arrow straightness...does it matter? or is it marketing hype

Hey all,
We can all agree that spine does matter for both safety and performance but does arrow straightness really matter that much. Most of the major manufacturers produce .006,.003, and .001 versions of their arrows. prices are exponetially more for the more "straight" an arrow shaft is.
For example:
Gold Tip has the Velocity Line that I find shoot nice out of my bow
The Velocity Hunter = .006 = $70/dz
The Velocity XT = .003 = $90/dz
The Velocity Pro = .001 = $130/dz

Is a straighter arrow worth the extra money?

Not for hunting. Maybe for target. But my .003 and .006 shoot no different than the .001. So many will argue about this but let them. And yes spine makes the most difference it shooting. Just my 2cents.

Hutch:cool:

Virtually all my target arrows are in .003" for straightness realm. I may have a dozen that are .001" - Victory and still in the box. I have a dozen coming for Harvest Time Archery.

Hunting arrows I like to have straighter than a dog's hind leg, so .006" gets it done.

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Originally Posted by Hutch~n~Son Archery

.003 and .006 shoot no different than the .001. So many will argue about this but let them.

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Originally Posted by SonnyThomas

Hunting arrows I like to have straighter than a dog's hind leg, so .006" gets it done.

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that's just the way it is we as a human can not shoot well enough to see a differance so take it for what it is ..a way for the arrow Co. to sort out the best, good and the yea that will work... so you pay for the best if that waht you beleave it takes for you to get it done...knowing this all mine are .0025 or less of corse :D

All mine are .003's. I knowI would never be able to tell the difference with a .001.:D

I have shot all 3 versions in the same arrow. I could never tell a difference in any of the 3, other than cost. For someone that worries about it, if you have to trim any off your arrows, take it from both ends. Usually, the slight bend is at the ends, rather than the middle. At least that's what an arrow manufacturer told me a few years ago. He said you could easily make a "6" into a "3" that way, or a "3" into a "1".

I do have to say that it wasn't too many years ago I could shoot well enough to tell the difference between .006" and .003", but not any more. Of course it really doesn't matter as I have about all the arrows or anything else I'm going to need for the rest of my shooting career.

I do have to say that I do check my arrows and most often take enough off the nock end first then cut to length from the point end. Say as you will but this can improve a .006" arrow down to .003 or even less. Even so, it's not near as important as spine deviation around a shaft or from shaft to shaft within a bundle. This might be what makes the straighter arrow shine. Not so much that they are straighter, but that their specs in general are tighter, including spine.

Although I don't shoot them much any more I still think ACC's are the cream of the crop when it comes to anything less than $150 a dozen Especially when it comes to spine deviation. I checked all my 3-18 and 3-28 shafts with a spine tester and the worse deviation I recorded was .0025". By comparison I checked my GT Entrada 600's and they were all over the place. I recorded as much as .015" deviation around one shaft---totally unacceptable in my book.

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Originally Posted by bfisher

......I still think ACC's are the cream of the crop when it comes to anything less than $150 a dozen........

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That's the money making choice for a friend of mine that shoots for the four letter "H" bow company.

Getting older, don't think I can outshoot a .006 shaft any more. :(

Some people always ask if the average Joe could tell the difference. Without getting extremely expensive I often comment that "Maybe shooting cheap arrows is what keeps the "average joe" average."

If you want to remain average then so be it, but if my desire were to be just average I would still be using a Bear Kodiak Hunter recurve that I started with in 1972 and shooting the banana shaped wooden arrows from that era.

Another analogy I use is that people will spend $700 to $900 on a bow and then go cheap on arrows. The bow is just a launch pad, gentlemen. It launches an arrow at a given velocity. What the arrow does after it leaves the bow is what's important. In general an arrow with better specs is going to shoot better.