Top Mistakes Bowhunters Make When Buying Arrows

In a world of plentiful options, most folks tend to follow the trends. Total arrow weights, FOC percentages, and broadhead selection all seem to follow the hot trend of the day. While there's nothing wrong with trying new things, it's wrong to blindly jump in with two feet. It is always best to educate yourself and tinker before settling on the arrow setup you plan to hunt with.
While we're new to the archery world from a manufacturing point, we are anything but new to educating ourselves and tinkering. Here's some of the mistakes we have made over the last decade and some of the most common mistakes we see when interacting with customers when it comes to purchasing hunting arrows.
BELIEVE STRAIGHTER IS BETTER
Reading this title, some of you may be thinking I'm full of BS but before I lose you hear me out as we have spent many man hours testing this out of a shooting machine.
SELECTING THE WRONG SPINE
Selecting the wrong static spine for your hunting arrow is an Achilles heel right from the start. Being underspined or too far over spined can keep you from achieve your ultimate goal of perfect arrow flight.
When selecting your ideal hunting arrow spine it's important to factor in things outside of your draw weight, draw length, and point weight. Often times people over look the actual length of the arrow vs their draw length. Also archery hunters tend to not think about any additional front weight coming in from front end components. All of this will effect the spine of your hunting arrow shaft. By adding arrow length and/or weight up front you increase the amount of deflection in the arrow shaft. Doing the opposite will give you less deflection.
NOT UNDERSTANDING YOUR FULL SETUP
Every setup has pros and cons, and it goes much beyond the arrow shaft.
Go super heavy and you're arrow will be super slow leaving no room for yardage errors however you'll have momentum on your side. Go super light and your arrow will be fast but have less momentum.
IGNORING THE BACK END
Taking time to think about proper nock fit isn't sexy and for most bowhunters it's not even a thought until there's a problem. In reality your arrow's nock is the single component responsible for transferring the work from your bow into energy and momentum in your arrow. When you take that prospective it's much more obvious your arrow's nock can dramatic influence your arrow's flight, accuracy, and clocking.
If you experience your arrow rising or lifting off your rest when drawing your bow you know you have a problem. If you can see or feel slop between the nock's throat and bow string you know you also have a problem. I would argue being too loose is better than being too tight but neither is really acceptable.
Proper nock fit revolves around understanding the total diameter of your bowstring where the center serving size, nocking point, is located. If you're like the majority of people and have no idea the actual diameter you can easily take a measurement with a micrometer. If you're still shooting factory strings a simple inquiry to the bow manufacturer should reveal the needed info. If you're running after market strings, you're string maker should have the diameter on record also.
Proper nock fit should be snug but not overly tight. An easy test is too nock and arrow, hold your bow horizontal with the string up, proceed to smack the string. If the arrow comes off your nock fit is ok. If the arrow doesn't want to leave the string then you likely have a problem. On the flip slide if the arrow leaves the string without much force or has lots of wiggle then your nock is likely too loose.
BUYING BASED ON THE "COOL" FACTOR
Although this point is subjective, most archery hunters who truly care about maximizing performance in from every aspect will agree. Arrow wraps and wild branding really have no place on arrow builds for archery hunters looking to maximize performance. If the individual component is not aiding in better performance than it doesn't belong on your hunting arrow.
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