Another spine check

[Mtrain]

Just wondered if people could confirm my suspicions. I’m shooting a realm x at 70# dl is 31 inches with 175 gr broadhead. Currently shooting goldtip hunter 300 spine at 30.75 inches. All the charts say I should be shooting stiffer. Is 250 spine the way to go? I was hoping to find a pre fletched arrow in that spine but not too heavy as current arrow weight is around 503. Happy for a little more weight but not more than necessary. Any recommendations would be appreciated.

 

[Brendan]

That's a lot of weight up front, you're even marginal for a 250 spine. A total weight of point/broadhead, insert, and a collar if you run one - I wouldn't go heavier than about 175gr up front on a 250 spine.

Shorter arrow, less tip weight, or go to a 200.

 

[Mtrain]

Thanks, that was what I thought. More out of curiosity how are people able to run these really heavy points if they have long draw lengths. It seems like it would be hard to find properly spined arrows. How much difference would it make to shorten my arrow up to an inch?

 

[406unltd]

I would. I shoot realm x at 30.5/70 with 250 arrows cut to 29.5 tipped with 210g heads and 21g sleeve. Id say you need to spine up if you’re having tuning issues/ Erratic flight. Black eagle x impact has 9.5 gpi 250’s

 

[Brendan]

Anyone with a long draw will have this issue.

You can shorten your arrow. I run a 29.5" DL, and my arrows are around 27.5" carbon to carbon. I run a hamskea that runs a little further back in its' adjustment range.

At the same time - super heavy point weight (i.e. high FOC) is pretty unnecessary unless you're planning on going for heavy bone breaking shots...

 

[Mtrain]

Thanks. Not necessarily chasing the high foc thing. I think when I used gold tips calculator it said I was currently at 14%. If stiffer spines were getting heavier and you need a stiffer spine for longer arrow and heavier points I wondered how people can actually achieve these crazy high foc. I reckon a happy medium might be good. Any way I’ll look for something around 250 spine and see about a shorter arrow.

 

[Brendan]

That's the thing - achieving crazy high FOC is a lot harder than people think, if you actually care about an arrow that's spined correctly and flies well.

You can go all the way up to a 150 spine arrow if you really want to load up the front, but that's a pretty heavy shaft.

 

[Beendare]

General rule; Never be under spined with a hunting arrow. You sir are under spined.

Now a guy with perfect form can shoot an under spined setup. I shoot 3D with guys that do for faster arrow speed but thats FP's....... it's asking for problems with BH's...hard to get them to tune or fly perfect ESPECIALLY in a hunting situation. Better to be over spined than under....as those will tune fine.

easy way to check, get a FP test kit with multiple weight FP's from 100 to 300gr.

 

[KyleR1985]

Not sure if it's too short to offer any reference. I'm drawing 70#, 30" draw, 29.5" arrow nock valley to tip(28.5" C2C).

300 spine VAP RIP TKO Elite with ethics100/exodus125's up front, total arrow weight 510. They paper tuned well and fly like darts.

I built an identical setup with the black eagle .250's and they seemed just a bit stiff for me until I got to 575 grains - (ethics100/150gr field tip).

 

[Mtrain]

So would there likely be any downsides to ordering 250 spines cut one inch shorter than my current arrows without doing a test first. It’s hard to get 250s individually here and I’m not set up to cut and make my own arrows yet. Opinions seem to be that I’m better to be overspined than under. Honestly I’m probably the least consistent part of my setup.

 

[Brendan]

So would there likely be any downsides to ordering 250 spines cut one inch shorter than my current arrows without doing a test first. It’s hard to get 250s individually here and I’m not set up to cut and make my own arrows yet. Opinions seem to be that I’m better to be overspined than under. Honestly I’m probably the least consistent part of my setup.

Sounds like it should work fine, although with your draw length and arrow length I'm not sure how 200+ grains up front would work. You could probably even shorten arrows from the nock end at a later date if you want to go shorter and stiffer, that depends on your rest, if you're running collars, etc. I personally run a 27.25" arrow (carbon to carbon) with a 29.25" - 29.5" draw.

 

[KyleR1985]

I would be surprised based on my limited observations if a .250 spine with 200 grains up front didn't fly well at 29 inches long. What's the shortest arrow you can comfortably shoot? I have some .250's cut to 28.125 from front of nock valley to tip of carbon(has a half out insert in it). I could send you a couple if you can shoot them. If not, Lancaster has about 25 different .250 shafts most of which you can buy one of, cut to your length. You can buy that for 20-30 bucks depending on shaft and shipping, and another 15.00 for a field tip test kit from ethics archery, and shoot 85-300 grains to figure out what works best. This is something good to have on hand anyway.

 

[Don Qui Puncher]

So would there likely be any downsides to ordering 250 spines cut one inch shorter than my current arrows without doing a test first. It’s hard to get 250s individually here and I’m not set up to cut and make my own arrows yet. Opinions seem to be that I’m better to be overspined than under. Honestly I’m probably the least consistent part of my setup.

Lancaster archery sells single shafts on almost all shafts they carry you could buy a couple 250's and 200's if you want and test both

 

[Mtrain]

Thanks for those offers but I need to alter my profile to show I am in Australia. The bow hunting market is just a little smaller here than in the states. Most stores only seem to carry 250 spine bare shafts in packs of twelve. This is the reason for all the questions rather than just grabbing a couple and testing to see what shoots best. I might order a test kit from the us and figure out which arrows to try next from what is available here. As an example gold tip kinetic pierce unfletched will cost about $280 a dozen here.

 

[NJDiverDan]

I run into the same issues. 32.5" draw length here. With my OLD bowtech I was getting away with a .300 BE Deep Impact with the 40 grain outsert and a 125 grain head. I just purchased a new Mathews Traverse and I am having some spine issues that I am quickly trying to resolve, but I will probably need to go to a .250 or drop down to a 100 grain point, which I would rather not have to purchase all new broadheads.