What was a quiet practice session turned into a very interesting bit of tackle testing.
Have been using Carbon Express shafts for some time now (mostly Heritage 250 and 350) and have found them to be excellent.
Bought some of their Mayhem 350 shafts fairly recently and got them tuned up, with a little more point and thus overall weight than the arrows I had been previously using (Heritage 250's) out of my 54lb Widow.
They came with nock collars which are little alloy sleeves that slip over the shaft before you push the nock in. Never used them before or had any experience with them before but thought may as well keep them on.
So after a gazzilion shots into the bail over multiple practice sessions I guess it was inevitable that at some point a shot would miss the bail and hit that big, nasty brick wall behind the target.
And that is what happend today. Having been working and concentrating on tying flies all afternoon a few shots to chill out where in order, but a bit of brain fade and a poor release saw an MFU occur and 595 grains of arrow hit the bricks at full noise, before bouncing straight back a good four metres. Gee that arrow came back a long way!
No biggy, I thought, another shaft for the bin as I wandered over to see if I could collect a nock if nothing else. I was amazed to find that the arrow shaft was totally intact.
Brass insert had popped out a little, nothing new seen that before on similar impacts....but shaft shows no cracks, splits, mushrooming that you would otherwise expect.
(http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc220/tommogb/mayhemintactshaft1-1.jpg)
nock and collar had popped out just a little ........
(http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc220/tommogb/mayhemintactshaft2-1.jpg)
but everthing about the shaft still appears to be rock solid
(http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc220/tommogb/mayhemintactshaft3-1.jpg)
No, I am not rushing out to shoot it again anytime soon to find out if it is damaged where I can't see, nor am I going to test the other remaining arrows in this manner to see if it was a once off, but I am very impressed by the structural integrity of this particular shaft. I don't know how much importance the nock collar played in the survival of the shaft and maybe the bi-directional wrap of the graphite played a part too, but one thing is for sure, every other graphite shaft I have shot that hit very hard or rock like objects have been throw aways.
Another tick of approval for Carbon Express from me at any rate.
I have yet to try these but I do like the Carbon Express arrows for sure. Thanks for shooting the wall and saving me the trouble!!
Wow. What'd the wall look like?
Excellent photos.
Good grief ,they look fine . I put 2 arrows (G/T Traditionals ) in the Wall lastnight and they mushroomed at the end , they will now go to arrow heaven :(
I can assure you that the collars made a huge difference in the ability of the shaft to resist being damaged.
Allan
I do not hunt walls, but I do get my share of rocks and boulders out here in this desert. When I get one I always say, "yep, that is what I shot at"