Modern arrow shafts are usually tubular and are constructed using high-strength materials, with most competition arrows now using carbon fibre composites. The need to mount the arrow components (and in particular the arrow point) internally and the need to retain sufficient wall strength to avoid crushing combine to set design limits on the arrow’s mass–diameter relationship for a given arrow shaft material. This article considers those design limits and the consequent selection of the optimal arrow shafts to use for the various types of major archery competitions, depending upon the major score-detracting factors. It is shown that for a given arrow shaft material, a simple set of rules can be used for the selection.