How to Choose Hunting Arrows

There are five numbers on an arrow, and hunters usually shop by the one that matters least (price) or the one they can see (colour). Work through them in the order below and you will end up with an arrow that flies with broadheads at the distances you actually hunt — which is the only test that counts, and the one most setups quietly fail.

Step 1: Get your inputs right first

Every arrow decision downstream depends on four measurements. Get these wrong and no chart can help you:

• Actual draw weight. The number the bow is set to right now, not the number on the sticker or the top of its range. Bows are frequently backed off from maximum.
• Actual draw length. Yours, measured properly, not estimated from your height.
• Point and insert weight. The combined grains at the front — broadhead plus insert plus any collar. A 100-grain head and a 125-grain head give different answers.
• Intended arrow length. Which interacts with spine, so it is decided alongside it rather than after.

Settle your draw weight before you shop for arrows, not after.

Step 2: Spine — the one that decides everything else

Spine is calibrated stiffness. Easton, which established the measurement standard in the 1940s, defines it by suspending the shaft on supports 28 inches apart, hanging an 880-gram load in the middle, and reading how far it deflects — 0.400″ of bend is a “400” spine. Lower number means stiffer arrow.

An arrow does not leave the bow in a straight line. It flexes around the riser and oscillates for the first several yards before settling. If the stiffness is matched to the force the bow applies, that oscillation damps out cleanly and the arrow stabilises. If it is not, it never fully recovers.

This is where the “my broadheads hit somewhere else” problem comes from. A field point is symmetrical and forgiving of an arrow still wobbling; a broadhead has surface area at the front and steers the arrow in whatever direction the wobble is pointing. Hunters blame the broadhead, the rest, or their form. Usually it is spine.

Easton is explicit that dynamic spine — how the shaft behaves in flight rather than on a test bench — is affected by broadhead and insert mass, fletching mass and bow acceleration together. That has one important consequence: changing your point weight changes the spine you need. Going from a 100-grain to a 125-grain head weakens dynamic spine, and can move a correct arrow out of spec.

Use a manufacturer’s selector chart with the four inputs from step one. Do not use a chart from memory, and do not use the spine your buddy shoots — unless his draw length, draw weight and point weight all match yours.

Step 3: Length

Arrow length is a safety decision and a spine decision at the same time.

The safety half: the broadhead must sit clearly in front of the rest and in front of your bow hand at full draw. Too short is genuinely dangerous, and there is no reason to cut close to the line.

The spine half: a shorter shaft is stiffer. Cut two inches off a 400-spine arrow and it behaves like something stiffer than a 400. That is why length and spine have to be chosen together, and why the selector chart asks for your finished arrow length rather than your draw length.

The practical approach: have your draw length measured, then set the finished shaft so it extends roughly an inch past the riser at full draw. Confirm the spine chart with that final number before cutting anything.

Step 4: Total arrow weight

Total weight is the shaft plus insert plus point plus nock and fletching, in grains. It sets the trade between penetration and trajectory:

• Heavier arrows carry more momentum, penetrate better and are quieter out of the bow. They also drop faster, so a ranging error costs you more.
• Lighter arrows fly flatter and forgive a misjudged yardage. They carry less energy and are noisier.

Kinetic energy is a function of arrow weight and speed, and it is what the arrow carries to the animal — not the IBO speed printed on the bow — that determines penetration. For whitetail, this is a comfortable problem: a properly spined arrow of ordinary weight from a 60 lb bow passes through deer routinely. The Pope & Young Club’s 300-grain minimum total arrow weight is the standard floor and a sensible one.

Step 5: FOC and straightness

Front-of-centre

FOC is the percentage of the arrow’s weight sitting forward of its physical midpoint. Easton recommends 10–15% for hunting setups, and warns that pushing past roughly 20% reduces dynamic spine and can make the arrow nosedive at longer distances.

Note what that means: FOC is a window, not a scale where more is better. It also matters less for close whitetail shots than the internet suggests — Easton’s own guidance is that for typical short-range bowhunting, any positive FOC works fine. Chase it only after spine, length and weight are settled.

Straightness

The ± number on the box — ±.006″, ±.003″, ±.001″. It is a manufacturing tolerance, and it buys consistency between arrows rather than accuracy on any single one.

Where it matters: fixed-blade broadheads at 40 yards and beyond. Where it does not: field points inside 30. If you are a timber hunter taking 20-yard shots, spend the difference on a dozen arrows instead of six tighter-tolerance ones.

Before you hunt: shoot the broadheads

Everything above is theory until you put a broadhead on and shoot it at your maximum hunting distance. Do that in daylight, weeks before the season, into a target rated for broadheads.

If the broadheads group with your field points, you are done. If they land somewhere else consistently, the usual culprits in order are: spine mismatch (often triggered by a point-weight change), a rest or centre-shot that needs adjusting, or fletching too small to stabilise a wide fixed blade. Fix it now, not on opening morning.

And remember the arrow and the head are one system. Read the fixed vs mechanical comparison before you finalise your point weight, because that choice feeds straight back into step two.