My opinion, not really unless your really good and shoot long distances. Most of us average archers won't be able to tell. The straightness is really the only difference between them. If you cut the shafts from both ends, you can typically get them pretty straight.

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Do you plan on cutting them? What's your arrow length? If your arrow length is going to cut off a couple inches of shaft, most of the time that will eliminate the majority of the issues with shaft straightness. Most hunters, with most hunting applications, won't be able to tell the difference in arrows. Unless you can touch groups EVERY TIME from 20 meters, its all a pride thing most of the time. In a dozen shafts, you may have one or two that just don't fly right, it happens. I bought some .001 shafts and out of half a dozen one is just crap. It's manufacturing. Just number and shoot all of the arrows, see which fly best, use those for hunting, rest for practice.

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Do you plan on cutting them? What's your arrow length? If your arrow length is going to cut off a couple inches of shaft, most of the time that will eliminate the majority of the issues with shaft straightness. Most hunters, with most hunting applications, won't be able to tell the difference in arrows. Unless you can touch groups EVERY TIME from 20 meters, its all a pride thing most of the time. In a dozen shafts, you may have one or two that just don't fly right, it happens. I bought some .001 shafts and out of half a dozen one is just crap. It's manufacturing. Just number and shoot all of the arrows, see which fly best, use those for hunting, rest for practice.

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I do plan on trimming them but I am a 31" dl so I won't be able to trim much.

 

I’d stick with the cheaper ones, unless you’re a world class archer. I shoot .006 and .001 shafts and except for the odd arrow, very rarely, I cannot see the difference and I shoot a 28.75” shaft. If yours are shorter you cut even more of the runout off and your .006 shafts will be better than that when cut to length. I shoot 3d competitively and, while not world class, I am pretty good. Can’t speak for gold tip, but my victory .006 shafts perform just great for me. I can’t outshoot them, yet I am also not mean on fletching and always use a decent offset or helical. Helps a lot with less than perfect arrows (as shown by hooter shooter testing by others)

 

That's what I figured, I can get 2 dozen for bit more than the 1 dozen of the xts.

 

I wouldn't spend the extra dough if it was me.

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Maybe. It depends on your arrow length. You can save some cash if you shoot shorter arrows and have an arrow spinner to identify which end(s) to cut based on straightness or wobble. If you keep the center most portion of the shaft that is the straightest and cut off the ends that have the least amount of straightness (or most wobble) you can end up with a very straight shaft - even approaching Pro tolerances.

 

So, I agree with has been posted earlier.

One thing I think I have noticed is that the tolerances related to diameter, inside and outside, seem to be tighter in the XT and Pro lines. Like I said.... I think.....

 

I used to be a Goldtip fanboy not any more. You get what you pay for, the Goldtip Hunter Pro's are ok, the regular hunter and the xt varicences vary waaay more than advertised. Get a dial indicator and check for yourself. Then once you do try and return them. Good Luck. I like to know my misses are my fault and not my equipment.

 

I've had batches of hunters that shot every bit as good as xt hunters and some that didn't. I've had friends who've had the same experience. Now I can't get Pro hunters to shoot better than XT Hunters at all. I guess this settled the discussion on my skill set.

 

My vote would be to stick with the cheaper Hunter shafts... personally, do yourself a favor and order Decimator (Victory shafts) from Dick's Sporting Goods for like $25 dollars per half dozen. They are the same tolerances as the GT Hunter shafts, and they fly excellent. I used these for several years, and I would still use them if I hadn't sought a heavier arrow.

 

I shoot the Hunter XT. Yes, they are more expensive, but they last forever. Over time the price difference becomes negligible.

 

I shoot a mix of regulars and XT shafts. Most practice is 30 and under(recurve). At 20 yards much of the time I slap shafts. And, painfully, crack a nock here or there. Mine are trimmed to 30 inches, and yes, an arrow squaring tool helps quite a bit. My large(by compound standards) broadheads literally end up in the holes my field points have made. So, yeah, I would say if you are like me trying to be careful with spending, the regular shafts should do just fine.

 

Am I going to see any real world difference regarding accuracy between gold tips hunter shafts compared to the hunter xt shafts?

Probably not. There's a lot of math involved with respect to runout, (without bothering the crowd), but the differences you'd be able to measure with a machine would not make much difference over hunting distances. The differences to most shooters, maybe all, could see would be well within their ability to shoot a group at any yardages, (their circular error probable). The effect of weight variation, even less.

For ages I've used hunter class shafts from GT, Victory, and Beman for testing, (I start bareshaft tuning with the economy shafts), practice, NFAA spots, and 3D. I use the bargain shafts on close shots15yds-30yds for spots, and unmarked 3D. I've also used them with Mechanical BH's with no problems from time to time. Do I use mid grade and premium grade shafts, you bet. I do like minimal wobble when it comes to broadheads, I use the premium grade shafts for bare shaft tuning, where it might make a difference, (usually doesn't). But to shoot your bow without going broke, the hunter grades are fine.

 

Another thing I do is this:

I spin my arrows. Those that are straightest are marked up as such. I test these and shoot them to check they're grouping great. I then hold these back as the 'A1 shafts'. I use these for competition. Those that are less straight are used for day to day 3D practice and get heaviest use. This way, out of 24 .006 shafts I may have about a dozen that are extremely straight and another dozen less so. By cherry picking the best ones, I get a batch of top tier shafts as well as some less perfect ones that will get lost and broken over time.

The above works very well for Victory shafts, where I typically find that 6-10 out of a dozen .006 shafts are very straight, with the remainder being 'good' with usually one stinker in the pack. I mark up the stinker and use it for all my close range practice shots on the 3d course, so it gets heavy use. I shot a PB of sorts (longest string of consecutive X rings at 20yds) using three shafts yesterday. One was the stinker from that dozen. With a modest helical on it, it shoots just fine...

I have found that GT tolerances are not as good, so YMMV. In fact, a set of older styles Velocity shafts were the least straight I have ever seen. But they still shot pretty well....