“For good shooting, everything depends on the arrow.” –Maurice Thompson The Witchery of Archery, 1878

The arrows you carry in your quiver represent the most important choice you’ll make regarding bowhunting success. It’s the arrow, after all, that delivers our deadly broadheads. That makes it our most important piece of archery gear. Archery icon Howard Hill insisted that archers, “Always shoot your best arrow.” This was coined in an era of cedar shafts that required regular auditioning to assure the best shot at game. Modern arrows make accuracy nearly automatic. The trick comes in choosing a shaft that best fits the hunting conditions, range and game animal most confronted.

Sure, one shaft will do it all, just as one hammer will drive all nails, but certainly there are choices that make your shooting and bowhunting endeavors more efficient. The construction-site framer doesn’t choose the same hammer as a cabinetmaker. Choosing the right arrow for the task at hand goes hand-in-hand with our hammer analogy.

Whitetail Ammo
According to nearly every demographic survey I’ve observed, some 80- to 90-percent of us hunt whitetail deer extensively. Demanding as the actual hunting can prove, shooting whitetail exposes the shooter to less demanding circumstances overall. Shots are normally intimate (Pope & Young surveys show that the average “trophy” whitetail is shot at less than 21 yards), and on average, whitetail aren’t the most sturdy big game animals we might hunt.

The whitetail hunter still wants an arrow providing reasonable speed at any range. This gives us more forgiveness during and after the shot, the arrow spending less time in contact with the rest--less time for the shooter to negatively influence flight, and less time for string-jumping deer to react to an incoming arrow. Yes, we all understand deer reacting to jarring noise are typically faster than our zippiest arrows. Still, if an arrow arrives on target fast enough to result in only missing our “spot” by four inches instead of six, it can mean the difference between an ineffective back-strap hit and a killing, high-lung hit. We would also like to see decently-flat trajectory when a whitetail steps into an open cornfield well beyond “average” range, yet well within our maximum effective capabilities.

A lighter arrow is always faster than a heavier one, all other factors being equal. The lightest arrows don’t absorb excess bow energy and vibrations as efficiently as heavier arrows. This makes for a noisier shot, a higher-degree of clamor that invites string jumping at ranges most whitetail are taken.

Lastly, penetration is a must, especially when considering wide-cutting mechanical heads popularly used to assure quick recovery of whitetail. Success can also hinge on punching though a shoulder-blade or heavy vertebrae when a shot goes awry or when less-than-ideal shot angles result. We want it all. This all points to middle ground compromises, translating into arrows hovering around the eight to nine grain-per-inch (gpi) range.

Look to highly-popular shafts such as Beman’s ICS Hunter (9.3 gpi in 340), Blackhawk Vapor Pro Series (8.2 gpi in black 4000), Carbon Express Maxima (8.2 gpi in 350), Carbon Tech Whitetail (7.9 gpi in 40/65), Easton ST Epic (9.5 gpi in 340), Gold Tip black or camo XT Hunter (8.2/8.3 gpi in 5575), PSE/Carbon Force Radial X Weave (8.6 gpi in 300) and Carbon Impact Hot Shaft XLT (9.1 gpi in 65/75).

These are shafts tough enough to tackle an elk if asked, speedy enough to confidently tote into mule deer mountains or onto pronghorn prairie.