Did some testing last night, I ordered some Footed shafts form Great Basin Footed Shafts. In the past when ordering wooden shafts I would have trouble getting the correct spine as ordered. I ordered 3 different spines from GBFS and all were spot on, also a perfect shafts. I also found that Victory carbon shafts to be perfect spine. I find when building any arrows it's real inportent to know the spine. Like others I found that the spine was off on different sides of a carbon shaft. Here is on result from a carbon I tested last night, .400 spine shaft (GT 55/75) cock feather, .410, hen feather .421, hen, .416... I don't know if it makes any real differance but just FYI. This seams to be my findings on alot of carbon shafts. I have found shafts that were marked .500 spine that were in the .440 spine area, I think this would make a differance.

The gold tips that I have tested in the past have been terrible with some plus or minus spines ranging over 10#'s different in the same dozen.  It got so bad, I switched to CE's and have been VERY happy.  The best spine tolerances I have tested in carbons.  To bad too, cause I really liked the looks of the GT trad's.  Maybe they have improved the last year or two, but I haven't wanted to take the chance and try them again, even at the great prices for the blems.  Maybe someone with a new dozen of the GT trad blems can spine them all and give me some hope!

I just received a new dozen of Big Jim's blems, Vapor Hunter Camo Series 400's which he said are close to identical with GT 55-75.  I checked them all on my Ace Spine Master at random, rotating some to check for uniformity on different sides of the shaft. I found them to be quite uniform, showing .33 - .34 deflection consistently (.825 x .400) and also uniform as I rotated the shaft.  I also checked some GT55-75 camo shafts I got previously from Big Jim.  They seemed to vary a little more (.33-.36), but I have been shooting them out of a couple of different bows and have not really found the arrow flight to be erratic.  I have heard that the GT Trads were more inconsistent spine-wise but I have not checked any of them. I have a bunch of 35-55 trads that I can't get to shoot out of anything so maybe I'll check the spine for consistency.

I did the same thing with my Surewoods.  They will stack up against any shaft for consistence.  Only aluminum is better.

I'd be interested in hearing what you guys are coming up with on the goldtip trads....3555 etc....

Well, I shoot AD Trads, and I am very happy with them. They fly great out of all my bows. Now I prefer the woodgrain ones and to me they are better than the black ones(I have had some of those that did not fly correctly for me)But I do have a couple doz of the black and they fly just fine. I do not check their spine like I did when I shot wood. I shoot from 245 to 400 gr up front and they all fly just great.

AD Trad's have been like that for a lot of years and years.  Their design makes them the great flying arrow that they are.  I don't have any flight issues with them even with the static spine variation.  Like Danny said, they also offer a lot of flexibility in point weight too. dino

I'll give the ADs this, they were straight. I didn't check them for weight variation. Personally, I need my shafts to be matched well. It may just be in my head, but it bothers me  

Craig