years into all sorts of different backstops. As a target Weenie every time you pull you arrows you check them, and I never, or at least cannot remember, ever having one bend from shooting. Now and then I would pull one from my set and change it out because it was not shooting where I thought it should, but I never had them “bend” from shooting. At the time I was a mid 50x shooter, compound not recurve.

 

I have never test them, but I will offer an opinion. You said the arrow was going to deflect (bend) when it hits the target. Let me begin by saying that if your bow is properly tuned with the right alum. arrow, the arrow should impact the target perfectly straight. There should be no deflection upon impact. Archers paradox will have an impact on the dynamic spine of the arrow as it's loosed from the bow, but again, if the arrow is properly tuned to the bow, there will be no permanent deflection of the arrows. Now as far as .002-.006 straightness of arrows, I will say this. I had a world class archer once tell me that when a bow was held and shot out of a Hooter Shooter machine, to eliminate shooter error, with .001 vs. .006 straightness arrows, the difference between the accuracy of the two shafts was approx. 1" at 50 yards. He said, most archers who believe they shoot worse with .006 straightness shafts do so because the believe they are less accurate with those shafts.

 

Back when aluminum arrow were the only choice, you'd see pretty much most archers giving their arrows a spin after every end. Either on the palm of the hand, or against a V with the fingernails, and blowing on the vanes to spin them and see if the nocks were still straight.

Short answer to your question: yes, manually after shooting every end or two, and usually once a week through the dial straightener.

 

I've shot aluminum exclusively since 1974, for target practice, stump shooting, and hunting. I've bent quite a few by hitting rocks, hitting a tree or other hard wood surface at a glancing angle, or some other form of abuse, so I bought a very good arrow straightener with a dial indicator about 25 years ago so that I could salvage at least some of the bent ones.

While I don't check my arrows every week or anything like that, I can honestly say that I've never found a bent one that hasn't been abused pretty heavily. That includes arrows that I've shot for target practice for ten years or more. I'm primarily a hunter, so all of my arrows are fairly stout: Wall thicknesses of .015 or greater. Might be a different story if you're shooting target arrows with wall thicknesses of .014 or less.

 

Stash: I take it that it was common for the aluminum arrows to get bent frequently in ordinary target shooting; otherwise it would not have been necessary for those archers to check straightness so often.

 

Actually, no. It was just something people would do on the long walk back to the target line.

Depending on the arrow type, they are pretty durable. X7 types (used to be blue or black after the mid '70s) were very tough. XX75 alloys (orange and gold, and currently platinum) were a bit softer but still good.

There were some really crap alloys used in the cheapest arrows (24SRTX) which would bend if you looked at them funny, but no serious archer ever used them after the better alloys came out.

You'd be checking your arrows mostly after impacts from other arrows, and when you hit something you shouldn't have, or if you didn't trust the guy who pulled your arrows out of a tight target for you.

 

Its no coincidence Carbons have taken over. The recent spate of guys discovering Aluminum for the first time is funny.

Aluminums hold up pretty good if you are careful pulling them....but over time all of your target arrows had a slight bend....and the finish worn off the working end...... Especially if you are shooting them into tough carpet bales and such.

 

Arrows do show varying degrees of flexing upon impacting the target, no matter what, regardless of state of tune. It's an effect of column loading. There are hundreds of slo-mo videos out there that show arrow impact and show that flexing. If one could be found that shows it NOT happening I would be VERY interested in seeing that.

I check my arrows the simple way that Stash mentions while shooting, but as for taking after them with the dial indicator I don't mess with that until they start failing the simple test and I'm looking to straighten them anyway. So unfortunately that generally isn't happening until after they've been shot many many times and have taken a crash or two.

 

old -

Welcome to modern fairly tails.
The only time I check aluminum arrow straightness is after a hard impact, in my case usually arrow on arrow violence.
Sorry, I don't miss the target that often.
When straightening my students arrows (OK, or occasionally mine), I can get them within .005" in most cases with a dial straightener, and that's better than anyone can shoot.

As far as checking aluminum arrows by spinning after every few ends, it's more of a nervous tick than anything what will ever show up on paper. That's just reality. If an arrow is bent enough to make a difference in scores, you won't have to spin it to see the problem.

For another reality check, look at the cover of my book. That's a legit 20 yard group with 1914 X7s, c2006. I only retired those arrows about a month ago. There's still nothing wrong with them, in fact I used them to shoot a 300 in 2012 and for giggles shot them on our last American round this year and still shot my average. I just wanted something that looked a little less ratty.

Carbons will NOT hold up as well for me, and except for initial tuning, the only time I use them (or composites) is for outdoors at distance.



Viper1 out.

 

As far as checking aluminum arrows by spinning after every few ends, it's more of a nervous tick than anything what will ever show up on paper. That's just reality. If an arrow is bent enough to make a difference in scores, you won't have to spin it to see the problem.

Thing is, in a competition situation, you want to check the arrow BEFORE you see the difference in score.

While I agree it was rare to actually discover a fresh bend, that one time in a hundred could save you a couple of crucial points.

And, I also agree that feeling a slight vibration in spinning probably wouldn't make a lot of difference in accuracy, especially at a close range. But I can tell you, I had a pretty big collection of aluminum shafts with caved-in sides that certainly gave notice the defect was there when spinning against my fingernails. And those definitely did not hit where they were aimed.

Anyways, bottom line is, aluminum arrows do bend when misused, and even if you don't have a fancy straightener with a dial indicator, you can easily rig up a device to spin arrows and check for straightness. A piece of 2x4 about 8" long with a pair of nails hammered in at each end in a flat "X" is enough of an arrow spinner to check for bends. Just make sure the V the arrow will spin in is well over 90 degrees - probably 120 to 130 degrees works well.

 

Stash -

Different animals. Any AL arrow with a ding, dent or anything caved in gets side lined immediately - and those will be pretty obvious because A. those things don't happen by themselves and B. even a casual glance or feel by a shooter shooting at that level will reveal a problem.

Not saying not to check or be aware of anything "odd", but it has to be kept within reason. And a seasoned shooting is going to be more aware of changes to equipment than a guy "stumpin".

Viper1 out.

 

When I did a lot of shooting, I would sometimes find one of my arrows consistently shooting out of the group.
I was able (at times) to turn my nock about 90 to 180 degrees and pull that arrow back with the rest.
I always shot my arrows with 6 feathers, 190 grain piles, 2315, and full length 32 inches.

They were also individually numbered so that I could tell them apart.

 

I spin test mine often. They are always straight from impacting only targets. I have a long draw so my shafts have to be pretty stiff, which I'm sure helps their durability. Although it seems like every aluminum arrow I put into an animal gets bent or broken.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

I got lots of old aluminum arrows I can test. New ones are dead on with both straightness and spine. If I get some time I will pull out some old Platinum Platinum Plus and X7 and see how they do on my spine tester.

I am guessing that the X7 will be much better.

 

Looking forward to your report, Hank. I'll be traveling all of next week, but when I return, I'll try to find some time to pull out my dial indicator arrow straightener, have a look at some of the XX75 hunting shafts that I've been shooting into bag targets for may years, and compare them to some new XX75s.

Is your spine tester a commercial one or one you built yourself? I've been planning to build one, and have a nice Mitutoyo indicator which I bought for that purpose.... hasn't made it to the top of the "pending projects" list though.

 

I have a RAM with a upgraded digital dial gauge. The gauge is much better than what came stock. I calibrate it using a collection of aluminum X7 shafts in various spines. Aluminum shafts are right on the mark in both straightness and spine, so they make a good calibration standard.

 

Good to know what you've found about the spine consistency and accuracy of aluminum shafts. My interest in spine measurements arose from while I was playing around with carbons. I had trouble tuning carbon shafts with spines which supposedly matched the spines of aluminum arrows that shot very well from my bow, and I sometimes found that two supposedly identical carbon shafts would often tune rather differently. Spine inconsistencies were the only explanation which seemed plausible.

 

To me, the greater durability of carbon arrows for stump shooting is attractive. Also, based on how few spines are available for a given carbon shaft model (usually about 4, versus at least 20 different aluminum shaft sizes), it seems to me that a given carbon shaft spine must be able to produce good arrow flight from a much wider range of draw weights, levels of bow performance, etc - which leads me to infer that they may also be a bit more forgiving of shooter inconsistencies. However, I haven't played with them enough to know.

Any thoughts?

 

WP79Vet: Your comment about carbon arrow spine is a good one, and probably deserves a thread of its own, since this thread is about straightness of aluminums.

 

Sorry Oldnewby. Guess I was wandering off topic.

 

Being one of those spinners & having had a shop/lanes b/4 carbons came in the picture (1964 thru 1982) I've seen a lot of things with Aluminums. Yea, my shop had one of those things with a dial on it & another thing to straighten . In competition I would palm spin or maybe thumbnail check an arrow if I slammed them together in a target (no 5 spots in those early days) or one hit where it wasn't supposed to.. Yes, long ago I was that good. I still shoot aluminums for competition and hunting. I did Carbons 2 years and went back. Carbons "never" gave me the results I wanted in grouping on a target at any given distance.. I did kill 5 animals (Carbons) in those 2 years & even the end result wasn't what I expected. Spot Checking an aluminum arrow during competition or even practice is only common sense if you slam them together or heaven forbid, hit something other than the target.
Starting 62 years in Archery/bowhunting & "for me" Aluminum wins hands down over any carbon as being a better arrow.. X7s were the ones than seemed to get cracks more & other grades got the creases & dents. For what it's worth, I have 4 family members shooting carbons & all my competition & I seem to have less arrow damage than they do.. None are newbies & shoot lots & I say better than average. I have 11 of a Dz that's been shot 2 years of outdoor competition now (Field 112 arrows & 900s, 90 arrows & more than once + a few 3-Ds thrown in). I'm with you Stash, I suppose I'll spin em or thumb check them all b/4 outdoor season starts & Oldnewby. if anything gets damaged I'll blame it on my old age.. Enjoy the game fellas, I do...

 

This is my post on showing the results on spine tests on new aluminum shafts that I use to check the accuracy of my spine meter.

https://www.archerytalk.com/vb/showthread.php?t=5413769

I will try to run some old shafts through tomorrow.

Here is the chart from the referenced post. The measurements and calculations are explained in the original post.

 

Hank: Thanks much. Really remarkable spine consistency. Did you cull arrows to get them so closely matched, or did they come out of the box that way?

 

I bought four arrows of each spine to use for calibration purposes. There was no culling. I chose these sizes to cover a wide range of spines. These shafts will never be shot. I will be able to come back to them in the future to see whether my equipment has changed.

 

thanks Hank. Interesting for sure.

 

Here are my results from some well used, but undamaged, Aluminum arrows. The 2315 are the arrows that I used when I shot indoors many years ago (including indoor nationals). The 2214 are arrows that I bought used.

I tested both high end Easton X7 Eclipse, and the XX75 Easton Platinum Plus.

I was really surprised how well the Platinum Plus tested (XX75). These are the target version of the standard XX75 shaft, similar to the Gamegetter's in the Easton Hunting arrow catalog.

As expected, the spines were pretty solid. I test spine in four positions around the shaft.

I did not test any really beat up shafts. The Platinum Plus bend and dent when they are struck. The X7 shear.

As usual, click on the picture to expand it.

 

Here's my answer from another forum.

I just took four arrows I use for roving and put them on my dial indicator/arrow straightener. I rove a lot and I have shot each of those arrows at least a couple of hundred times over the last four years

There were two 1916's, a 2114 and a 2115. All have judo points. The two 1916's in the picture have been in use the longest.

They have ricocheted off stumps, rocks and branches, hit green stumps and hard logs...a lot worse treatment than being "pulled from a target."

The results? Still factory straight...same uniform variance of around .003-.004" along the entire shaft. I measured down to within 1.5" from the insert.

The belief that tin arrows are fragile is pure fiction in my experience. They are really quite tough, even with a .014" wall.