Trad Gang

Lets hear it. Why is carbon such a draw lately?

I feel that I can manipulate and fine tune an alluminum much better than a carbon, cuz I don't need a saw to cut them. The price of aluminum is attractive too.

Does carbon recover that much faster after leaving the bow that they spine over a larger range?

Thanks,

Brian

For me it's toughness. I do not seem to ruin as many arrows when I miss, and i miss alot.

Yes, I too like the durability. They seem to cover a wide range of bow weights as well. I also like the heavier weight and small diameter of my Beman MFX Classics too.

carbons are just tougher,faster and have more penetration.three good reasons i use them.on some bows i shoot carbon and some i shoot 2613's (a.k.a.  patriot missiles)i had a morrison cheyenne that loved the big fat 2613 eastons.i was shooting them on all my bows but started shooting the axxis 400's and like them also.

I'm a die hard aluminum fan as well Bow Bum.  Mainly because it's what I've always used and because they have always been plenty good enough.  I shoot 2117's.  I have been testing some carbons lately and I have to say that they have shown to be superior to aluminum in some instances.  I've been saying for years that I did not need more penetration because my aluminum arrows went through everything...until I shot carbons.  I've had my carbon arrows go through 3/4" plywood up to the fletching!  No kidding!  Then I grabbed it and yanked it out without fear of bending it.  Pretty cool!
Carbons are much more quiet than aluminum as well.  
I can't believe I'm saying this; but, I may be carbon convert pretty soon.

The major appeal that both carbon and alluminum have to me is consistancy.  I love my wood arrows, I love making wood arrows and I love taking animals with my wood arrows but they can give you fits at times.  I just made up a batch of woodies and there are 3 that just will not fly right.  They are straight, points on straight, fletched the same but will not fly right.  They others fly perfect.  Something about the grain or something.

I can stack A LOT of weight on the front end of my carbons!

Easy to tune with a wide variety of spines to play with,I can put more weight up front if I want to use a heavy broadhead.

The Gold Tip Trad Hunter 35/55's seem to be a perfect match to my 2 recurves right now that I have them as my primary arrow even when I'm working on making my own Cedars.

If you get the opportunity, watch a super slow motion video of wood, aluminum and carbons being shot from a bow. The carbon transfer much more energy into the flight/penetration because they do not "wobble" sll of the way to the target. The video is very revealing.

No appeal to me. Wood and aluminum arrows have been killing game since the dawn of time, give or take a couple years. If I were down to shooting plastic straws from my wooden trad. bows, Id chuck the whole thing in the wood stove and boil up a pot of soup.

i'd agree on the durability - carbons are either straight (straight as they came from the factory) or broke.  I miss alot too - good quality.

To me, it's just the simplicity of them. They don't warp or stay bent. They're either straight or broken, which means one less thing I have to worry about while hunting.

I shoot them to bug those who somehow think aluminum is more "traditional".

I love the smell of carbon after I break one.....oh wait, wrong arrow.  I don't break them very often so I forgot.

It's not recent for me.

My first carbons had outserts, were as skinny as the Axis, and I first used them 15 years ago.

Even those old carbons were more durable than wood or aluminum. I still shoot all 3 but mostly stick with MFX's.

QuoteOriginally posted by SteveB:
I shoot them to bug those who somehow think aluminum is more "traditional".

:thumbsup:

Good one.

carbon shafting - the "other wood".   :thumbsup:

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v82/rfdee/archery/feathers.jpg)

They do fly nice and penetrate further. The only thing about carbon is it just doesn't seem right to shoot them out of a self bow. Kinds like kissing your sister.

I like them because with a 31" arrow and shooting 45-50# it lets me get the weight down to 10 gpp.  I also find they are great if you load the front up.  I have some with 250 up front and they may be my most accurate.

Mr Cooper....when it comes time (if ever) to throw it all away, let me know so I can hand deliver the soup and then you can let me "discard" of all your stuff. I think we have a deal!....Ryan

QuoteOriginally posted by NY Yankee:
.... Wood and aluminum arrows have been killing game since the dawn of time, give or take a couple years. ...

hah!  aluminium since the dawn of time? yah, really.   :laughing:

look at a woodie the wrong way it's broken - not to mention their unstable reaction to the environment (temp and humidity).  i love woodies, i build and shoot them ALL the time, but they are a labor of love and totally inferior to man-made shaft material.  

alums are a definite step up from organic shafts but they dent and bend far too easily, and then their consistency goes out the window and yer left with junk that's as useless as a crooked woodie.  

cabons are either perfectly consistent or busted, no in between.  these shafts make for workhorse arrows that can take a lickin' and keep on tickin' ... perfectly.

and we all do know that the arrow is far more important than the bow, right?  :cool:

"Workhorse"...that is a very good description of a carbon arrow.

The early carbons didn`t get a second look from me. I would roll my eyes at the thought of them.

Money and time are in short supply for me. Once I was determined to learn how to use carbon arrows I found out that they are the best value for my investment of both my money and my time.

this topic should be retitled "carbon love".  :D

Us older guys remember this same discussion when there was only wood, then aluminum and fiberglass.
I do not understand why some have to think that their way is right and all others are wrong.
You would quit if you were down to plastic straws? What kind of nock is on your arrow? Plastic?
AS R.K. once said, "why can't we all just get along".

Come do some stumpin or roving with me, where I shoot if you start out the day with a dozen aluminum you may have 1 or 2 left in the end that are shootable. I on the other hand can start the day with 3 or 4 carbon and have at least 2 left and most likely it is because I lost one and maybe broke another. Carbons are as easy if not easier to tune you just need to take the time to learn how. Shawn

I appreciate the artwork of a talented wood arrow builder. I tried it and still have some of my woodies but they are not straight enough to suit me.

I have hundreds of aluminum shafts. My favorites of these are Easton Legacies although I cut the swage off and install uni-bushings so I can better tune nocks.

I rarely shoot a woodie or an aluminum.

I am head-over-heals for my Beman MFX Classic carbons. I had 2 dozen of these in 2010. I'm down to 16 of these. I lost 7 and broke 1. I typically shoot multiple times daily, sometimes 3-4 bows. During inclement weather this shooting is done at 13 yards (my basement). So, I'm pretty hard on the arrow. Most of mine have scrapes on the shafts, gaps in fletching, and occasssionally a busted nock.

Nothing new from me here: I love their durability first. I like the narrow diameter for preserving my centershot and I'm convinced it helps with penetration. I don't know why but the same carbonshaft seems to fit many more draw weights than aluminum. A bow trade brought me 4 throw-in 35/55 shafts of a different brand last week. They fly good. But they are lighter than my MFX. These were obviously new but blemished shafts but of the 4 I was only comfortable shooting 3 (one had a rough carbon edge mid-shaft -- a splinter or break waiting to happen).


The MFX are $100 plus for a dozen shafts or more for feathered arrows. Yep, this is expensive but when I'm spending $15/each on broadheads (or more) I'm not going to balk at $10 on the arrow itself.

I'm shooting size 600 now. I'm switching to 500 soon so I can add 100 grains to my arrow. I'm shooting 415 grains now. I'm not 100% about this because I have no complaints with the 600s. They performed great on deer this season but they heavy arrow discussion on trad gang have made me feel a bit inadequate -- I know I could go out and get bigger tires for my truck and solve this problem.  :D

All you guys just keep shooting carbon and get ALL your friends to. Makes picking up aluminum shafts oh so much cheaper!!! I havent found carbon to be all that much better for me so I have no need to change or feel "trendy". I use the ones with the heavier walls and the heavier weight so no need for EFOC to tune or penetrate, and I lose far more than I bend. 90% of the bent ones I can hand straighten and still shoot fine. Shoot what you like and I will too...........

Any trad ganger drools at the sight of a well crested beautifully fletched dozen of woodies!Aluminum is still a favored of a number of shooting greats.Carbon in theory could be the cheapest material available due to durability.Who out there can test an arrow quite like a stump shooter?

Carbons allow one to shoot arrows invented for compound bows without admitting having a secret fettish for shooting a compound bow and without admitting that your arrows aren't of traditional ancestry.  That's pretty cool.

You can verbally dump on compounds and crossbows while hunting with the same arrow they use.  Saweeeet.

You can pretend your arrows are traditional because they are 'from the earth', then shift gears into a 'there's no such thing as traditional!' mode when the debate situation becomes perilously risky.  Big thumbs up.

You can sound impressively sophisticated when entering deep discussions about heavy front-loading your 300 gr. BXM 7000 CarbonWhackers to get maximum trajectorial kinetical penetration from your 36# target bow at 43 yards on deer.  Awesome.

You can enjoy the rich heritage of traditional bowhunting without actually having to BE traditional in the arrows you shoot.  Fist pump.

You are an anomally wrapped in an enigma, having your cake and eating it too, a man among stick and metal-shooting boys, the swashbuckling pinnacle of hybridized archery.

That's why I shootem'...sometimes.  You?  

    :biglaugh:

What everyone said above...  Carbon shafts just work better ..  FOR ME.

I also love to build wood shafts... It is an art thing for me.  I also spend way too much time building fancy carbons....

When I first started trad (it was bowhunting back then) I got a dozen "Bear-Easton Professional Aluminum" and a dozen "Fred Bear Kodiak Supreme Fiberglass" arrows.  These were the cats butt at the time.  (I am looking at a 1969 Bear catalog as I write this)

Those were top of the line.  There were a ton of folks shooting wood but the target guys and most of the hunting guys I knew at the time jumped on these as they said... you don't have to mess with em.

Its a great world...  I am gonna shoot carbons and enjoy what I like.....

quote:

---

Originally posted by TSP:
Carbons allow one to shoot arrows invented for compound bows without admitting having a secret fettish for shooting a compound bow and without admitting that your arrows aren't of traditional ancestry.  That's pretty cool.

You can verbally dump on compounds and crossbows while hunting with the same arrow they use.  Saweeeet.

You can pretend your arrows are traditional because they are 'from the earth', then shift gears into a 'there's no such thing as traditional!' mode when the debate situation becomes perilously risky.  Big thumbs up.

You can sound impressively sophisticated when entering deep discussions about heavy front-loading your 300 gr. BXM 7000 CarbonWhackers to get maximum trajectorial kinetical penetration from your 36# target bow at 43 yards on deer.  Awesome.

You can enjoy the rich heritage of traditional bowhunting without actually having to BE traditional in the arrows you shoot.  Fist pump.

You are an anomally wrapped in an enigma, having your cake and eating it too, a man among stick and metal-shooting boys, the swashbuckling pinnacle of hybridized archery.

That's why I shootem'...sometimes.  You?  

     :notworthy: