EFOC (20+ %) and Aluminum Shafts

[MontanaFord]

#6851

I shoot 2117 aluminum shafts and was wondering if anybody has any ideas how to get greater FOC with these. I’ve tried a couple ideas, but haven’t been able to get where I want to be. My cut arrows are currently 31 1/2″ long with 145 gr. tips and weigh in at about 585 grains. Any help would be appreciated.

Michael

[David Petersen]

#56604

Michael — We could use more details, esp. per the “couple of things” you’ve already tried. Starting from scratch, I’d say to swap the standard aluminum inserts for brass, which are much heavier and stronger too. Impossible to find until recently, but now at least one entrepreneur is custom making them and I expect the larger marketplace to catch on fairly soon. Barring that, there are much heavier 2-blade heads available, like the 250 Abowyer Brown Bear and the 320-grain ABS Ashby (both screw-in with steel adapters). Both are expensive with the ABS far out front in that category. Grizzly El Grande and Tusker Concord are also superb heads, much cheaper, both at 190 grains. But if you really want to max FoC and gain other advantages, relegate your aluminums for stump shooting and small game and go with carbon, which have endless advantages including brass inserts in several weights, brass weight washers, “internal footing” weights, adjustable nocks, a wide range of spine forgiveness and a much slimmer thus better-penetrating shaft diameter. My 2 sense. dave

[MontanaFord]

#56811

Dave,

What I’ve done so far with my aluminum shafting is as follows: snug-fitting carbon shaft inside my aluminum, followed by another smaller carbon shaft inside the first, with a tight-fitting steel wire core pushed into the smaller carbon shafting. The overall length of this “internal footing” was approximately 8″ long. This gave me a very high FOC (around 24%, i think). What I ended up with was a severely overspined shaft that flat didn’t fly. I can’t afford carbon shafts, nor any other broadheads at this point, due to a cut in hours at work, not to mention the bills that go with a 5 person family. I’m going to play around with the 100 grain brass inserts that are available for my aluminum shafts, and I might play around with some smaller pieces of the above described internal footing. Also, I had a particular question concerning the screw-in Grizzly broadheads I won from StandingBear’s broadhead drawing. Are these heads 145 grains with the adapter, or is just the broadhead part itself 145 grains PLUS the weight of the adapter?

Michael

[IronCreekArcher]

#64129

In my honest opinion I would shy away from aluminum all together. Carbons are much easier to get EFoC, they last forever (barring breakage) and are always straight. I have had real good luck with the Easton Axis arrows. The small diameter coupled with Dr. Ashby’s criteria make for an unstoppable arrow combo in my opinion.

[MontanaFord]

#8085

Iron,

As I mentioned in my reply to Dave, while I would love to try carbons, I just flat don’t have the money to spend on them. I shoot well enough that I don’t break or bend a lot of aluminum shafts anymore, and barring arrows lost while paying homage to the arrow gods, a dozen arrows generally last me a couple years. Thanks for the advice, though.

Michael

[IronCreekArcher]

#8218

Michael,

I totally understand. Being newly married and a full-time college student money runs very short on supply around here too. Good luck with your endeavors in EFoC arrows.

[MontanaFord]

#8662

Iron,

Thank you. I’m also fairly newly married (Dec. 2008), and am hoping to take a couple classes this fall. Work is the thing that’s gonna mess w/ my schedule there…it sucks, but that’s life. Anyway, I’m thinking that if I go to a heavier spined arrow and add brass inserts, and just play with the length, I may be able to get what I want out of my aluminums. We’ll see in the long run. Hope classes go well for you.

Michael

[kingwouldbe]

#9042

The 2117 is a good hunting arrow, you could buy a 1/2 dz 1820 Easton Genesis shafts, they slide right inside 2117, cut them to 9.8 inches and you will get 3 dz inserts from a 1/2 dz.

That will ad 119 grains in the front end and ad a little to your spine, I like to use gorilla grip glue because it expands and keeps every thing tight.

Your shaft is 378gr at 31 1/2″, so you need to ad 300-350 to get it high EFOC.

I like the 125gn steal broadhead adapters inside a 190 Grizzly + I put a 1716 shaft over my carbon shaft for 765 grains total after sharpening the head, with a 28% EFOC

It is vary important that you tune the arrow to the bow as you go, if you go up in front end weight you will need more spine.

Have fun

[MontanaFord]

#9394

King,

Thank you for the information. At this point in the game, with our archery season looming closely, I’m thinking that I will focus primarily on overall weight gain, along with my new Grizzly heads for this season. The EFOC will probably have to wait until next year, as I don’t have the time to put into it this year, or the money for the pieces and parts.

Michael

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