Overspined arrows

[Bob Frapples]

Is it possible to have too much arrow spine? I would think it would mearly sacrifice speed but retain downrange KE better, recover quicker, shoot quieter and perhaps buck crosswinds a little better.

I grabbed up a couple dozed fmj 400 from camofire when they were on sale. They are for my alphamax 32 , 28 .5\" draw at 67 lbs.

Recently I saw a chart that showed I should have gotten 340\'s instead of the 400\'s. I\'m much more interested in acuracy than anything else.
After restringing my bow it still had fletching contact issues but I think that is cleared now but yesterday shooting at 40 yrds I could see some arrows corkscrewing out past 30 yards. This is with my older 5575 goldtip arrows, I\'m hoping the slower fmj will allow my rest more time to clear the fletchings as well.

My arrow saw blade is broken in the mean time so it\'ll be a couple more days b4 I can even start with the fmj\'s.

 

[cnelk]

Much better to err on over-spine than under spine...

 

[mtnmutt]

If the chart said the set up needs 340 and the arrows you bought are 400, then the 400s are underspined and could be dangerous. Perhaps I missed something in the OP. 400s would be underspined compared to the 340s.

Charts are guidelines.

The easton chart called for 500s for my setup, however, the shop tech and I could not get my bow tuned until I went to the stiffer 400 spine.

 

[Bob Frapples]

.......
The easton chart called for 500s for my setup, however, the shop tech and I could not get my bow tuned until I went to the stiffer 400 spine.

Yeah that\'s what got me, I used the easton chart initially and it showed 400 so I stocked up on those when they were on sale. The new chart I saw was in cabelas and that got me digging a little deeper.

 

[bowhunter]

Mtnmutt is correct your arrow is underspined. The weight of your point that you are pushing effects things too. Here is a spine chart to refer to.

 

[sojourner65]

This topic has me confused. I am shooting 54 lbs out of my Elite. I was sold Gold Tip 300\'s by Cabela\'s, and I had a lot of problems with BH accuracy. I went to a different outfitter and he recommended Easton Axis at 500, and I can now drop a FBBH into the bulls eye at 40 yds (which is pretty much gonna be my max). According to that chart, neither are correct. So do I buy more arrows at 400? What is the danger of shooting the 500\'s? Shooting 100 gr BHs.

*As a matter of fact, I\'was so confused I had my spines mixed up. Post now shows corrected spine numbers. Sorry everybody! :crazy:

 

[bowhunter]

This topic has me confused. I am shooting 54 lbs out of my Elite. I was sold Gold Tip 500\'s by Cabela\'s, and I had a lot of problems with BH accuracy. I went to a different outfitter and he recommended Easton Axis at 300, and I can now drop a FBBH into the bulls eye at 40 yds (which is pretty much gonna be my max). According to that chart, neither are correct. So do I buy more arrows at 400? What is the danger of shooting the 300\'s? Shooting 100 gr BHs.

The danger is shooting an underspined arrow. If you are shooting one overspined you might not get the best accuracy. It sounds like your 300\'s are shooting pretty good for you and if you do increase your draw weight a little you will still be ok.

 

[sojourner65]

This topic has me confused. I am shooting 54 lbs out of my Elite. I was sold Gold Tip 500\'s by Cabela\'s, and I had a lot of problems with BH accuracy. I went to a different outfitter and he recommended Easton Axis at 300, and I can now drop a FBBH into the bulls eye at 40 yds (which is pretty much gonna be my max). According to that chart, neither are correct. So do I buy more arrows at 400? What is the danger of shooting the 300\'s? Shooting 100 gr BHs.

The danger is shooting an underspined arrow. If you are shooting one overspined you might not get the best accuracy. It sounds like your 300\'s are shooting pretty good for you and if you do increase your draw weight a little you will still be ok.

Thanks Terry, so is the 300 under or over spined for my bow, that\'s what I don\'t understand.

 

[mtnmutt]

so is the 300 under or over spined for my bow, that\'s what I don\'t understand.

Overspined or in your case, may be spot on for spine. You would have to try the 400s and 300s with FP and BH and see how they both perform.

The lower the number, the stiffer the spine. 300 is a stiffer spine than 400.

 

[Bob Frapples]

Well fiddle, I ordered a dozen 340\'s and will play with both, I suspect I\'ll have some new and some used 400\'s for sale soon.

 

[sojourner65]

Well fiddle, I ordered a dozen 340\'s and will play with both, I suspect I\'ll have some new and some used 400\'s for sale soon.

I found no difference with the 400/500 spines with my bow. As a matter of fact, shooting tonight, I was dropping bulls eyes at 30+ yds with both the 400 and the 500.

 

[Bob Frapples]

I\'ve not got much time in with my bow since I hurt my shoulder but so far I\'m not seen any difference between the 340 and 400\'s. I probably need to lower my nock point to compensat for these smaller diameter arrows too. I went from gold tip 5575 to these FMJ\'s

I do seem to string these arrows more vertically verses in a big basketball size array at distance.

 

[Bullnuts]

Going back to your original question Bob, yes, you can have an over spined arrow, and the 400 should actually be fine for you with the 100 grain tip. Over spined arrows aren\'t dangerous to shoot, but they will affect your accuracy. If you want to increase your spine, you can go with a lighter tip or drop your draw weight. That really shouldn\'t be necessary in your case, though.
If you\'re seeing cork screwing, that\'s typical of arrow contact. Spray some foot powder on your rest and riser and see if your arrow is hitting anything as it launches. I\'m assuming that you\'re using a drop away rest, too, so you\'ll want to make sure it\'s timed. You mentioned that you put a new string on. Did you change the cable too? Your rest should come fully up within the last 2 inches of draw. I actually like to have my rest fully extended in the last 1 - 1 1/2 inches of draw just to make sure it drops quickly.

 

[Bob Frapples]

With either of these fmj arrows (340\'s and 400\'s) I don\'t see any of the corkscrew I had with the others. In my mind the extra 100 plus grain arrow weight was going to help with fall away rest drop time. With lipstick on the rest, the fletching are now all clear.

Yes, all cables were changed, and I\'m shooting 100gr tips.

How would an overspined arrow reduce accuracy ? I can understand how an underspined one would by taking much longer to recover after leaving the bow, but to have it recover even faster seems to me like would be better as far as accuracy. Of course the trade off would be the added weight of the arrow for the stiffness gained.

 

[cnelk]

Below is a link from Slick Trick that has some very good info

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[Bullnuts]

If you think of spine as a shock absorber, the arrow is supposed to bend and absorb the shock of all the bow\'s energy as it heads down range. Too weak of an arrow will bend severely and break. Too stiff an arrow won\'t bend enough, so the oscillations will be wider as the arrow tries to recover its natural straight line course. Perfectly spined arrows should bend during flight, but shouldn\'t bend so much that the arrow is pulled off its straight path.

 

[Bob Frapples]

I blind bid on a 1/2 dozen easton 340 fmj on the cheap side and would up winning them off ebay. They are black diamond 11.3 GPI the same as my 340 Axis Fmj which are camo, same stats. My question is what is the difference in these? Is Axis just a camo name ? I can\'t seem to find any info detailing the difference.

 

[mtnmutt]

For Easton arrows, the camo is sometimes a higher gpi than the diamond arrows. That is the case for the Axis N-Fused that I use. The Axis N-Fused 400 realtree (camo) are 9.8gpi and the diamond are 9.0 gpi. I use the diamond.

I was not able to find a FMJ Camo chart on eastonhunting.com. Did easton stop making those?

You may have bought old models that are no longer made by Easton or they renamed them.

I pulled up On Target2 Arrow selection tool which has a database of past and present arrows and it has these specs for 340 FMJ. As long as they are the Diamond Camo, they appear to have the same gpi as the GunMetal (diamond). Weigh them when you get them to compare them.
GunMetal (diamond) 11.3 gpi
Lost 11.1 gpi
Diamond Camo 11.3 gpi

 

[Bob Frapples]

After building up these 340 arrows for my bow, the black diamond bare shaft weight in at 360gr and the camo axis (which are diamond camo) are exactly the same weight.
My 400\'s weight only 30gr less.

I still have some 125 gr snuffer with much larger cutting diameter than these 100gr that I\'m thinking about using but will be focusing on wich combo flies best.

As of now I notice the 340\'s are hitting about 4\" right at 70.
I\'m still stumped over the \"AXIS\"
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[sojourner65]

As was mentioned, when I used the heavier than recommended spine, accuracy suffered.