arrows shattering at 70 yards

[DLP]

Hi. So I was target shooting with some old and new arrows on the weekend. Got some Easton powerflights in 29 inches, with target point and regular 3.5 inch fletching. first round at 50 yards ok. second round at 60 yards ok. third round not ok. all three new arrows hit the Styrofoam target at weird angles and the tips on two shattered, the third shattered 6 inches from nok? any idea what gives? fyi I am shooting a pse diablo in 70lbs with 29 inch draw. arrows were 400g.

[aggiehunter]

have you paper tuned your shafts...

[TheProvider]

Who cut you arrows? Do you have more new arrows that you can inspect for a cause? Arrows may have splintered when they were cut to length. I would inspect all arrows very carefully. You don't want a handful of carbon splinters.

[The Dawg]

How old are they? Have you flex tested them ?

[Bowzone_Mikey]

I would look at the flight of the arrows

But the first place I would look would be the spine of the shaft ... I suspect they are 400 spine not 400 grains in weight, does it say "400" on the shaft? with a 100 grain points ... at 29" long out of a 70 pound Diablo with a 29' draw ... they would have the flight charictoristics of a wet spagetti noodle.

You are lucky they didnt explode upon release and splinter up your hand.

at those bow specs with a 29" arrow you would need a 340 spine arrow minimum .. I would lean closer to 300. (Stiffer than what you have)

Spine is the amount of flex an arrow has

to measure you take a shaft and support it at 2 points 29" apart ... hang a 2.1 pound weight (not 100% sure on weight but that number is my mind at the moment) in the middle. How much that arrow shaft deflects is its spine ... for instance if the middle deflects or drops with the weight 0.400 of an inch then its a 400 spine, 1/2 an inch its a 500 spine, 0.340 of an inch then a 340 etc....
with that in mind however there differant arrow manufacturers that label the spine differantly ... Carbon Express for instand markets draw weight reccomendations ie: 4565 series meaning that arrow is good for 45 pound to 65 pound bows at 29" .. but that depends on the point with a 45 pound bow I would put a heavy point on say 150 grains ... on a 65 pound bow I would go lighter say an 85 or even a 70 .. at 55 I would use the most common of 100 grains

PSE and others use 100 , 200, 300 series ... I dont use these arrows much ... but I think 100s are the weakest spine and 300 are the toughest ... 100 would be equal to a 0.500 deflection , 200 series = to a 0.400 deflection and 300=0.300 or alike ...
You can look up on each manufacturers website (google is a great tool) for specs of each shaft

[DLP]

have not paper tuned it and those were the arrows sent to me with the bow. thanks for the ino bowzone, i will adjust accordinly.

[DLP]

wow. so I took my bow in for a tune up and they told me the poundage is actually at 56 not 70! so those 400 arrows should have worked ok. most likely the tips were just cut improperly and shattered because of this. so now I have the bow at 60lbs and I bought 200 spine arrows in 30 inch lengths. hopefully this works better. still doesn't explain why at 70 yards the arrows hit target at crazy angles, yet at 60 yards they were dead straight.

[Bowzone_Mikey]

200 spine ... or 200 series? 200 spine is awefull stiff for 60 pounds

[DLP]

not sure. its the 200 series pse hunter radial x weave

[RoscoeP]

not sure. its the 200 series pse hunter radial x weave

That would be about a 400 spine, should be fine in your bow, if it was a 70lb bow then you would need the 300 series. I wish all the arrow makers would get the same system. Cheers Roscoe