The shafts are made of either aluminum or aluminum with carbon fibers. Aluminum arrows are more uniform in weight and shape, while carbon arrows fly faster and provide less cross-wind resistance, and are therefore more useful in long distance outdoor archery. The business end of the arrow is weighted and tipped with a target point, designed to penetrate but a short distance in the target butt. Hunting arrows, of course, use a different, extremely sharp cutting point called a field point. All NAA sanctioned events use only target points, except for certain Flight archery events.
Arrows come in varying widths.
Carbon arrows, designed to minimize cross-wind interference at long shooting distances, have small widths, minimizing the wind's grip during flight. Larger widths are used for short distances and indoors. Since the arrow need only just touch a line in order to score the higher point, wide arrows theoretically provide slightly better scoring advantage. The other end from the tip features a nocking point, a plastic cap glued or otherwise attached to the end of the arrow. Its two fingers grip the string until it is flung loose, and it provides a protection for the arrow shaft by deflecting hits from later incoming arrows.