I've always bought Gold Tip arrows/shafts. I always have gone with their least expensive ones, which are the Expedition Hunters.
The Expedition Hunter shafts have an advertised straightness tolerance of +/-.006” over their. Their weight tolerance is advertised as being hand weighed to within +/- 2 grains per dozen.
Last batch of 5575 Expedition Hunter arrows that I made, I cut them from both ends to get my desired arrow length, made "special sure" of the squareness of the cut(s), and also weigh each and every component to come up with finished arrows (including field tips) that were within 2 grains of each other.
The finished product flew better than any other arrow that I had ever shot - whether custom made, or factory made, or pro shop made. They were (and are) the best fliers that I have seen.
Now - I just finished getting a dozen of the more expensive XT Hunter shafts, with a guaranteed straightness tolerance of +/-.003”, plus these are advertised to be laser inspected for straightness and then hand sorted for a guaranteed weigh tolerance of +/- 2 grains per dozen.
I measured, cut, and built the arrows from these shafts with the same attention to detail as with the cheaper arrows. I am pretty anally retentive when it comes to building my own stuff.
Well - long story longer....I decided to take some of these more expensive arrows and use them for my hunting. Put some broadheads on them. Makes sense right? Use the better (more costly) arrows for broadheads? Right?
I sorted through the whole dozen to find four that spin-tested true, that is they spun straight on my arrow spinner. This without the broadhead attached!
You'd think that the more $$$$ spent, the better the product, right? Apparently not - because my cheaper shafts spun truer than the more expensive shafts.
Did I get a lousy pack? Was this just an aberration? Don't get me wrong here, I love GT shafts, but I think that I will be sticking to the cheaper ones for the next dozen that I buy.