Getting the perfect matched arrow takes time and relies on a number of factors, from overall arrow weight,  to flexibility / spine of the shaft, fletching size etc. One of  these factors is the weight of the pile or point. A heavier pile makes the arrow flex more, whilst a lighter pile makes the arrow stiffer.

For this reason we have been trying to fine tune Sharons’ arrows (Easton X7) and have recently changed her points from glue in pins to screw in points with obvious inserts into the aluminum shafts. The X7 are great arrows, and work well from here bow but we thought we might get a slight improvement. By using inserts we have a greater access to different point weights to experiment with.

Sharon Shooting

The old piles came in at 60 grains and the feeling was it might be making the arrow a little too stiff. So we spent sometime looking at alternatives. By the way we have looked at going for carbon arrows but Sharon preferred the X7 as Carbon ones, as the carbons came in too physically light for here bow.

I’ve used a 2 part epoxy glue to secure the inserts into the shafts, which appears to work well. We’ve opted for these inserts and points which we got from Bow Sports. The inserts are 8/32 with 9/32bullet points.

Arrow point and insert

The one thing with we’ve discovered is that the screw in points sometimes work lose. Now the easy answer to this is to apply a little glue, the only problem with this being that if you need to remove the piles the only answer is to then heat it up to break the glues bonds, which will also break the bonds of the glue used to hold the insert in.

One trick I’ve come up with using plumbers tape or PTFE tape. I cut a small piece about an inch in length and then wrap this round the threaded bolt, then screw this into the insert in the arrow.

New pile, you can see the tape wrapped round thread.

The result of using the tape is to make the threaded bolt a little tighter in the insert, so making it less likely to undo or loosen.

Technical Facts for those interested in weights etc

• Old piles / nibs were 60 grain
• Insert 14 grains
• New screw in points 80 grain

Hope you find this of use and as always thanks for reading.