Iam cuureny shooting hold tips with my setup. I must say the most durable shaft I've shot is the MFX. My GT's are nice. Fly good but definetly not as tough. Bill
I am finding the new Axis Trad even more durable than my beloved MFX Classics were!
I'm a big fan of the Full Metal Jackets, personally. I've had better luck with those against stumps than most others.
FMJ's also.
Any of them will be unbreakable if you foot them with aluminum but for a shaft without an aluminum footing my vote goes to the AD shafts.
My GT trads are very durable. I have only wrecked two other than robbing hooding. No shaft takes that very well. One I shot in half with another arrow because it was hanging. The other was from a glancing blow and on a heavy piece of steel and then it slid into a corner where it wedged kind of and that did it in. The shaft snapped in half, but I also mushroomed the point, bent the brass insert, and split an aluminum footing full length. They can only be expected to take just so much.
I have only broken one carbon express heritage, but I have not subjected them to near as much at the GT trad. I just got some AD's, but not sure how they hold up until I hit a few harder things with them. Never shot the FMX, but hear a lot of good stuff about them.
Don't know what the toughest is but I've been shooting the GT 5575's lately.. If I foot the last inch with a piece of 2219 which is a snug fit, the arrows seem to take a lot of abuse. Been using that set up with a 200 Ace Hex blunt and stumping a lot. They seem to do as well as any that I've used..
CX heritage are the toughest I have found. I like small diameter so I switched to the axis FMJ and then the MFX. Now I'm shooting the Victory VAPs. I have also shot the AD shafts and they are very tough. Here is how I would rank them:
Toughest-
CX heritage
AD
MFX
FMJ
(Only been shooting the VAPs a couple weeks so hard to say)
The best shooting shaft I have ever shot is by far the VAPs.
Bonner
CX Heritage....
FMJ for me,followed closely by Axis.
Another vote for the Heritage
The wood grain finish on the gold tips and arrow dynamics seems to make the shaft much tougher then the black version. These are the only carbon I have really tried and the only ones I can comment on. Chad
By far, hands down, above all others, the old, no longer made, Carbonwoods.
You would have to try them to believe it.
Carbon Express Terminator Hunters.
I once took one with 100 grain insert and a 100 grain hard rubber blunt and shot it into a very hard old telephone pole. The bow was about 65 at my draw and the arrow about 575.
It took over 20 shots before the end finally splintered about 1/2 inch.
I've bounced many shots off rock with a judo and never broken one.
Beman MFX by far....Gold tip traditionals second.
Again, Carbon Express Heritage IMO
I have some FMJs. In fact, I have some with 2" blazer vanes that I shoot with my Axis Trads sometimes. These are my "rain-day" arrows. I was very impressed (shooting from an elevated springy rest) that these arrows, tuned up, shoot very nicely and I can switch back and forth.
The FMJ is great but because there is an aluminum tube they will bend, which is the most common loss of an alum. arrow for me.
QuoteOriginally posted by Bullfrog 1:
Iam cuureny shooting hold tips with my setup. I must say the most durable shaft I've shot is the MFX. My GT's are nice. Fly good but definetly not as tough. Bill
How where you able to compare the toughness and the durablility between the two shafts?
Beman ICS hunters, by wide margin.
Byron Ferguson Heavy Hunter, then the CX Hrritage
Just started shooting AD Trads, we'll see how they compare
Had the Axis with HIT inserts split out fairly regular
How I compared the two? Just by shooting real world shots. Through and sometime into trees. Never split the nock end on an mfx but the gt's seem to split rather easy if hitting something hard. Bill
I've broken plenty of carbon express and gold tips. Both are great arrows but trophy ridge arrows with the insert/outsert are the toughest arrow I've seen.
Ever since I started footing my Gold Tip Trads with aluminum (1.5" front, .25" back), I haven't broken/damaged a single one.
AD Trads, never broke one yet, some have been through multiple animals.
So far GT blems from Big Jim have been unbelievably tough and on the third season for the original dozen. Only mushroomed one non footed point on a target rebar stake.
Without using footings and nock rings I think Easton shafts are the most durable. I've had some of the other shafts crack on the lamination line even on foam targets.
Carbon Ex Eritage,but I have never tryed a AD
QuoteOriginally posted by Birdbow:
Again, Carbon Express Heritage IMO
X2 God bless.
Everyone has their favorite for a multitude of reasons. I've been playing with carbons a good bit since early last fall. Targets, stumps, a few rocks here and there.
AD, FMJ's and MFX Classics all seem pretty darned tough to me. I love the FMJ'S but I have a feeling they are gonna bend when I smack one against a tree. Time will tell.
Tuning has been pretty easy. Fun to play around with, I still love wood arrows and find good ones to be pretty durable as well.
Trap
I've been shooting Arrow Dynamic Trads for over a decade exclusively for lots of reasons...durability being only one.
Carbon Express Heritage but I haven't tried AD's or the Heavy Hunter
Well being new to trad archery, lets just say when I started shooting about 2 months ago my aim wasnt to hot. I put a few of my Beman Centershots into the side of my barn and they held up pretty good. So I learned that I can hit the broadside of a barn and that the Beman Centershots are tough arrows.
Easton Axis. Or if you want real tough axis Full Metal Jackets
I'll always shoot heritage not only for their perfect weight but their toughness.. there are other arrows just as tough but they usually are alot lighter,, as for AD's I used to shoot them and think I still have a few dozen and toughness wasn't the problem (except for the cheap nocks that would break off inside the back of the arrows) it was deflection consistancy when they changed the carbon formula and started doing those wraps up towards the front of the arrows,,,,, I must know about 30 people personally who won't go near them anymore.
I can't believe anything is tougher than a GT Traditional. I've shot multiple hogs with a single shaft, missed hundreds of squirrels and hit trees and rocks with them.
The only ones I remember breaking are from robin hood shots(rarely).
Being a hog guide, I see a lot of broken arrow shafts from all makers except GT.
I should point out that I have weight tubes in my GT's with brass inserts.
I agree on the GT, but I do shoot the 5575 trad with brass inserts. I think the trad shaft could be stronger than their standard shafts based on other comments I have seen at times. I think the longer brass insert helps keep the point from driving in and an aluminum footing makes them capable of surviving very hard hits on hard wood, frozen ground, and even rocks. But, that is for me shooting max 55@29.
I'll tell you what I'll do!
If you can prove to me through a youtube video, or some other means that Beman mfx's are tougher than GT Trads, I'll buy you a dozen Beman MFX shafts of your choice, or $100.00.
I shoot GT Trads exclusively; I have stuck them in trees where I had to dig them out with my knife. I have hit rocks so hard that the nock pops out of the end, and the field tip flattened out. I have been shooting one set for over three years, and wore out two sets of fletchings, all with no cracks, or splits.
I have heated the field tips up with a propane torch, to let the inserts get hot enough to turn loose of the insert, done the same with Beman MFX Classics, and they split.
Don't get me wrong, I like beman, but I don't think their tougher.
Bring it on!
I've only really shot GT Trads and CX Heritage enough to judge. CX heritage are the more durable of the two.
Got to say the FMJ...one other reason I like them is they are pretty heavy compared to a lot of all carbon arrows...saves fooling around with weighting them
The CX Heritage are really tough shafts, but for me I much prefer the gold tips for tunability, just my preference....Shawn
Carbon Express Heritage Carbon Arrows. I have shot mine thousands and thousands of times. Broken a few over the years but i still have the left from what the 12 i started out with 5 years ago.
72# bow! try this with any non-footed stock shaft & see what happens? These shafts are Tuff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRKEX4QzKUM
Carbon Express heratige 250's
Unless footed any carbons I have shot were not very durable hitting hard objects.
With footings they are very tuff unless some kind of side impact- like when they are deflected and hit something mid shaft.
Bemans Bowhunters are pretty tuff. CX Heritage are tuffer IME