Now that I have had some time behind the Day Six HD shafts, I figured it would be a good time to do a little write-up on them, from the good to the bad.
If you want to read the article that details how I came to this build Select the Link Below
THE BAD:
It's hard to find many things bad with these shafts but if I had to pick something it would probably be the shaft weight spread. After cutting all 24 shafts, 20 of them weighed between 313.4gr - 314.8gr. The other 4 outliers were 310gr and 316gr range. so out of 2 dozen shafts, it's not a bad swing but I have seen better as far as weight goes. However, we are getting picky here as far as that is concerned. This slight downfall does not even come close to overshadowing the great qualities that I will detail next.
THE GOOD:
There are a lot of good things going on with these arrows, ill give the main subject points their own heading.
OUTSERT DESIGN:
I liked the Sirius Half Jacket system I was using on 5mm, the only thing I was not a fan of was how the sleeve was free-floated and didn't attach to the post. Day Six 4mm and 5mm outserts are very similar in design but with threads, and a lot of them. these are not going to just accidentally unscrew themselves. They are very tight threads and very tight tolerances.
I'm using the titanium/aluminum system, and am very happy with the machine work. I only found one insert that had a buggered-up thread but it cleaned up nice, and there was a handful of posts that had a shaving or two wrapped around it that I had to take off before gluing. This is not a deal breaker for me on a system that is a one-stop shop.
SPINE CONSISTENCY:
The spine consistency of these shafts is by far the most impressive aspect of these arrows to me. All 24 arrows tested out +/- .005 static spine deflection. After initial bow set up, and bare shaft tuning. 20 of the 24 shafts bare shafted perfectly through paper with no nock tuning needed. 2 of the remaining had to be flipped 180 degrees, and the final 2 needed a little more work. but all shafts shot a perfect bullet hole through the paper at 15 yards with minimal effort.
LONG RANGE ACCURACY:
After the initial set up I immediately went to go yards and flung some arrows, and stacked them at 60 yards with no issues, put a broadhead on the front after the first group at 60. broadhead impacted 2 inches to the left at 60 yards, added 1 twist to the top yoke on the right side, reshot and stacked the broadhead in with the fieldtips all day at 60. Very Happy with the consistency down range.
DURABILITY:
I did attempt to sacrifice 2 arrows for a durability test. I do not shoot concrete or cinder blocks I think that is a silly test and not relevant to bowhunting. I did however run 2 arrows through 2 sheets of 3/4 OSB straight on, and at an angle both quarter to and quartering away. with great results. No shafts were broken, and no bends in the component system.
CLOSING THOUGHTS:
If you are looking for a micro-diameter shaft to venture into the Day Six HD is a great option for any archer. Day Six also offers a 5mm shaft with the same component design if you want more of the tip inside the arrow. The consistency of these arrows blew me away with their ease of set-up and tuning. I am very impressed with these arrows and am excited to shoot them in 2024.
Final arrow build
26.5"
544gr
16% FOC
3 fletch Max Stealth