I am considering grizzly stik Alaskan shafts for elk hunting out of my 55# Black Widow PMA. Could those of you who have used these shafts weigh in on your experience with them? Are they worth the money? Thanks for your input, Jon
I sell the shaft so you may want to consider that as I give my opinion.
Worth the money? That is a tough question. Are they a good shaft? I say "yes." I got a half dozen 2 years ago to hunt with and I shot them all deer season and through the indoor archery league. I never broke any of the 6. I switched to something different because I am always experimenting. I ended up selling the arrows to a customer and I wish I hadn't.
There are other effective ways to get a heavy, extreme front of center balance arrow, but the GS Alaskan are a choice I can recommend.
I have shot them and I will say just like lostnation said they are a good shaft. Fortunatly for me they were my uncles because I just can't see spending that much for arrows, I just don't have the budget for it. Whether they are worth it or not is up to you. Only you know what your budget is and how well you like the shafts.
There is another thread on these arrows. Do yourself a favor and look at it before buying them- Steve
http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=079252;p=1
Here's the thread.
The Alaskans are good tough arrows that can drive you crazy if you don't put the nocks and fletch on right and the same for all the shafts. I still have a half dozen of the originals I hunt with.
I have shot the Alaskans out of a 58# longbow for over 2 years now and I am very happy with them. I've shot alot of carbons, and out of the box these have been by far the most durable for me. I love em, but still experiment alot, nature of the beast! I feel there are a bunch of good carbon choices out there, but yes I like them and have turned some people on to them, most liked them, but a few had fits with them. Not sure if this helped, but I recently bought a half dozen more here on the classifieds, so to me I guess they are worth the money I paid for them :)
Travis
Look at the Easton Axis FMJ's instead. They are tough as nails and a lot cheaper than the Grizzly sticks. I shot one with 275 grains up front into a rebar upright that was holding up a 3d target at 20 yards. Flattened the tip on the field point and blew the nock out of the back of the arrow. No other damage. I put the nock back in the arrow and replaced the field point and the arrow shoots great.
I like them and they are still cheaper then bullets
I love my Alaskans. I like it even better when folks buy em and spend weeks playin with them and then sell them for alot less, bought last doz at Denton Hill for $35.00! I have had no luck bareshafting these things at all. The trick is cut one to your size and fletch as your other shafts and let fly. Never had one that did not fly yet. I shoot them with 300gr up front and they fly out of every bow I have from 53# up to 75#.
They had/have blems on sale now. I picked up some Sitkas to play with.
Didn't come with instructions, and found that when cutting them to size, its probably best to take off the front because if you shorten the tail the knocks won't be tight enough. I ended up taking a little off the front and back to get to required length. Because they are tapered you need to pay special attention to getting a straight cut when chopping them to avoid having to even them up.
Other than that, they seem to be shooting just fine. My 57@28 Silvertip is shooting 28 7/8" Sitkas, with the 75gr insert, 175gr heads. They bareshaft about 2" weak, but fletched with 4x4" RH parabolics, they are dead on.
I have shot them for several years.
Are they expensive ?... yes
Do they perform well ? YES
Do they seem to perform well on a fairly big range of bow weights ? yes
Can you get decent FOC and weight using them ? YES
Are they worth the cost? only one that can decide that is you. Lots of us use them. Lots of us don't.
ChuckC
David (Huntit) I was able to get them to bareshaft well by using like 125 - 135 grains up front, even at the shortest possible shaft length (for me) . That said, with fletching on them, I have them rigged up with 290 grains up front and they fly very well. It is amazing what feathers on the back of an arrow does for flight stabilization !
ChuckC
I love the Woodies. I shoot them out of my 54# Blacktail and she loves them. I like the 500's
I shoot the Sitkas cut 28.5", out of my 47#@28 Thunderstick III and they bareshaft tuned excellent with the 75gr insert and 2 of the 50gr brass weights attached to the inserts, and a 300gr head. The fly like bullets and sink deep into my bag target.
Duane
I have some Alaskans which I like; however, I have switched to AD Traditionals which I like more. For me, the ADs fly better and are more durable. The ADs are American made. The Alaskans come with a Made in China sticker. Just something to think about?
I use the Safaris. They are the only shaft that I can easily front-load to buffalo weight for my heavy, cut-past-centre recurve. They fly well, and hit hard. I have broken about six over the years having hit dirt, and my mate broke one when he borrowed it to finish a feral animal and hit the shoulder - they seem to fracture readily along the insert on glancing blows. But, I've had quite a few Safaris, so it isn't too bad. Whenever I go after buffalo in the future with my heavy recurve, I'll have Safaris in the quiver. For normal animals using my deflex/reflex longbow, my favourite shaft was the CX350, as they were half the price, still front-loadable (but not to buffalo standards), and a bit stronger.
I like the GrizzlyStiks a lot, but I think the Arrow Dynamics shafts are better. I shoot all the AD shafts from the Trad Lites to the Hammerhead Trads. ADs are my favorite shafts. Alaskan Bowhunting Supply is a great organization and has some of the best equipment made. The Schliefs are super people who go out of their way to assist traditional archers. Almost all of the ABS products are outstanding, and I have many of them. For instance, no one makes a better broadhead than the Ashby or the Nanook that are exclusive to ABS. I hope that TradGang members support ABS, and I can't argue with anyone who wants to shoot the GrizzlyStiks; however, the ADs get my vote for the better shaft.
Allan