Easton 5.0 vs Victory HLR - Head-To-Head Spine Tolerance & Durability Test
If you've been debating between these two shafts, this video shows you all the data you need to make an informed decision.
Join Dan Clum for this unbiased, honest, and comprehensive head-to-head test of two of the most popular .204" ID shafts on the market in 2025, the Victory HLR and the Easton 5.0.
This test measured:
- Straightness at center, nock and point
- Spine consistency
- Spine variance
- Durability test into wood
- Durability test into cinder block
Video Transcript:
Hey, today we're going to be doing a
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video testing tolerances of the most
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popular 204 inside diameter arrows on
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the market. We're going to be checking
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straightness at three points on the
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arrow. We're going to check spine and
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spine consistency around the shaft. This
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video is going to be a non-biased video.
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We are just pulling arrows off the shelf
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and testing to help you decide which one
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is the best arrow for you. We're going
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to do a head-to-head battle of the
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Victory HLR and the East 5.0. These are
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arguably two of the most popular arrows
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on the market right now. They're getting
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all the buzz, all the marketing
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attention from these companies. Both are
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claiming that they've got the best
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tolerances, the best consistency. Let's
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put these to the test and find out which
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one comes out on top. Arrow number one,
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Victory HLR
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236.8.
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All right. Zero run out.
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Yeah. 14 to 16.
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We've got about three,000
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about 1,000
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236.8. Yeah.
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Zero.
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Looks like we up about 13 to 15,000
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about 3,000
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3 and a half thousand 236.6 Six
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zero
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less than one.
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2,000
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about 4 th000
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236.8 eight.
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It's about half of a thousand
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or a little less
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10 to 12
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3000
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300
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236.6 Six
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zero
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zero spine
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knock 2000
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about 1,000
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237.0 L
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zero run out.
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Got about 19 to 21,000
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1,000 237.6
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got about 2000s.
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10 to 14
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2000 lock end
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2 and 12 236.8
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zero.
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That one's less. That's about a half of
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a thousand.
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2 and a half
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7,000
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23
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6.6 Six
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zero
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10 to 11 and a half
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3000 knock
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2000 point
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237.6 6
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0
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11 to 14
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[Music]
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5 and 1/2
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five
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2 37.4 Four
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zero
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like say four to six,
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four to seven.
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So four
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three arrow 12 to 36.6 Six.
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Got about a thousand straightness on
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this one.
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Yep. 17 to 19 arrow. 12
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three on the knock
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5 1/2 east and 5.0's. Let's get the
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weight on all 12 of these. So, arrow
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number one 248.4 Four Eastston 5.0 arrow
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number one straightness in the center.
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Zero run out on straightness.
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So we're going 43 to 39
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3000
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about 2000
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247.8 8
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zero run out.
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So we're going to go 44 1/2 to 49 and
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1/2
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2 1/2 th000
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300 247.0 Oh,
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that one has about 1,000 run out. A
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little less than one.
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Call that one. 43 to 47.
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48.
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Three.
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Three.
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247.4
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zero run out
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42 to 48
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three. This is weird. These like have
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ridges on them.
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One rotation it goes up and down
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multiple times. Like the carbon's not
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uniform around it. About
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two and a half
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248
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2
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half a thousand like 05.
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We got 35 to 45.
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It's bouncing up and down too.
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three number six.
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5,000 total.
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So, just a little over three on this
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end.
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246.0.
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It's got about a thousand
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39 to 43.
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Got four.
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This one's only got about 1,000 on the
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point in
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248.2.
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Zero run out.
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We got 37 to 47.
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Two and a half
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two
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247.6.
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So zero run out.
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It's like 38 to 43.
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Back two
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two
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248.0.
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Okay. Zero run out
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quick. 38 to 45.
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This one's real squirly. I don't know
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why. 38.
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Yeah. 38 to 48.
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3 and 1/2
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247.8
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Eight.
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Okay. Zero over
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about 39 to
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43
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about four
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three
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247.0 Well,
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zero run out.
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It's 38 to 46
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2 and 12
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4
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248.4 Four
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zero run out
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45 to 48
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four
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about one and a half on the point end.
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All right, we're going to do some really
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basic durability tests with both of
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these arrows. First thing we're going to
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do is shoot them into a 4x4 wood block
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trying to simulate that you missed your
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target. you hit the frame of your
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target, hit that wood block, is it going
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to survive it? I would expect most of
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these to survive that. Um, or if you're
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shooting out in the woods, you miss a 3D
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and hit a tree. Uh, second test is going
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to be into a cinder block. That's the
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the ultimate durability test. A lot of
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these will not survive that, and that's
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okay. Uh, if your arrow doesn't survive
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it, that's okay. We just want to see
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what extent we can push these to.
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Okay, my first shot is going to be the
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East 5.0 into the wood block.
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I mean, this is pretty basic durability.
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This isn't This is nothing super hard.
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So, looks like it survived it no
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problem. Okay, my next shot is going to
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be the Victory HLR into the wood block.
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here again. Looks like it survived. No
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problem. East50 into the cinder block.
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[Music]
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[Music]
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So, it definitely
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smashed that one back into the arrow.
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Okay, here goes the Victory HLR into the
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cinder block.
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Look like the component
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came back here.
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So, this arrow Okay, so a quick wrap up
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on durability. Both of these arrows are
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going to survive basic impacts. You miss
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your target, hit the frame of the
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target, you miss your 3D, hit a tree,
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both these arrows are going to stand up
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to that. These are not the most durable
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arrows in the world. These are
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lightweight arrows. They're meant to get
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you a little bit more speed, allow you
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to build more FOC into your arrow setup,
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and still stay at a moderate weight.
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That's what these guys are designed to
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do. But they're both going to withstand
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basic impacts. hard impacts, neither of
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them are going to survive. And that just
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is the give and take when you go to a
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lightweight carbon um lightweight arrow.
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They're going to break if you hit
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something really hard. There are very
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few out there that will survive a direct
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impact with a cinder block, but there
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are some. Let's go ahead and look back
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at the spreadsheet now that we've got
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all this data condensed and go through
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it and analyze it and see uh which of
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these arrows kind of perform the best.
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So, when we look at weight, grain weight
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of the arrows, um, on the Victory HLR,
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we're only seeing one grain variance
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from lightest to heaviest, uh, on the
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East, 2.4 grains. So, very close, but,
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uh, that column goes to the HLR. Uh,
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when we go to spine, the high to low
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spine, uh, this is one spot where the
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HLRs really didn't perform very well. We
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had, uh, 336 on the low side and 351 on
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the high side. So 15,000 variance in the
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spine from high to low. Uh don't really
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like to see that, but uh that's the way
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it came out. On the East, there was only
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313 to 320. So that one would go to
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Easton. However, it's almost kind of a
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tie. Uh the Victory, these are supposed
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to be a 350 spine, average 345. Eastston
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supposed to be a 340 spine, average 316.
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So, it's kind of hard to give that
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column to either of them. You've got a a
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big high to low on the Victory, but
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you've got the East all coming in
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stiffer than they're supposed to be. So,
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I don't know. I guess kind of call that
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one a wash. Spine variance around the
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shaft. This one definitely goes to the
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HLR. 0019 spine variance on average
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around the shaft. A perfect arrow to a
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high of 4,000 variance. I mean, that's
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that's really good. Eastens not so good.
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Had as much as 10,000 spine variance
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around one single arrow. Average 006
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and total deviation from high to low7.
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So you give that column to the HLR.
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Straightness at center. These were both
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really good with this. Basically the HLR
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we had one arrow that was out of spec on
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that outside of the O1. The East, all of
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them were in spec. So, uh, give that one
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to the East. Straightness at the knock
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end. This one is going to go to the HLR
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as well. Um, average deviation 026. Uh,
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compared to the Eastston, O63.
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So, that one goes to the HLR. Uh,
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straightness at the point end. This one
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is going to go to the Easton. O3
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on the HLR. O24
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to the East. One thing that we do want
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to note is we saw, you know, on the
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spine variants around the shaft, that
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one is definitely going to go to the
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HLR. That's the one where you might have
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to knock tune your arrows. You might
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have to spin that knock to get it to get
17:11
the same dynamic reaction every time
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that you shoot the arrow. Um, you're
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going to see a lot more variation on the
17:18
east with that than you are with HLR.
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The other thing is, we kind of noted
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this in the video, there were a couple
17:24
of those East that were weird. I mean,
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that spine variation was going up and
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down as you rotate it around the shaft.
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Kind of an odd finding there. If you
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call spine a wash between these two
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because, you know, one's lower than it's
17:37
supposed to be, one has a bigger high to
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low. I don't know. Pretty hard to say.
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I'd almost call it a wash between these
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two arrows. Dig through these uh dig
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through the spreadsheet. Dig through
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this data. Let us know what you think,
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what your reactions are. All right. So,
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final conclusion. What I would say is
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these are both great arrows. One thing
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Eastston is saying with their new match
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grade that the tolerances are tighter.
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Um, didn't really prove to be true on
18:04
this set of arrows. They were within
18:06
spec on straightness in the center, but
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they were 2,000 out on the point end,
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6,000 out on the knock end. Eastston is
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also saying that you're not going to
18:15
have to knock tune these arrows because
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of their process, the way they lay up
18:18
the carbon. But what we're seeing is
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there is greater spine variance around
18:22
the shaft with the east. That is that
18:25
does kind of align with what I've seen
18:27
shooting east in the past is that you
18:29
are going to have to knock tune a couple
18:30
of those arrows. Definitely not the end
18:32
of the world. Something to be aware of.
18:34
My big takeaway with the Victory that
18:37
high to low on the spine is what I
18:39
didn't like with that arrow. Everything
18:41
else tested out pretty good. That high
18:43
to low spine from a 336 to a 351. you
18:47
might have to callull a couple arrows
18:48
within that if you can't get them to
18:50
shoot with a broadhead. So, that would
18:52
be my takeaway with the HLRs. All right,
18:54
so our goal here was to just give you a
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nonbiased test. We wanted to take static
18:59
measurements of these arrows and show
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you what you're going to get or what you
19:02
could expect on an average dozen. We
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just pulled these off the shelf in the
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back right out of our stock. We didn't
19:08
handpick anything. We just made this as
19:10
fair as possible. Just wanted to give
19:12
you a side-by-side comparison so that
19:14
you can make an educated decision when
19:16
you're deciding on which of these arrows
19:17
to buy. All the results from these tests
19:19
will be available. We'll put a link for
19:21
that spreadsheet. You can go through
19:23
those results, look at them, analyze
19:25
them any way that you want and see what
19:27
we came up with throughout this test.