What Arrows to Choose - Which Shaft is Right for You? Comparing the Nock ON AXIS, FMJ & SONIC KE

I get tons of questions about

which

arrow is

right

for me and we have a perfect selection of three of the

arrows

I've shot over the years. These are all

arrows

that I've used in tons of different applications. They are an incredible arrow. the craftsmanship for them I know you will appreciate this is exactly

what

I shoot and trust me. I'm not going to build my own arrows anymore. I enter the store. I buy these exact arrows, I shoot them and I shoot them, so I will walk you through the different types of Arrow

shaft

s and

what

the advantages and disadvantages of each are when

comparing

them to each other and I will also tell you about some of the applications.

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to walk you through all of these weights that I've weighed so I can tell you how these different setups are going to influence the Arrow weight that you're looking for depending on if you just want the total weight and that's what you want. Are you worried or if you're thinking about what these different arrows might mean for speed or what these different arrows mean for how you can set them up and keep your weight pretty much within the same range because all of these arrows fit within a range for a general weight. of arrow that I have at my length of draw and throughout my entire career.

I really loved these different arrows. I love the weights they come in. I love the performance they have at the lower range and you can certainly swap out different arrowheads depending on the type. of the animal you're chasing or the type of app you have, so the first Arrow I want to talk about is Sonic. This is an arrow that is really amazing, it is a six millimeter Arrow, it will come to you with a factory. three Fletch like this based on a setup on a machine I worked on years ago with True Flight before Eastern by them and taking over these pre-flex machines.

These are amazing pre-pointed arrows, they target Broadhead very well and I. I've done a couple different test shoots where I've shown you how amazing a factory Arrow can be. Now what I'll tell you is the Sonic Keys, the initial version, will be a factory select, so this arrow will be It will be off the Easton factory select

shaft

s. What's different about the KE is that it actually comes with a brass insert, so it will come with 75 grits and you can easily break it down to 50. It will cut. and glued for you to the length that you need, but you will also have an improved Hot Melt that, when you go directly to the end of the shaft, will allow you at some point if you need it if you want to index your broadheads. you can heat it up a little and twist the Broadhead and you'll be good to go.

In fact, you can get three dozen of these Sonics for about the price of an Axis or FMJ. What I love is the Sonics 4. I have photographed it during tax season because it is a light arrow. I can break that insert out or use a slightly lighter insert if I want to do it specifically for events like tap the tack or if I want to practice over the summer. if you're turkey hunting if you're antelope hunting and you want to have some extra speed for some of those types of hunting situations where you might not be able to get consistent range, especially on a turkey where you can't fully move Lot or Antelope, where they are very reactive, they are fast.

You're looking for a fast arrow on some of the more open country-style hunts, where you may not be able to get a perfect scope. Having that extra velocity can be really amazing and the other thing is that because that shaft is so light and you can put that brass in the front, the FOC percentage is about 20 percent more on these original KES with the 75 grains full brass, it will be about 20 percent more FOC when you compare the FOC percentage to these other shafts, but the Sonic is an incredible shaft. I have hunted with it almost honestly everything, even an elk that I can remember.

I have shot with this shaft. Now the next one I want to talk about is the axle, so our action is a matching grade axle, so honestly, by selecting and combining grades, you will have a guarantee of not only the weight for the matching grade, but also the straightness and the consistency of the spine throughout the

axis

, so if you roll these axles and you turn them they are completely straight, in fact, the

axis

when you do this and also when you do the fmjs, you know that they are literally one continuous arrow of three miles that comes in our batches that are then cut, you know, for each piece. of length of that shaft you have, so they are literally twins all the way through, so the quality is amazing.

The hub has been so timeless for me. I love the shaft. It's a great Arrow overall. This is my number one overall because this Arrow crosses. Let's move on to what I like about an FMJ, but it's also a little heavier than the Sonic and only has the durability of a four-millimeter Arrow instead of a five-millimeter. Now our pre-inflation that we would have is going to come in a four push-up configuration like this. I prefer the four flutes because they will direct a lot of broadheads and if you have any variation in the tuning of your bow with the arrow, four Fletch will help you, so if you don't know if you have a perfect setup, this will help you correct the arrow faster and will also allow you to have the ability to shoot multiple arrowheads, so you may be able to have a mechanical blade and a fixed blade. and having those four Fletch the way we can figure them is going to drive very well, this axis has honestly shot every game animal I've ever shot, you know, literally, Dangerous Game, it really depends on the type of Point I I've put the front on it, if I've ever been on anything bigger than a moose then I'd have an impact head cut on this thing and with 50 grains of brass on the front of this 300 it shoots very well for me. if I wanted to go.

With 75 on the front, personally, I would have to go to the next stiffer 250 column, so for me when I go to 250 and 75 it gets a little too heavy for me and I'm not really worried. that extra little percentage of FOC so I chose to use 350 grain brass and the 100 grain point but this is an incredibly awesome overall shaft and you can really use it wherever you go now for those of you who love an FMJ and fmjs have many positive things for them, one of the things I love about them is that they generally weigh more, they have that aluminum sleeve on the top, they are really quiet, they are actually a much easier arrow to shoot than the others two, so depending on how much you're shooting, it's awesome to be able to get them out of targets, especially 3D targets.

I shoot them a lot in the winter because they come off my targets easily for indoor training and then if I shoot a little colder 3D targets these stand up really well in the field, this thing is just a Demolisher, the fmjs are heavier Overall, it's five millimeters again, they're all degrees of match, so this thing, I mean, it spins so well that it just feels like glass on my finger. In fact if I'm not on the label you can't even hear the spin because of how straight the aluminum is so I love this and again our fmjs and our axes come with Broadhead and standard brass adapter rings. that they're going to go over the ending to summarize the ending and help line up that Broadhead perfectly for you the FMJ that I've taken on elk hunting, elk hunting honestly, anything where I'm not necessarily worried about having a little more of speed, these are also An arrow that I use a lot will silence the bow as it has that extra overall weight and if you shoot at medium range and N, you won't have to worry about that extra weight and what it's doing to your speed . so i have shot a ton of fmjs for whitetails, any of those mid to short range actions you will be able to have an arrow that has a little more power behind it and honestly the FOC percentage will be a little on the lower side depending on however you decide to set it up, but the sheer weight of the arrow just showed that this is only good for getting through some serious stuff.

This is the arrow that Jocko and Rogan prefer and have used pretty much exclusively, so those are the benefits. of the FMJ now remember that with the shaft and the FMJ they will both be internal inserts, so this will be inside the shaft again. You have the option of using the full length 75 brass or this can be broken down to 50 grains of brass and these will be cut and pre-installed for you now if you are ever considering one of these and want them for a speed setting specifically You can also get aluminum inserts, but at that point I feel like you're not really maximizing the benefits of these shafts and fmjs and the sounds with the brass in front.

I made custom brass for these three types of Arrow shafts about 18 or 19 years ago and finally the market has now brought these forward so I'm literally showing you exactly how I've been filming them with these brass inserts. Now I'm going to talk about the weight differences and show it forward so you can capture it. Take a photo, I'll probably post it too and these are all the weights for these arrow shafts

which

measure 29 and a half inches long from the end of the shot to the cutoff point. Okay, so the overall arrow shaft is going to be pretty.

Very close to 29 inches, which I thought was a good middle ground. Now keep in mind that these weights that I'm giving you are with one hundred grains on the front of the insert, so it's one hundred grains on the front. Also keep in mind if I want to add a light stroke, light strokes will also add about 12 grains to these weights that I give you here, okay, first of all, let's talk about the Sonic 250 ke, so this is what I personally will be with hunting, although in I am shooting an FMJ and a shaft with my personal arrows.

I'm shooting the 300's because I only shoot 50 grains of brass on those two now, if I want a little more FOC, which in some applications I'll take these Sonics especially. where I have to do some of the longer distances and I have to go through some of those thickets and things like that on my first mule deer hunting season where they lay down a lot and you can't get A perfect range that you expect, but you might be within a yard and two away just depending on where they're positioned and what you can actually hit, so having that extra speed can be beneficial for me and it's not like an extremely big game. animal, so penetration is not going to be a problem, so with the 250 I put 75 grains in the front, that's fine, and with 75 grains in the front, with the 250 it's 486 grains, with the 50 grains it will be 461 grains, okay, now keep it up.

Note that if we add a light blow in there, now this 250 was 75 on the front, it's almost 500 grains, so that's great and that also gives options for those of you who want to shoot 150 grains on the head on the front or 100 in the front. of a 75 grain insert, well this is awesome because obviously now you have over 200 on the front, but you also have a shaft that is now still in the low to mid five for total weight, so this is a shaft really cool now if I did. the 300 spine with 50 grains in the front instead of 75.

I could still shoot this arrow and it will come out because I chose the lighter brass, but the lighter brass in the 300 will be 442 for the 50 grains and 467. for the 75 grains, for that you can see, you know there's about 75 grain points, there's really about a 20 grain difference, nine grains difference between 250 with 75 and 300 with 50. Well, keep that in mind now sometimes and honestly, probably this fall . which you will see me do because I engrave a multiple variety of broadheads throughout the year. I don't really talk about it, but I don't have a broadhead sponsor. I shoot a lot of different broadheads and a lot of times when people can see pictures and assume I'm shooting a Broadhead but I'm actually not so I like to shoot a lot of broadheads so that's why I take my Fletch apart. factory, which honestly, for the cost of the sounds, I don't think so.

It would be a problem for any of you, especially if you want to play with different Fletching setups, but I actually mirrored mine with the Floor Fletching setup with the jig we have and put a light tap at the end. of my arrow now without the lighted strike these four Fletch 250's are 507 okay if you put 50 grains of brass it's 482 but at 507 now once again you know with this four Fletch setup we're about 19 grains more heavy than if I put an Illuminated Strike at the end, well, now I have this arrow that is, you know, 507. plus 12.

So now I have an arrow that is a illuminated strike 250 of four Fletch, 75 grains of brass, 100 grain tip and this arrow now comes. it's about the same as my Axis 300 with just 50 in the front so I have a kind of arrow that I can almost set up with the others but I can also accelerate back into the inserts of those and the nice thing about the six millimeter axle is that these inserts can really come out. You can put a point at the end. You can heat this point and you can take out this insert because it's inside a typespecial Hot Melt that we use, so the nice thing about that is that If you want, you can have about 50 grains or you can even go to an aluminum insert that they also offer and you can put that aluminum in and shoot with a total of, already You know, about 116 to 120 in the front. of your air, which will give you great speed, you will have more distance in the turn and you know that you are not really worried about penetration;

In fact, the less you go toward those goals, the easier it will be for your body throughout the day to pull. Well, let's talk about the axles. If you get a shaft, you will get the raw shafts that will come standard with the brass inserts and bar system, or if you do our pre-flatch everything. these are hand made none of these are automated these are hand made and they are all hand made on specific templates that match that particular order number and if you order one of our templates all of our templates are set up exactly with the same template.

It dies like the first ones that are in our pre-flatch, so if you have to reflect arrows and you bought one of our jigs, now you can reflect any of the factory pre-flatch and get started. otherwise, if you don't have time, we make it easy for you, these things are feathered, you know, vinyl is a very specific vinyl, this specific vinyl, you don't see any kind of white drying marks on there, it sticks really amazing and the veins. They stick really well, so the difference also in the veins is that this one is a little bit lighter.

Vein on Sonic, these veins will be an AAE hybrid, they stick a little better, but the Macs will definitely be the ones with the most durability. They are a little more difficult to use, but again we offer them in a pre-flat format. This is an excellent build. I literally go in and just grab them from the bucket. I don't tune them. I don't index them. I'm literally just going to grab and tell the guys what to cut them on and I'm literally going to go out and attack or go out hunting and I don't have any worries that these things are going to be hit, so with the four Fletch Factory.

Fletch on this shaft, so this shaft with 50 grains of brass, which is how I personally rolled it's 514 grains, so if you add those 12 grains for the lighted stroke and set the bar well now you'll be

right

at around 530 grains. , which is right where I've probably been hunting the most, and that's also why I really liked that 250 Sonic with the full 75s on the front because it kind of gets me in the same ballpark, but that's what I love about the hub, This thing is just a proven and durable heavyweight, you don't have to go crazy with the FOC if you don't want to, but certainly with the 75 grains of brass on the front you have options on what kind of front weight you want.

choose

like this, if you put an aluminum insert in this particular 300 at this length it would be 480 grains, if you put 75 grains of grass in the front of this 300 shaft it would be 539 grains, so this is what happens once that goes to the FMJ, once you go to the FMJ, you want the straightness and the quietness of that aluminum, also the easy pull of the aluminum and this thing is pretty robust, so the FMJ, if you put 75 grains in the front of this 300, it will be 570. grains, so it weighs about 30 or 31 grains with the FMJ than with the shaft, so sometimes I have taken these fmj if I want a FMJ because I want an easy pull.

I like it. I've built our fmj's with aluminum inserts or just the 50's and I can lower them down to where that shaft would be with the 75 so it's great if I want to be able to play with both, my sight marks are very very close if I

choose

the FMJ. with 50 and the shaft was 75, that's great, so the FMJ will be 570 or with the 75 grain point or with a 50 grain point it will be 545. So you know you're pretty much six grains away, so The way they work is that your lighter inserts with the fmjs are comparable to the heavier inserts with the shaft.

The lighter inserts with the shaft are comparable to the heavy inserts. Sorry, yeah, you know what I mean, so that gives you a lot of options. They are incredible arrows, the process that we have required from Easton for these arrows really sets them apart and I tell you these are arrows that if you make the investment you don't have to sit there and spend time floating and spinning strikes and all these different things that people talk about, if you spend money on arrows that are of varying quality, the task is already done for you at this point, you can order these things, bring them to your door, cut them to your size, put points on them and go out and shoot small groups just like you've seen me do so many times these are the three I love, they all have amazing applications and trust me they put you right in that middle ground where you'll love it. the speed you get, but you'll also love that k

nock

down power and be smart about which Broadhead you put on the front of this Arrow.

You know you have the option if you are a lower or lower weight shooter and When choosing any of these arrows, listen to the constructions, the weights, the focuses that they will all give you. Murderous groups. Simply choose the head that will be best for your application. Short, low-rise shooter. Fire a head that will sever on impact. you're going to get better penetration, if you're like me, you're shooting heavier, you have an average or above average draw length and you're going to be throwing 500 grains pretty much out of a lot of these new bows, then you'll be able to choose the type of expandable you you want and have a good time, so good luck to everyone.