Has anyone tried EPON AF-301 & project x combination?

[indharbor]

Hi,

Has anyone have tried AF-301 and project x combination?

Mine is currently shafted with NS PRO 1150s and they are great combo.

But I would like to give a little change and I have had great sucess with project x shafts before.

I would like to hear from anyone who have tried project xs on their Epon irons and how they would feel different compare to other shafts.

Any input is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[xchangmanx]

Hi,

Has anyone have tried AF-301 and project x combination?

Mine is currently shafted with NS PRO 1150s and they are great combo.

But I would like to give a little change and I have had great sucess with project x shafts before.

I would like to hear from anyone who have tried project xs on their Epon irons and how they would feel different compare to other shafts.

Any input is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

I did, after 3 rounds I put my 1150s back in the 301 heads. However I got my project xs from japan they were satin, not the new chrome ones.

1150s felt just perfect in the 301s. The project xs just didn't have the the flight and landing I wanted, plus the 1150s were softer allowed me to load them more.

off the subject-I am seriously debating picking up another set of KBtours from Goodsie and trying them out on my 301s. The R7s are fantastic w/kbtours and so are my wedges. Total confidence in those shafts.

Back on the sub. IMO the 1150s felt better for me, gets my ball mid traj fast and pierces through the wind w/out alot of roll on landing. PX is good in blades, my 695mbs rock w/them.

[coops1967]

I have a set of 301's with PX 6.0 (original pre TT satin stock) at +1/2" length, D2 swingweight.

I went for PX because i'd heard good things about them and had played Mizuno TP21's for 8-10 years wuth Rifle 6.5's and loved the shafts...

And i then demo'd the 301's but with PX HL shafts ...... and these were why i went with Epons - unbelievable feeling.....

HOWEVER - the 6.0 PX is merely OK feeling if you're swinging well, yet very unpleasant on a bad swing day. (This is with my 301's of course....). Would say they are the shaft equivalent of a pure blade - they'll give lots of feedback and info on how your swing is performing, BUT even a great swing doesn't feel as good as you'd hope - certainly nothing like the HL versions i tested. Note the feeling may not be as pleasant as regular rifles but they do offer an unusual and worthwhile ballflight when struck well.

So definitely demo first or just change one iron and compare - softer flexes may well feel far better (?).

Epon now offer KBS shafts, and they're designed by the ex-Rifle chappy and are well reviewed. He also designed the 'Novatech' BTR shaft - a stepless shaft.

The shaft is underrated in terms of how a club feels - when i bought those Mizuno's i demo'd a bunch of blades and cavity backs at the range ( approx 15 years ago? anyway, blades were still nothing unusual or fancy in those days of Drivers with steel shafts, ye gods).

Was surprised how easy the choice was - and i wasn't particularly keen on the Mizuno's before hitting them. Really wanted the Mandrella RM cavity backs.... beautiful.

Only later did it occur to me that only the Mizunos had Rifle shafts - every other club was TT. And i had no idea what the 6.5 meant on the shaft either..... they still felt way way better than any other club with TT shafts.

[indharbor]

Guys, thanks for extensive input!

I know for a fact that project x gives little dull feeling but somehow gave me better distance control and tighter dispersion. I guess the concensus is ns pro is better match for Epons as far as feeling is concerned.

I have tried KB Tours myself too on PRGR 900MDs and felt great. However, it felt like I have lost little distance. Maybe I should try softer flex on KB Tour and see how that goes.

Thanks again guys!

[+TourSpecGolfer]

Guys, thanks for extensive input!

I know for a fact that project x gives little dull feeling but somehow gave me better distance control and tighter dispersion. I guess the concensus is ns pro is better match for Epons as far as feeling is concerned.

I have tried KB Tours myself too on PRGR 900MDs and felt great. However, it felt like I have lost little distance. Maybe I should try softer flex on KB Tour and see how that goes.

Thanks again guys!

I have a similar issue with the KB's. It feels great, seems easier for me to hit well, but it has less distance than other shafts I have tested recently NS1150, NS999, & PX5.5 included.

[Goodsie]

Here is my take on shaft distances, which I have studied, charted and played in many different sets of irons to gather this info. I have it all logged by weight, stiffness and shaft length, and Brand so I can refer to it when a discerning customer wants answers. I used the Zelocity Launch Monitor, the Golf Buddy GPS distance feature and the old faithful, the Bushnell Laser Rangefinder 1500 Pro. So, here are my findings: You can throw a "King Size" bed sheet over the whole lot of them in distance, with the Project X being at the top of the sheet and the TT Black Gold at the bottom of the sheet with everything else falling in between, that's just two strides difference.

Now, for the second most important stat for an iron shaft. Dispersion off center line. Wow, big variances here. The KB Tour shaft wins this one hands down with an accruracy rate of .5% followed closely by Project X at 2.3%. With worst being as high as 10.6% off line either side of center, that is a 38yard spread, guys! These measurements were made with a 6 Iron. So besides those two winners, all of the others fall in the 3% out to the embarrassing 10.6%. I can remedy some of these off line shafts with my Puring/FLO process. But, when I Pure/FLO the better shafts, they become laser like launchers. Really stunning results...

Finally, "FEEL". The underlying thing is that a lot of golfers use feel as the standard (not accuracy) in judging shafts. Well, here is what I've found. KB Tour #1, Nippon's(all) #2, BlackGold, Project X, Tour Concept, TT X100, Shimada, and DG all very close together as to feel. I've worked many a Demo Day here by my Shop and I have had, by far, the largest number of guys hand me a Driver saying this is the "one" because it felt the best, without any regard whether it went straight or not.

Further, the feel of a shaft can be improved greatly when it is aligned and installed properly. I find too many shafts installed poorly and this produces results that fill a variance chart from corner to corner. This post is about STEEL shafts....Graphite is for another time. Ha!!

[livetoplay]

Here is my take on shaft distances, which I have studied, charted and played in many different sets of irons to gather this info. I have it all logged by weight, stiffness and shaft length, and Brand so I can refer to it when a discerning customer wants answers. I used the Zelocity Launch Monitor, the Golf Buddy GPS distance feature and the old faithful, the Bushnell Laser Rangefinder 1500 Pro. So, here are my findings: You can throw a "King Size" bed sheet over the whole lot of them in distance, with the Project X being at the top of the sheet and the TT Black Gold at the bottom of the sheet with everything else falling in between, that's just two strides difference.

Now, for the second most important stat for an iron shaft. Dispersion off center line. Wow, big variances here. The KB Tour shaft wins this one hands down with an accruracy rate of .5% followed closely by Project X at 2.3%. With worst being as high as 10.6% off line either side of center, that is a 38yard spread, guys! These measurements were made with a 6 Iron. So besides those two winners, all of the others fall in the 3% out to the embarrassing 10.6%. I can remedy some of these off line shafts with my Puring/FLO process. But, when I Pure/FLO the better shafts, they become laser like launchers. Really stunning results...

Finally, "FEEL". The underlying thing is that a lot of golfers use feel as the standard (not accuracy) in judging shafts. Well, here is what I've found. KB Tour #1, Nippon's(all) #2, BlackGold, Project X, Tour Concept, TT X100, Shimada, and DG all very close together as to feel. I've worked many a Demo Day here by my Shop and I have had, by far, the largest number of guys hand me a Driver saying this is the "one" because it felt the best, without any regard whether it went straight or not.

Further, the feel of a shaft can be improved greatly when it is aligned and installed properly. I find too many shafts installed poorly and this produces results that fill a variance chart from corner to corner. This post is about STEEL shafts....Graphite is for another time. Ha!!

Now that is a great write up, very informative. Thanks for the post...

[idrive]

Now that is a great write up, very informative. Thanks for the post...

Speaking from experience...

His club building far exceeds his write ups.

[indharbor]

Here is my take on shaft distances, which I have studied, charted and played in many different sets of irons to gather this info. I have it all logged by weight, stiffness and shaft length, and Brand so I can refer to it when a discerning customer wants answers. I used the Zelocity Launch Monitor, the Golf Buddy GPS distance feature and the old faithful, the Bushnell Laser Rangefinder 1500 Pro. So, here are my findings: You can throw a "King Size" bed sheet over the whole lot of them in distance, with the Project X being at the top of the sheet and the TT Black Gold at the bottom of the sheet with everything else falling in between, that's just two strides difference.

Now, for the second most important stat for an iron shaft. Dispersion off center line. Wow, big variances here. The KB Tour shaft wins this one hands down with an accruracy rate of .5% followed closely by Project X at 2.3%. With worst being as high as 10.6% off line either side of center, that is a 38yard spread, guys! These measurements were made with a 6 Iron. So besides those two winners, all of the others fall in the 3% out to the embarrassing 10.6%. I can remedy some of these off line shafts with my Puring/FLO process. But, when I Pure/FLO the better shafts, they become laser like launchers. Really stunning results...

Finally, "FEEL". The underlying thing is that a lot of golfers use feel as the standard (not accuracy) in judging shafts. Well, here is what I've found. KB Tour #1, Nippon's(all) #2, BlackGold, Project X, Tour Concept, TT X100, Shimada, and DG all very close together as to feel. I've worked many a Demo Day here by my Shop and I have had, by far, the largest number of guys hand me a Driver saying this is the "one" because it felt the best, without any regard whether it went straight or not.

Further, the feel of a shaft can be improved greatly when it is aligned and installed properly. I find too many shafts installed poorly and this produces results that fill a variance chart from corner to corner. This post is about STEEL shafts....Graphite is for another time. Ha!!

Wow, very informative and a lot of new information for me.

Come to think of it, I think my initial KB tour experience was from poor installation of the shafts.

I don't have any reliable club fitter in my area (northern New Jersey) so I had it done at local proshop which isn't really bad but none of technical stuff Goosie has mentioned.

Maybe I should try KB tour shafts again with proper installation and see how it works out.

Knowning KB tour is #1 accuracy makes me want to try them again. I really never thought proper installation could make that much of difference in feel and accuracy.

Thanks for the information!

By the way, does anyone know any good club fitter around northern New Jersey?

[xchangmanx]

Wow, very informative and a lot of new information for me.

Come to think of it, I think my initial KB tour experience was from poor installation of the shafts.

I don't have any reliable club fitter in my area (northern New Jersey) so I had it done at local proshop which isn't really bad but none of technical stuff Goosie has mentioned.

Maybe I should try KB tour shafts again with proper installation and see how it works out.

Knowning KB tour is #1 accuracy makes me want to try them again. I really never thought proper installation could make that much of difference in feel and accuracy.

Thanks for the information!

By the way, does anyone know any good club fitter around northern New Jersey?

MSG GOODSIE, he'll take care of your clubs.... my driver and irons are totally different animals since G has worked on it. Launch sessions shows it. Especially the driver. o_O

Edited November 1, 2008 by xchangmanx

[88 ROUNDS PER YEAR]

I would like to thank you for a very informative review. I wonder if this shaft testing was conducted using golfers or machine? If only one golfer did the testing, the result posted here could be very misleading because different golfers swing and load the shafts differently. The swing factors directly effect the side spin, back spin, launch angle, and therefore effect distance and direction (shot dispersion). A different golfer will conclude very differently. Your review almost made me grab my wallet and run to the nearest club maker to have KB Tour shafts put into my irons. No disrespect meant, but I would need to ask whether the test was conducted by a single golfer, golfers, or a machine. Thanks.

[livetoplay]

Speaking from experience...

His club building far exceeds his write ups.

You can tell he knows his stuff.

IDrive did you ever get your Epon's re-shafted with the KB Tours and if so what do you think of that combo? I am thinking of getting a set of the Epon's re-shafted with the KB's and wanted to get your take on them. Thanks.

[idrive]

You can tell he knows his stuff.

IDrive did you ever get your Epon's re-shafted with the KB Tours and if so what do you think of that combo? I am thinking of getting a set of the Epon's re-shafted with the KB's and wanted to get your take on them. Thanks.

Unfortunately it is going to be early spring before I can give you any feedback. I just had surgery on my shoulder to repair a s.l.a.p. tear in the Labrum.

It's very possible I will lose my mind before I'm able to take a full swing again. Going from playing or practicing almost every day to not having any use of my right arm for at least 3-4 months is just brutal.

I'll have the 301's re shafted with the KB'S

Will pick up a set of the TS 901's, Yamaha Tours, and AF Tours and who knows what else before I'll even be able to hit them.

But... I'll be able to tell you how they look!!!!!!

Going to be a long tough Winter.

[livetoplay]

Unfortunately it is going to be early spring before I can give you any feedback. I just had surgery on my shoulder to repair a s.l.a.p. tear in the Labrum.

It's very possible I will lose my mind before I'm able to take a full swing again. Going from playing or practicing almost every day to not having any use of my right arm for at least 3-4 months is just brutal.

I'll have the 301's re shafted with the KB'S

Will pick up a set of the TS 901's, Yamaha Tours, and AF Tours and who knows what else before I'll even be able to hit them.

But... I'll be able to tell you how they look!!!!!!

Going to be a long tough Winter.

Sorry to hear about your shoulder hope you recover quickly and fully so you can enjoy those sweet irons you are getting. Maybe you can post some pics for all of us out here in the forums. Personally I couldn't have those sitting at home the temptation would be to great I would drive myself crazy. Take care.