I was watching a group of zebra when a black wildebeest walked into view from the right, dropped his head, and began to chomp grass. There was no mistake; he was a good, mature bull.

He had broad, cracked bosses, and his shiny black horns swooped down below his eyes and hooked and curled up past the top of his head. Black wildebeest were not on my "to-shoot list" until I watched the ornery beasts fight and chase each other around various waterhole setups. The previous day, Dwight Schuh had shot one, and after close inspection, my desire to take a black wildebeest began to burn.

Usually, black wildebeest are in herds and often gallop to the water, churning up dust from the dry ground in the process. Once at the water, they horn, shove, and bolt in and out. It's a circus, and you have a difficult time getting one to stand long enough for a quality shot. This one was alone and calmly standing. I pivoted, lifted my Hoyt GameMaster recurve from its hook, and squared around. The bull turned and walked back to my left and stopped. It was an easy shot; he was at only 12 yards. My arrow smacked him in the meat of his front leg and hammered to a stop in his opposite shoulder -- exactly where I was aiming.

He omitted a gruff grunt and leaped forward. As he ran, he spun in tight circles, trying to get at the arrow embedded in his shoulder. The last circle ended 50 yards away as he slammed to the ground in a heap. After my guide arrived, we walked over to my wildebeest. On the way, I found the fletching end of my Carbon Express arrow. The wildebeest had managed to break it in half. Little did I care, because the shaft had preformed as designed. It flew straight and penetrated deep.

When Dwight told me that, thanks to Bowhunting Safari Consultants, we'd be hunting plains game in South Africa and Namibia in June 2006, I decided I should shoot a heavier bow and carbon arrows, so I ordered 60-pound limbs for my Hoyt GameMaster, two dozen Carbon Express Heritage 150 shafts, and two dozen Barrie Rocky Mountain Ti-125 broadheads and extra blades.

I've always had good success shooting 585-grain aluminum arrows, so I was concerned that my new carbon shafts would be too light and I'd have trouble achieving true arrow flight. But I really wanted to try the Heritage shafts, so I dedicated the necessary tuning time to accomplish my goal.

I studied Carbon Express' charts and found their Heritage 150 shafts were 10 grains per inch, and it appeared they were close to the right spine. Once I received the shafts, I screwed a 125-grain fieldpoint into an insert, pushed it into the front end of my shaft, and shoved a nock into the tail end. I didn't use epoxy, because I knew to find the exact length for the right spine and perfect flight, I'd probably need to cut the shaft several times.

Continued -- click on page link below.