Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting Carbon or aluminum traditional arrows.

I just recently have new, lighter limbs for my Shafer Silvertip recurve. I used to shoot 65# at 29” out of the 62” recurve. Now it’s 54# at 29”. My old arrows were 2117 Easton Legacy which worked well with the heavier draw. Now I’m trying 2018 Legacy’s, I’m not super happy with the way they fly off the bow, so I’m thinking of trying a couple other arrows. I just saw the wood pattern carbon arrows in a local archery shop. Has anybody tried these off a recurve or longbow? How do you like them?

2117 should work well if they are fast flight limbs. If not either .400 or .340 carbon should work fine depending on how much you want them to weigh.

Carbons work great. figure out the total wt. of broadhead, inserts, etc. to get your rough spine # and then bare shaft tune before you glue up feathers. The carbon will outlast aluminum by far over a season of practice pulling out targets, misses, stump shooting etc. When I used to shoot recurves more I beat the living hell of carbon arrows and only broke them hitting rocks on misses, and even then a few escaped that.

Carbon is more durable for sure if you get heavier hunting rather than target arrows. You will likely shoot something in the .400 range. Do not cut carbons to length and expect them to shoot perfect. Youu need to start full length and bare shaft tune cutting as little as 1/4" at a time.

Aluminum seems to be more forgiving over the range, but I also have some bows that shoot a variety of spines fairly well.

I've shot recurves and longbows since the 1970's and always preferred wood to aluminum shafts. Aluminum were always noisier and harsher shooting than wood. 10 or so years ago I tackled the learning curve of making carbons work - extra tip weight to achieve correct spine, tuning, etc.

I still like the idea of wood, but carbons are what I mostly shoot now due to consistency and durability.

I have used 2117 aluminum shafts with my recurves in those similar draw weight ranges and then shoot fine.

I would think 2018s would be a little weak potentially depending on point weight.

I have also used .400 spine carbons (Carbon Express piledriver 250-they have their own number system but this is a .400 spine) . The .400s I experimented by adding brass inserts and settled on 50 grain brass with 150 broad heads. With 4" feathers and a wrap total arrow weight is around 550 grains or so. Carbons are much quieter than aluminum in the woods and on the bow if incidental contact is made with shelf etc.

Long way of saying that 2117s should be fine and if you want to develop carbons .400’s would be a good place to start.

I would try to shoot the flattest shooting ones that were grouping.


( for deer)

As a side note I had a heeler dog that would find my lost aluminum arrows. She often would bring them back. She was no where close to being able to find the carbon ones.

I’ve shot traditional for a long time and I shoot all three shaft types but wood is my favorite for hunting. What I like is that they are simple and no inserts to replace, feathers stay on even in extreme cold. But if you buy wood shafts, buy them from an arrow place like Footed shaft or Twig archery where they have some nice shafts. I do like the tapered shafts with the weight forward and both of these shops offer them. So the front of the shaft is 11/32 or 23/64 up front and tapered to 5/16 in the nock. They just fly super straight.

I wish this site had “like” buttons. Lots of super helpful comments.

How about Three Rivers Archery? Are they a good source? That’s who I’ve used in the past.

Three Rivers is the Midway USA of archery. If you need something, they usually have it, but someone else will always have the same thing cheaper.

I can’t remember but I don’t think 3 Rivers weight matches their shafts. Some of the arrow companies weight match their shafts to within 5-10 grains.

Assume you're talking wood shafts and agree larger places like 3 Rivers (as well as most trad suppliers) don't weight match shafts. A couple of the better wood shaft suppliers have been mentioned above and I'd add Ted Fry of Raptor Archery for top quality wood shafts.

I've gotten so anal about good wood shafting, I actually started making my own a number of years back. Best wood shafts I've ever used, but way to much work and good/consistent materials are near impossible to get.

Carbon, if you like wood, get the wood veneered ones. Shooting Trad is tough enough without having to shoot inconsistent arrows.

Carbon. It straight or it’s broken.

^^^THIS^^^

But I'm not a recurve guy, so you guys might think differently. I didn't even realize that they still made aluminum. I know with a compound, Carbon fly substantially faster than aluminum. There's nothing worse than a bent aluminum arrow.

I run Goldtips in everything.
Have various weights and inserts to get beautiful papertune/ flight.


Most carbon charts suck.

Better to use the 3 Rivers calculator

I made woods for my first Blackwidow around 88.
Got em from 3 Rivers....when it was a shop in a basement of a house down from a relatives

I still buy wood shafts. They aren't cheap, but I find them more forgiving. I've got a bunch of carbon arrows that work well, but you have to be very consistent in your draw or the spine will "stiffen" on you. Wood doesn't do that, and they sound much more natural coming off the bow if you're hunting skittish animals.

And I gotta be close. I'm not one of these guys that is confident shooting deer at 30 yards with a longbow.

Another place to go for trad stuff is Kustom King Archery

Carbon, and Gold Tip traditional arrows @Lancaster.