It seems to me that the tapered wooden shaft (11/32 down to 5/16 seems a standard)would be the best choice for weight forward improvement. Is the tapered shaft better that the straight shaft for any reason?

i've tapered hundreds of 11/32" shafts down to a 10" long 5/16" taper and no matter the wood type - soft or hard - the added foc is really not much at all, almost not even noticeable.

tapered shafts are s'posed to leave the bow cleaner and with less concern over arrow spine.  depending on the bow, the archer and the arrow spex in question, you'll find mixed opinions on the value of butt tapered arrows.

All shafts were tapered before the advent of mass production. There must have been a reason!

More experienced archers say that tapered arrows shoot better. They recover from paradox more quickly because the tapered end is lighter in weight. That improves efficiency and the arrow shoots harder and flatter.

I have noticed that my tapered shafts fly better than my straight shafts, why? I have no idea but they are all I'll use now!!

With guys like Rob and Don recommending them how can we shoot anything else-Eh?

perhaps the larger number of ancient arrows had naturally tapered shafts - cane type shoots.

like lots of things about trad archery, tapered shafts is one of those things that's NOT a mainstay gotta-have given, just something on the periphery that might make shootin' better, easier, etc.

i diverge a bit ... best to think of trad archery first in terms of the simplistic basics - a decent bow with the best matched arrows possible that yield consistently good arrow flight, and of course your ability to slip that really sharp c-o-c broadhead into a critter's boiler room.     all the rest of the nuances (arrow type, string type, feather type  shape foc, gpp, lmnop, etc and ad nauseam) aren't as important .... ymmv.

Nock tapers are critical on paralel shafts as well of course, but in my limited experience with tapered shafts they seem to be a potential problem area.

im not sure how critical it is but when i build my own arrows i taper the last 10 inches of them. i figure if anything it helps to balance out the weight of cresting/fletching, and gives a little more forgiveness in the area of FOC. never thought about faster recovery but makes sense, so does coming off the bow cleaner.

I've shot parallel and tapered shafts for more than 40 years.  A good parallel shaft will shoot as well as a good tapered shaft, IMO.  Or, let me put it another way.  If there is a difference, few people can shoot the difference.

Consider that aluminum shafts and almost all carbon shafts are parallel.  

That being said, I taper most of my hunting arrows, unless I want the heaviest arrow I can make.  Putting a 10-inch taper on a 11/32 POC shaft will take about 20-25 grains off the shaft and that will increase FOC about 1%, not much of a difference.

In my experience, for arrows made from HARDWOODS - one can usually detect a significant difference when using shafts tapered on the nock end over parallel shafts.

POC, alumi-logs, and carbon all have faster recovery than hardwoods so for most archers parallel shafts in these materials will seem similar to shafts of the same material tapered at the nock end.

How's that for a generaliztion?

BTW - I shoot 'em all - as long as they are straight and properly spined!

Shoot straight, Shinken

I like tapered shafts because they look cool,

and there's never any doubt in my primordial

sub-genius half-wit brain stem as to which

end is which   :D

I prefer them over parallel shafts, too.  Seems they just shoot better...

I like tapered shafts because the smaller nock fits better between my dainty fingers.    
Jack

I think the problem with some is that they "try" tapered shafts. But they don't adjust their nock or adjust the point weight...just tune the setup differently than what was required or their parallel shafts. So they don't like the results. Too bad, because tapered shafts fly great and penetrate!  Hey, I'm a poem and didn't know it! haha