Hey guys, There was a bit of chatter on here lately surrounding the Gold Tip Pierce shafts. I have a half dozen that I purchased to test. My initial posting didn't favor them all that well simply because of straightness issues I was seeing on broadheads. Speaking with someone at Gold Tip, they wanted the bad ones back to inspect and replace. They found the issue and revamped how these arrows are constructed, as well as use three lasers for straightness as opposed to one like they did before. I had all intents of sending back the bad ones or the ones I didn't think met the .025 straightness tolerance. I had some time to play around with them a bit more, as I wanted to make absolutely sure they were in fact out of tolerances. I discovered something that has my mind changed a bit. I tore them all down and spun each shaft with only the inserts installed. Looking closely, the shafts with inserts spun satisfactory for me. So I put the ballistic collar on and screwed on a Slick Trick head. Wobble, lots and lots of wobble. Bad head? Tried another head and same wobble, just not as bad. So I kept fiddling with the head and washer that goes behind each head. I finally got all but one arrow to spin true. True enough to hunt with I should say. I found that at least with the Slick tricks, its very important to use a wrench to really tighten them down on the arrow. Before, I was just tightening them as best I could with my fingers. They weren't seating down on the arrow correctly. I think this is a by product of ballistic collar in either how the head seats on it, or how tightening it down with a wrench seats the collar, head and shaft better. I have 5 hunt worthy, very good spinning shafts now. One shaft I didn't even bother with as it wobbles very badly. I may send it back, but I think I might use it for some abuse testing to help make a decision if this will be my hunting arrow this year or not. Hope this helps those who were interested in this shaft.
Thanks for the input! I shoot the older Kinetics and I love them, but may be switching to the Kinetic Pierce Platinum's for next season.
I just switched to the Kinetic Kaos. I added a 20 grain fact to the insert and chucked the ballistic collars.
Why mess with outserts at all. Use the .209 Id version, expoxy a brass hit in it...maybe slip on a flanged VPA collar and call it a day. I just don't see where the negatives of full outersts is worth the gain of .166 shaft vs a .209
I've been looking for a different arrow that I can get the weight and FOC I want, but maintain a very durable and strong arrow. I've shot GT Pro Hunters for years. Of course they did the job, but then I started playing with higher FOC's with these and found that arrow weight was more than I really wanted. I'm a heavier arrow advocate for hunting. But at some point, you reach a point of negative return by going too heavy. I'm a whitetail guy so 500+ grains is absolutely overkill here. I saw what a 470gr arrow did to both shoulders of a midwest deer I killed last year. I had more than enough horsepower there, overkill really. That said, I also am thinking of trying to get a two pin setup working for me. Doing this, I wanted to bump my arrow speed up a bit, 15fps is what I'm getting by losing 50grains of arrow weight with the GT Pierce. But I still maintain a very strong and durable shaft. Something I love about the Gold Tips. Now that I know how the components work, Its really not a huge deal. Now, I plan on beating the piss out of this half dozen to see if they'll hold up to my liking (I have a 55 gallon burn barrel drum that needs some holes in the bottom for water to drain out), as well as other abuse tests I have in mind. I have no doubt the shafts will be fine, but like you, I"m curious about the insert and collar system they use and if it will hold up. Time will tell. If you have any suggestions for a 204 diameter shaft at around 8.3 grains an inch.... i'm all ears.
