What happens to these weight forward arrows when you cut them to lenth? Does that throw it all out of wack or what?
I don't have the technical answer you are looking for but now it does not. I have the CA Maxima hunter arrows and my bow shop cuts my arrows and I have a higher FOC than the using the maixma standard arrow. Not sure how it works though. Good question.
Rick, I've got about six spreadsheets open and trying to compose about three different e-mails siimultaneously... so I'll probably get this backwards in the midst of my multitasking... :D You would need to cut off the front end of the shafts ONLY to maintain the weight-forward design; otherwise, cutting from the rear end of the material is going to move the FOC too much toward the nock end of your shaft. Hope that makes sense. I shot them one season (Maxima Hunters) and I believe that's what I did when I built my arrows... it's been a while though, and I've got too much going on presently to think straight!
I believe all that weight forward is only the camo wrap that is on the shaft is in the Maxima's. Depending how much you cut off the front it should not matter but Carbon Express I believe I had read somewhere they say cut from the nock end as an example. But looking at the Maxima Hunters that camo comes pretty far back towards the nock so my little opinion is cut from the front. T
Rick: I'd cut it from the nock end. Here's the thing, though.....what's the benefit(s) of this type arrow? Is it a pseudo "footed" arrow? What does this do that a weighted insert/additional tip weight - doesn't? It'll work out in the tuning process. It just might make that more difficult (v. the exact same spine reaction arrow in a non weight forward design), since you've already end-loaded the tip (weakening your dynamic spine, by default). Cutting from the nock end would mitigate this. But how in the world would you "know" just how much, until you went through the tuning process??? Having more weight up-front is a good thing (IMO). Adding said - and thinking it's not going to change anything in your tuning process is a mistake.
They are one in the same by theory. If you are going to have a bow shop do your arrow work, the benefit of buying weight forward arrows is it is a easy way to increase your FOC without having to buy inserts on-line from 3-Rivers or equivalent and then take them to a bow shop to have them done. You will have to supply your own inserts and the bow shop likely will look at you like you have lobsters coming out of your ears. Some won't even do it let you provide inserts for liability reasons. . If you do all your own arrow work, you might as well do the brass insert route as your flexibility will be increased. The other comment I have is the Hunter Maxima has a higher gpi over the traditional maxima. Therefore, not only are you adding weight forward, you are adding arrow weight and consequently more KE and momentum. So the weight forward isn't the only benefit.
You still gotta tune whatever you shoot. There are no magic arrows. You can't add weight to the tip and expect everything else to be "fine".
Of course. If you add inserts, you have to tune, if you have change your arrow type you have to tune, if you cut your arrows you need to tune, etc. I look at these weight forward arrows as a way to provide an easy way to increase your FOC. Either way (different inserts and/or weight forward arrows) he is going to have to play with arrow length, draw weight, head weight, etc to get the a perfect marriage. Like you said, they are not a magic arrow to fix other underlying problems. The reason I use them is for the heavier/stronger arrow and I adjusted my head weight to get the FOC I wanted.
