bow help....

[RabbleRouser]

My buddy passed away recently and his father gave me his Darton compound bow, I have sighted it in and have been practicing with some aluminum arrows I had from my recurve bow. I purchased a couple carbon arrows today to see how they would fly and because the bow shoots with so much more force than my recurve the aluminum arrows were getting bent when they would shoot through the target and hit the wooden fence behind it. The carbon arrows were a few inches shorter than the aluminum ones I had been using to date. I started off by shooting a practice shot with an aluminum arrow and it was right on the money. I nocked a carbon arrow and attached my release....drew the string and dropped the sight pin over the target. when I pulled the trigger the sound was a lot louder than normal, the arrow flew a foot and a half farther to the right than I had aimed....I went to retrieve the arrows and the carbon one was destroyed. The shaft had more or less exploded right under the fletches. I went to shoot another aluminum arrow to make sure everything was alright and that's when I noticed a few things. first thing was that my kisser button had flown off....second my string peep sight had cracked and split in half and finally my bow hand had a small gash right near the thumb. how badly have I screwed up?

the arrow




the peep sight


my hand

 

[WilsonMD]

You said the carbons are shorter? How much? Is the arrow long enough to sit on the rest at full draw, or does it come up short?

 

[RabbleRouser]

it sits fully on the rest at full draw but only has an inch and a half or so left from the rest to the tip.
I have replaced the kisser button and put on a new peep sight, inspected the cams for damage and found none. It shoots true enough so I assume I didn't do any damage.
can anyone recommend a good carbon arrow that will work as well as my aluminum ones without getting bent to hell and back?

 

[cce1302]

Go to an archery shop. I've had pretty good success at the shop down on 6&31. Jim's archery shop.

You may be shooting too light of arrows. He can help you match the arrows to your draw weight & length. Prices seem decent. last time I bought from him they were $45 for 6 carbon arrows cut to length and field points installed.

 

[Mister K]

I shoot compound and traditional bows. 1st, get a target designed for the power of a compound, something like a BLOCK target.
I'm sure your recurve arrows spine weight is not proper for the compound? I don't know what spine weight rating your carbon arrows are, but they seem to be under size. The proper answer would be to take your setup to a qualified archery shop and have them look it over, until then, check these links out for better info:
Arrow Safety Warning - Hunter's Friend
3Rivers Archery Equipment, Traditional Youth Archery Bows and Arrows, and Long Bow Hunting
Both of these sites have a lot more archery info than just those two pages. Check out the "support" section from the first and the "ask the experts" section from the second links home page. Hope this helps.

 

[JeremiahJohnson]

Not much to add, but carbon arrows can be MUCH lighter than aluminum arrows. A good pro shop can get you rolling, but you must standardize on one lenght and spine. These are determined by your draw length and the weight of the bow and type of bow. Your pro shop can adjust your bow to your draw length and recommend a good carbon or aluminum to standardize on. Aluminum arrows are cheeper, but may bend and be difficult to detect a bend until it's flown. Carbon is much more expensive, but much more reliable and consistent.

It's likely your bow is fine. Shooting the lighter arrow is approaching "dry firing" the bow and that's a bad thing. Don't shoot it until you get a good pro shop to go over it for you.

 

[williamnewman1]

I had an arrow do that to me when I was first getting into archery a couple years ago. My brothers and I were all starting out in bows and I shooting 29" and 70lb and them shooting 26-27" and 45lb or so ....
We were shooting eachothers arrows that we had gotten a bulk of and I shot an arrow..... heard the "pow" and picked a few chunks of fiber glass out of my face. I looked at the arrow and it was rated for 30-50lbs and I assume the draw weight of my bow just "smashed" it.
Lesson learned ..........

 

[eric001]

If you're up to a little reading, the following website does a pretty thorough job of fitting arrow weight (carbon fiber) to bow strength and pull weights:

Carbon Arrow University - Arrow Spine & Tip Weight

 

[Hookeye]

What kind of release?
Have seen folks shoot without cushion buttons or string loops, have the release right up against the arrow's nock.
Some older inexpenesive releases (like the cheaper knock offs that kinda sorta look like the old "Hot Shot")........might work so so with different nock types maybe found on some aluminum arrows (esp vintage ones)..............but going to a more "speed nock" type on a carbon may prove dangerous.

Had a guy with string loop and speed nocks pop one off barely, at full draw and let 'er go. Blew the carbon as it slapped the riser.

Blamed the arrows, badmouthed the manufacturer for 6 months before he did it again and actually noticed it (or had somebody notice it and inform him of the failure mechanism).

 

[Kernal1984]

Your very lucky you just had a small cut, I watched a guy shoot a carbon arrow that was not the proper spline count for his bow and it ended up in his hand.

Go to an archery shop and talk with a professional and get some properly sized arrows for your bow.

BE CAREFUL!!!!

Warning!!! Graphic pic Google Image Result for http://www.texasarchery.org/images/brokenarrow/CEarrow410-21-04.jpg

Just a random pic form the interwebz but you get the idea.

 

[jath08]

Not to purposely copy cat anything that anyone else has stated but to mainly reinforce the previously stated posts by everyone especially JeremiahJohnson and Kernal1984's posts.

Sounds like the carbon arrow was under spined for the poundage your shooting. Shooting too light a weight arrow (under spined) can be just as bad as dry firing a bow and in some cases worse. Take everyones advice and Get it to a archery shop before you shoot it again.

Getting hurt when shooting a bow, especially just getting into it, is not something I like to see anyone have to experience. SAFETY SAFETY SAFETY!!! Priority number one!!

I don't have any actual pics of my "accident" but lets just say it looked a little like the picture that Kernal1984 posted.. My Goldtips were correctly spined and my bow was properly tuned, set up correctly, and everything was in excellent working order. I didn't notice though, that one of my arrows had developed stress cracks in the carbon and had lost its spine, presumably from shooting it a thousand times over.