Looking for a Day Six arrow review? There aren’t many out yet, so here’s my take on one of the newest arrows on the market for elk hunting:
Background
Day Six arrows seemed to appear out of nowhere in 2018 and caught the bowhunting community a bit by surprise. Founded by Bryan Broderick, the arrows were actually a reincarnation of the old Zelor Arrow brand but with vastly better quality control specs. Day Six operates on a direct-to-consumer business model which means that they only sell items off their website. In theory that means they can sell a better quality arrow for less money but it also means you might have never heard about them because your local pro shop definitely isn’t going to have them in stock.
The first Day Six arrow review I heard was on Kifarucast when Aron Snyder interviewed Bryan about the launch of the company. What caught my attention is how maniacal Bryon was about product design, especially the tolerances on spine and components (which have been the achilles heel of micro diameter arrows in the past). I ordered up a set of HD 300s in summer 2019 and have been shooting them ever since (and took an elk last fall).
Overview & Specs
The Day Six HD is a 100% carbon micro diameter arrow that is definitely on the heavy end of the spectrum. My 29 inch 300 spines come in at a solid 549 grains with the aluminum outsert. I’m a big advocate for heavy arrows for elk and the HDs get you there without much effort.
| Spine | Grains Per Inch (GPI) | Diameter |
| 250 | 12.6 | 0.263 |
| 300 | 11.2 | 0.253 |
| 350 | 10.2 | 0.245 |
| 400 | 9.2 | 0.238 |
| 500 | 8.2 | 0.232 |
Straightness is claimed at very tight +/- 0.001 and my shafts were close to that range. Bryan spin tests every arrow by hand, so you definitely know you’re getting good consistency. Day Six doesn’t list a weight tolerance which is a bit unusual by industry standards. Most importantly the spine consistency on the HDs is great. Manufacturers don’t list spine tolerances, but in my experience it’s the single most important stat of any arrow for accuracy.
There are 3 different component options offered with the HDs: a 50gr aluminum outsert, a 100gr stainless steel outsert, and a 100gr stainless insert. Bryan claims that over 80%+ of his arrows ship with the aluminum outsert and he gets few complaints, which I believe. The arrows ship with decent nocks which can be replaced with most 0.165 or 0.166 alternatives if you have something that fits your bow’s serving best. Finally, the arrows also come with a strong 24 hour epoxy which is a nice touch and definitely what I recommend using.
Day Six HD arrows sell for $170 for a dozen shafts or $95 for 6 fletched, which is mid priced for micro diameter arrows. So on paper, you’re getting a top notch arrow at a competitive price.
Enough of the specs– here’s what I found when I put them to the test:
Pro: Outsert design and strength
Micro diameter arrows have lots of benefits but the outsert system has historically been what holds them back. It doesn’t matter how strong or aerodynamic a shaft is if the outsert breaks, bends, or simply pulls out. Even if they do work, bad tolerances often lead to poor alignment and accuracy.
The day six arrows have one of the best (if not the best) stock outsert systems I’ve ever tested. The insert that goes into the shaft also screws into the collar that goes around the outside. That connection aligns both pieces and essentially makes them a single piece, which distributes forces across a much longer/larger area. I’ve put day six arrows through an elk, into the dirt, and even into a tree. Any of those would normally wreck outserts but the day six arrows still spin true.
Pro: Accuracy
As I mentioned above, spine is the single most important thing to arrow accuracy (not straightness, although they generally travel together). Spine is essentially the measure of how strong an arrow is when flexed. Every arrow needs to flex the same or you’ll end up with bad accuracy, especially with fixed blade broadheads.
I’ve had fantastic results with spine consistency with the Day Six HDs. Usually I “cull” out a few arrows of every dozen (for practice only) but I’ve been able get all 12 to group together without much nock tuning. I’d feel comfortable spinning a broadhead onto any of them which provides a lot of bang per buck.
Pro: Shaft strength and durability
Not all carbon fiber is equal. To oversimplify, there is a tradeoff between high modulus (“lighter”, stiffer, but brittle) and standard modulus (“heavier”, less stiff, more resilient) material. Practically you’ll see thinner/lighter micro diameter arrows with the former and thicker/heavier arrows with the latter.
I don’t know for sure, but it looks like they’re built using more layers of standard modulus fiber which leads to good spine consistency and a very thick + durable shaft wall. That combined with the quality outsert leads to one heck of a durable arrow.
To put it simply, the Day Six HD is built about as solid as they come. I’ve put them in trees, dirt, elk, and thousands of targets. The only one I’ve been able to break so far was a robin hood on the first day I shot them. Turns out group shooting is always a bad idea.
Con: Weight tolerances
Most high end shafts come with a +/- 1 grain weight tolerance standard. The dozen HD 300 raw shafts I weighed had ~7 grains between the lightest and heaviest. That’s a relatively large difference and just barely inside the range that you can “fix” by weighing and sorting your different components (which takes time). Ironically the outserts and nocks all had fairly good tolerances which made it harder to balance things out.
To put this in perspective, 95% of shooters wouldn’t notice a 10 grain difference between arrows if the spine was consistent. The difference only really starts to show at ~80 yards. I practice at long range and have noticed that 1 grain changes impact by ~1” at 100 yards. So, no problem if you’re not shooting that far, but something to note.
Other thoughts
As mentioned, I’m a big proponent of heavy arrows but that does have limits. I usually recommend 7-10 grains of arrow weight per pound of draw weight for elk. For me, these come in around 8.3 GPP. I’m pushing solid energy with a compound bow (345IBO, 29 ⅛” draw, 66.5lbs) and if you’re in that ballpark these will work great. If you’re shooting a slower compound these might be too heavy (but if you’re using trad, they’re great). I wouldn’t mind if these were 1-1.5 GPI lighter… if anything that means I could bump up to the stainless steel outserts.
The HD’s are also relatively thick for micro diameter arrows at 0.253 for a 300 spine (vs 0.240 for gold tip pierce for example) which getting near to the diameter of several “small diameter” arrows. Overall, the weight and thickness of these is likely what leads to such great consistency and strength so those are really tradeoffs, not drawbacks.
Day Six fletched arrows one of the only arrows on the market to come with AAE stealth vanes which is a nice perk (they tend to be a bit quieter). Also, they have a factory 4 fletch for those of yo
Tips & Tricks: Outsert Installation
If you’re using micro diameter arrows, you need to spin test and align your outserts before you glue them in. Full stop (That applies to all micros, not just Day Six). Otherwise you’ll end up with a wobbly, misaligned broadhead that negates the benefits of those expensive shafts you just bought.
That also applies to pre-built arrows which are notorious for a lack of alignment. I haven’t tested prebuilt Day Six arrows, but it’s worth contacting Bryan (he’s really responsive) as he might be an exception given his attention to detail. Also, it won’t matter if you’re keeping shots under 50 yards or so.
To install the outsert perfectly screw both components together and insert them in the cut & squared arrow shaft. Use an arrow spinner to check for wobble and rotate the outsert 1/8 of a turn at a time until it goes away. Mark that location with a silver sharpie and then epoxy them in (for D6 arrows, I recommend epoxy on inside and outside),
Alternatives
They aren’t many micro diameter arrows that are this heavy, which is why the Day Six arrows are unique. The closest competitor is the Black Eagle Deep Impact: they’re ~$20 cheaper, have great tolerances, but the stock outsert isn’t quite as strong as the D6’s (although they offer the FOCOS outserts separately).
Easton 4mm FMJs and 4mm Injexions are fairly heavy but the aluminum skin on the FMJs can bend permanently and the stock inserts only work for deep six broadheads… which I don’t recommend. Gold Tip, Victory, and Carbon Express don’t really have a heavy GPI micro diameter options.
Summary
There aren’t many Day Six arrow reviews on the web but I think they’re one of the best arrows on the market for elk hunting. They’re heavy, extremely durable, and have all the benefits of a micro diameter arrow without the standard drawback of weak components. I did notice weight tolerances aren’t as good as others, but that won’t matter to 95% of hunters (and can be fixed by the other 5%). While they’re not cheap, they are a fantastic value when you consider their quality, which makes them easy to recommend. They’re still my primary arrow and I’d spend my own money on them again (see Gear I Use for everything that made the cut). To learn more, head over to the Day Six website.