Looking for a good cheap stepless shaft

naj959 · March 26, 2012

FST, Apollo VS. Rifle?

I'm looking to build a set of irons this summer and absolutely hate the stiff Nippon 1050s in my irons. The shafts feel incredibly lite and loose to me and I'm thinking about going up 10 grams in weight. I've hit my buddies clubs with Rifles(has a set with 5.0 and a set with PX 6.5) and get a better ball flight, tighter dispersion and more distance with his clubs. These shafts feel a lot more stable to me and the club does not feel all over the place. Does anyone know how the Apollo standard steppless and FST Pro 115 would compare to the Rifles. I'm especially intrested in the Apollos because I could save a lot of change if I order them and take them to my clubbuilder.

ValueGolf · March 26, 2012

The highest quality stepless shaft for the money is the FST Pro 115 or 125.

naj959 · March 27, 2012

I've read a lot about the tech involved with the KBS lines but can't find much about the FST shafts. Would you care to shed some light on the subject. From a feel standpoint KBS makes some of my favorite shafts but I'm not sure if that translates into the FST lline which was out befor KB came over i believe.

wolfpack · March 27, 2012

Rifle FCM shafts are still fantastic. They are cheap as hell these days.

Starched · March 27, 2012

I have FST Pro 115 Stepless Shafts in my irons and I love them. They were hand designed by Kim Braly from KBS. They frequency out softer on the machine but KBS says they used a different technique to achieve the flex and flight, so I am guessing it has a different profile than a typical shaft. They do not feel whippy or sloppy at all, but not as butt stiff as a DGS300. I am guessing they are softer butt but with a medium firm as opposed to stiff tip. Definitely not wet noodles in my opinion. It played very similar to the KBS 6.0 to me. I always played Dynamic Gold S300, my 6 iron is 85 mph.

These launch mid to mid high, but I have never had them balloon or over-spin. I am really impressed with them for $10 per shaft. If you don't want a115 gram version, go with the 125 gram version and I think you would be impressed.

For reference I am a 4.7 index.

Buy one, put it in your 6 iron and try it out for a while. cheap experiment. They only come in .370 parallel though so make sure your irons work for that.

Nessism · March 27, 2012

Another Rifle fan here. Great shaft.

KYMAR · March 27, 2012

I put the FST pro 115 in some Maltby heads and tipped them between X and S and they still hit the ball way to high for me. If i had to do it over again, I would have used the 125 Pro's. Stiffer tip section, lower flight etc.

I have used the Apollo standard stepless in some wedges and was pretty happy with them. They are a lower launch shaft for sure. I don't hit enough full shots with them to know how they would perform in a 5 iron but for my 50,54, and 58 they worked very well ,

KYMAR · March 27, 2012

I put the FST pro 115 in some Maltby heads and tipped them between X and S and they still hit the ball way to high for me. If i had to do it over again, I would have used the 125 Pro's. Stiffer tip section, lower flight etc..

I have used the Apollo standard stepless in some wedges and was pretty happy with them. They are a lower launch shaft for sure. I don't hit enough full shots with them to know how they would perform in a 5 iron but for my 50,54, and 58 they worked very well.

bag302 · March 27, 2012

I tried an FST 125 trimmed to stiff but it felt soft and trajectory was too high. Should I trim them to x flex to get them comparable to an s300?

Colej · March 27, 2012

[quote name='KYMAR' timestamp='1332854472' post='4590702']
I put the FST pro 115 in some Maltby heads and tipped them between X and S and they still hit the ball way to high for me. If i had to do it over again, I would have used the 125 Pro's. Stiffer tip section, lower flight etc.

I have used the Apollo standard stepless in some wedges and was pretty happy with them. They are a lower launch shaft for sure. I don't hit enough full shots with them to know how they would perform in a 5 iron but for my 50,54, and 58 they worked very well ,
[/quote]

In talking with the guys at Golfworks the FST shafts play soft. If you play stiff in True Temper you may need to be X in FST.

artsmart73 · March 27, 2012

rifle+1

naj959 · March 27, 2012

Great info thanks guys. Still not sure what I'm going to do but I've got a mounth or two to decide. It sounds like the FST's maybe a cheaper version of the KBS which is good and bad. I liked the feel of the KBS but the dispersion wasn't as tight as the Rifles. It seems like the rifles really do cut down on sidespin but aren't the best in terms of feel. I can hit shots that never move off the flagstick with rifles but not so with KBS and Nippon. I'm thinking I'll learn to love the feel of Rifles in order to gain the laser like accuracy.