What size arrow should i use

So, the arrows I shoot from my compound bow should be 29 inches long, right? Your draw length obviously will influence the length of your arrows. But your arrows might not have to be 30 inches, either. At its shortest, an arrow can be just long enough to sit on your rest at full draw. It can also cause clearance problems with broadheads. Some fixed-blade heads today have pretty big blades.

Where your arrow rest sits in relation to the shelf determines that minimum length. If the rest sits in the middle of the shelf, you will need a longer minimum-length arrow than if the rest sits 2 inches behind the shelf. Why would you want the shortest arrow possible? The shorter the arrow, the less it weighs. That will add a few feet per second in arrow speed.

But there can be pitfalls to cutting an arrow down to the minimum length. One is that the arrow gets stiffer as it gets shorter. Arrows can be made of many different materials however as a beginner your main consideration to start with should be ensuring you have an arrow that suits your draw length. Use the guide below to help choose the correct arrow.

To find out your approx. There are a lot of happy target archers out there, but there are a LOT of happy hunters out there. We've published a lot of different posts where we give in-depth reviews of arrows, but here's a quick rundown of our favorites. Please note the following links are affiliate links :. They're offered in a range of spines for bows with draw weights from 40 pounds all the way up to 92 pounds which is not too common—that's pretty darn heavy , and they're designed for use with a range of broadheads.

Our all-time favorite arrow for target shooting is the Easton Genesis V2 Arrow. That's pretty good for session arrows, and they're also great for younger archers—the only arrow that the NASP the National Archery in Schools Program allows at competitions. Easton makes a lot—a lot a lot—of archery products, and we've used a lot of it over the years, and we've almost always been pleased with their products.

There are fancier arrows out there—and we've discussed those in other posts—but these are our go-to target arrows. That's because it's wildly confusing. Honestly, it really is. It takes a little while to figure all this out, but eventually—honestly, we promise—eventually it'll all start to make sense.

If you've come away from this post and you have developed only a small inkling of how to choose an arrow, we've done a great job! Table of Contents Parts of an Arrow. A Note About These Materials How to Read Arrow Measurements.

Measurements for Wood Arrows. Measurements for Aluminum Arrows. Measurements for Carbon Arrows. Go to An Online Retailer. Buying Guide: Tips and Considerations. Some Arrow-Selecting Tips for Hunters.

Arrows Are Really, Really Important. Parts of an Arrow First things first: the actual parts of an arrow. You've got:. The Shaft. This is the length of the arrow, and they're made from different types of materials—usually wood, aluminum, carbon, or an aluminum-carbon mix—and each material behaves differently and is used for different purposes more on that below ; The Arrow Head aka "Points". This is the sharp point at the end of the arrow. There are different types, which we describe below; The Fletching.

These are the three vanes at the back of the arrow, and they're usually made of feathers or plastic. Very often, two of the vanes are one color, and the third vane is a different color; the vane of a different color is called the "index vane"; and finally The Nock. This is the slotted tip at the back end of the arrow.

It's usually plastic, and it fits snugly on the bow string, at a strategic place called the "nocking point. Bullet points are moderately sharp, and these are commonly used for target practice at archery ranges or for hunting small game; Field points are sharper than bullet points, and are also used for target practice and hunting small game; Blunt points have a flat tip and are used solely for small game—they kill the animal with blunt force, instead of through penetration; Judo points are a blunt or flat arrow used for small game, and have "legs" on them that clasp onto whatever they hit, to keep them from getting lost on the hunt; and Broadheads are VERY sharp—they're lined with razor blades—and these are specifically designed for hunting.

Spine You wouldn't believe it, but your arrow wiggles like a snake when it is shot. The Weight of the Bow. If you're using a bow with a very high draw weight, you're generally going to want to use a stiffer arrow, and if you're using a bow with a low draw weight, you can use a weaker arrow.

Try to close your eyes and imagine it—if you were to use a high-poundage bow and shoot a very weak arrow, the arrow would wiggle like crazy and shoot inaccurately and be pretty dangerous to you when you're shooting it. If you were to use a low-poundage bow and shoot a very stiff arrow, the arrow wouldn't bend very much, and it wouldn't go very far.

The Length of the Arrow. The longer an arrow gets, the stiffer it's going to need to be. Imagine you have a wooden pointer—the kind that teachers used to use when they pointed at a chalk board. If that wooden point was three feet long, it probably wouldn't bend if you held it up. Now imagine that it's feet long—it's much easier to imagine it bending if you held it.

Length of the arrow has a strong correlation to how bendable it is. The Weight of the Point on the End of the Arrow. This is kind of fascinating. The weight of the tip of your arrow has a lot to do with how much your arrow bends. Imagine it like this: you're holding one of those styrofoam pool noodles, and you use it to push over a paper cup that's half-full of water. The cup would fall over, right? Now imagine you're using that same pool noodle, but this time you're trying to push a bowling ball.

That bowling ball isn't going anywhere, and your pool noodle is going to bend. The same concept goes for the point on your arrow. This is actually a really important part of an arrow purchase—especially if you're a hunter and you've put a heavy broadhead on the end of your arrow—and we discuss it further in one of the sections below.

The Material and Size of the Arrow. We talk about this more in the "Materials" section, so we won't get into it here, but the material that the arrow is made of—wood, aluminum, or carbon—affects the spine of the arrow. Stiffer arrows are needed on compound bows that have more aggressive cams, because aggressive cams put a lot of force on an arrow. You need to shot arrows that have the same spine.

This is very important—it doesn't matter how good you are, and how much you've mastered your form—if the spines on your arrows are not identical, you will not get good groupings. Variation in spine affects your performance—even when you're using the same arrows.

In other words, you can buy the same brand of arrows with the same spine, but because no two arrows are exactly similar, there will be slight variations between arrows, and that can affect your performance.

Arrow manufacturers have done a good job in minimizing deviations, but they still exist. As a general rule of thumb, if a variety of arrow is very expensive, it's less likely to have variations arrow to arrow. Arrows lose their spine over time. After taking hundreds of shots, the integrity of the spine is damaged a bit.

If you spend time with a competitive archer, you'll notice that they replace their arrows frequently. As mentioned, it's vitally important to shoot arrows with identical spine, so it's something to keep in mind as the months pass. In most cases, it's better to have an arrow that's a little too stiff than an arrow that's a little too weak, and arrow manufacturers usually recommend arrows that are liiiiiiittle stiff more on that later.

Generally speaking, an arrow that's a little too stiff will favor the left, and an arrow that's a little weak will favor the right. If you're seeing a lot of left-right variations in your groupings that is, if you shoot a bunch of arrows and they're all on the same horizontal plane, but they're scattered left to right , that may be the result of variations in the spines of your arrows.

Length This is one of the first things you need to think about when selecting an arrow: length. If you don't have a draw length indicator, here's a rough estimate on how to determine your draw length: Put your arms out, side to side, and have someone measure your wingspan if you're alone, you can stand up next to a wall, put one hand out and mark a small pencil mark on the wall, then reach all the way out with your other hand, and make a small mark on the outside of your other hand.

There are two notes to keep in mind in regard to arrow length:. Some arrow shafts you buy are shipped to you at a much longer length than you need, and you'll need to have them professionally cut to an appropriate length by someone at a pro shop or you can cut them yourself.

In other words, if you are just ordering arrow shafts, they may arrive to you at 32 inches long, and you'll need to cut them to be 30 inches long or whatever length you need. If you're using a clicker, your arrow must be short enough so that the arrow head clears the clicker at full draw. Clickers are kind of an advanced tool, so if you're a beginner, they're not something you need to worry about.

Diameter The diameter of an arrow is an important part of purchasing an arrow, and arrows are sold in a wide array of diameters. Target archers usually want an arrow with a thicker diameter, because a thicker arrow is more likely to connect with the lines on a target and get higher scores.

That goes for archers who are aiming at regular round targets, but also 3-D archers who are shooting at replicas of game, such as deer, elk, etc.

Most competitions have very strict rules about how thick any arrow can be, so if you want to get involved in target archery, make sure you're not cheating by using an arrow that's above the allowed diameter.

Outdoor archers—that is, hunters or target archers who are shooting outdoors—usually go for thinner arrows. Thinner arrows are less affected by wind because there's less surface area on the arrow, AND, for hunters, thin arrows more effectively penetrate game. Weight The weight of an arrow is another important measurement. The diameter of the arrow—that is, how wide the arrow is around; The thickness of the walls of the arrow—that is, if you sawed the arrow in half and looked at it, the thickness of the material that makes up the walls of the arrow; and The materials of the arrow—that is, wood vs.

Tip Last but not least, the weight of the tip. Wood The original arrow! Aluminum These are fantastic for beginners, but they're also used by more experienced archers. Carbon Carbon arrows are very stiff, which is a great match for heavier bows—particularly, heavier compound bows used for hunting. How to Read Arrow Measurements When you go to buy an arrow, arrow manufacturers will label the arrows with super-confusing numbers.