mauser06

my buddy is shooting an older Mcphearson bow set at 66lbs...atleast we think so.. we went to the shop and got him arrows and tuned up(they set the draw weight...he says it was 66) and all that. hes shooting Easton XX78 2514s. im not 100% on the legnth..i wanna measure them next time hes here shooting. but he has a 31" draw...shooting 125gr tips. i know arrow legnth is the important part of the factor...

but today we were shooting and it was about 5 foot out of the bow and i seen the fletchings shoot up into my apple tree 20yds away. the fletching half fell down. has a big piece of apple tree in it and a split..never heard or seen the other end. really wierd..i saw the fletching end shoot up into the tree and it wasnt moving all too fast...just a J curve up to the tree...

i cant figure out what caused it. only thing i can think of is the shaft is weak? the arrows are new...he only shot one other time before today..he shot that arrow a few times here at my house and only hit my bag target...could been bent or something..i dont know..but im just looking for reasons..maybe he needs new shafts or something i dont know...just looking for alumanum shooters to fill me in...i never shot them..nothing in his path at all...the arrow never made it to the target thats all i know.....

so why does an alumanum arrow blow up?

Arthur P

I've been using aluminum arrows for 35 years and never heard of such a thing before, except once. A guy shooting an overdraw had the arrow fall off the rest to the bow side and the point of the arrow stuck into the riser when he released. That caused the arrow to snap. I would be looking real hard at the bow and the rest, checking for damage.

It is possible that arrow hit the bag wrong or got hit by another arrow and got creased. Still shouldn't have blown up though.

And I would suggest trying 2315's instead of 2514's. I'm not too crazy about aluminum's durability with wall thickness less than .015".

mauser06

thanx Arthur...hoped to hear from you on the topic.

hes new to shooting...definently didnt smash shafts togheter.. never had a pass through into the bag or anything so it didnt hit anything hard...i was making sure he pulled them out straight. i looked at the bow and rest but he was kinda shaken up and took it and shot it right away even though i told him that could be potentially really dangerous..

hes using a golden key rest...has a "thingy" on the right of the arrow and one about 7 oclock or so....my guess is MAYBE it fell between the "thingys"?? 1 fletching DID have a slight tear in it...tiny tear..but i noticed that.

i just know one thing for sure....that arrow didnt make it to the target. i wish i had the shaft to show you a pic of...maybe it would explain something.

i was shocked to see just how thin the walls were...i dont know much about alumanums...but i know his are big ole telephone poles that are thin looking...id realllllly like to find the other half of the shaft. all we heard was the apple tree gettin hit...i saw the fletching half shoot up there but where the front half went is beyond me...going to search the back yard now actually...

are those arrows close enough to being properly spined that they shouldnt have blown up??

he really has no hope in bowhunting...he dont practice and doesnt wanna spend money...even though he has it...i just dont wanna see an arrow blow up and stick him or something when he does practice...the guy at the shop spent dang near a half hour looking for THE perfect arrow for his setup...

davepjr71

I agree with Arthur on this one. I've never heard of that happening even wit han arrow underspined.

Is the arrow short enough to make contact with the riser? It's possible that the tip caught the riser or the rest and the forward force snapped the arrow.

The 2514's are close enough that the shaft shoudl not have snapped just from the forward force of the arrow.

mauser06

his arrows came about an inch+ passed the rest or so...so probably just passed the riser...

wish he was around now...theres gotta be something marked on his bow or rest...im thinking maybe it fell through the rest or something...then again, on a bow thats that old and marked up, i may not find much of anything...

couldnt find the other half of the shaft...even shook the apple tree hoping it would fall out...didnt hit my fence, shed, the road or anything...its most likely in the apple tree...i was beside him kinda watchin form/impact of the arrow...im almost 100% sure that it blew up in flight...about 5 foot away from us..it looked true till then...straight J curve to the top of the tree...his bow definently wasnt pointed toward the tree...

davepjr71

I'd hazard a guess that the arrow tip is stuck inthe tree. Although, a long time ago I was watching a guy shoot and he released an arrow while pointedup inthe air. The arrow traveled well over 150 yds before disappearing into the woods.