Unfortunetly, for me much of my bowhunting career has been trial and error when it comes to what works best. I currently shoot a 54# @ 27in Custom Recurve from Jim Belcher. I shoot Cabelas carbon extreme arrows with 100 grain brass inserts and a 200 grain Abowyer Javelena lite broadhead and field point. I shoot either 5″ or 5.5″ fletchings. That gives me a 575 grain arrow with good FOC. I have spent alot of money on broadheads and will be changing to a brown bear by abowyer because of hissing with the Javelenia lite. I have also shot wensel woodsmans, zwickey’s eskimo and no mercies. My biggest issue has been finding a broadhead I can sharpen and that meets my weight requirment and doesn’t hiss or whisle. So although you maynot have to experiment as much as me, you will have to do a little to find out what shoots best for you. Start with shaft selection and then tune the shaft to your bow. Once you have a good flying bare shaft then you can select everything else.

bownut…just going off of your length/weight info, consider starting with an UNfletched 2018 aluminum shaft with a 125 gr. field tip to find your spine…put the tip in the insert, and just stuff it in the end of the shaft, glue on your nock, and shoot….shoot into something that the tip will (or should) clear the back, so you can retrieve it in case it tries to pop out when you pull the arrow…cut a little bit off at a time (1/4 or 1/2 inch) until you get close to where your arrow is flying nice and straight…then start shaving less between shots…one-eighth inch, or so….these are just guidelines….some of the other guys on here know more about tuning than I do….this is just to get you started with aluminums…there are some details I may not know about…but this will give you a rough idea…good luck…

Michael

johnny,

i actually don’t know anything about carbons at this point, because i haven’t had the money to invest in exploring that area. good luck.

Michael

Johnny, I’m no expert and just started shooting traditional May of 08. I shoot 46′ @ 28″ and my carbons fly perfectly staight. I shoot Aerodynamics Taditonal Lites, arrow length is 30″ and with a 150gr field tip and broadhead they fly the same. In my limited experience this is the best combination I found. I’m not sure what the FOC is but I belieive it’s close to 15%. 3Rivers has the arrows and Im’ shooting their Woodsman Broadheads. Check it out. It may be a great combination for you.

Ralph,