Victory RIP TKO Review: The Goldilocks Hunting Arrow

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In the bowhunting world today, there are three camps for finding the perfect arrow. Some want heavy arrows for supreme penetration. Some people want ultralight shafts for blazing speeds. Then there are those who want a happy medium.

For the latter crowd, the Victory RIP TKO could be the arrow you’re looking for. It’s not ultralight, but it’s not super heavy. It has a small diameter and special coating that are intended to increase penetration. Add to those features that it’s well made and has tight tolerances, and the RIP TKO might be the ultimate bowhunting arrow. Here are my thoughts on the RIP TKO after testing six on the range.

Victory RIP TKO Specs and Features

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• Straightness: Elite .001, Gamer .003, and Sport .006
• Spines Available: 200, 250, 300, 350, and 400
• Includes 50 grain aluminum insert/outsert
• Shaft Length: 31 inches
• .204 inch inside diameter
• 12 Pack of Shafts Price: Elite $220, Gamer $195, Sport $180
• Six pack of Fletched Arrows Price: Elite $120, Gamer $110, Sport $100
• Tested Arrow Weight: 439 grains (300 spine, 30.25-inch arrow, 100 grain point, three TAC Driver 2.75 vanes)

Elite vs Gamer vs Sport

The Victory RIP TKO is a .204-diameter, all-carbon arrow. It comes in three varieties — Elite V1, Gamer V3, and Sport V6. Those varieties pertain to the straightness tolerances, with the Elite V1 promising straightness to within .001 inches, the Gamer V3 to within .003, and the Sport V6 to within .006. 

Most bowhunters probably won’t notice any difference in those straightnesses, but they definitely will notice their effect on price. At Lancaster Archery Supply, a six-pack of RIP TKO Elites costs $119.99, the Gamers cost $109.99, and the Sports sell for $99.99. Food for thought: Arrow companies measure straightness runoff with a full-length arrow, so if you’re going to cut a few inches off, you’re likely improving straightness specs.

3K Carbon

All RIP TKOs are made of 3K carbon, which means there are 3,000 carbon filaments per tow — think bundle — woven together in Victory’s unique 45-degree pattern that looks like a checkerboard. The 3K carbon is strong and lightweight, and holds up to repeated use, so it’s considered to be durable. It’s a common carbon used for a variety of purposes besides arrows, such as in car hoods and bike rims.

Read Next: UltraView 1K Arrows Review

Spine Aligned

Each arrow is spine aligned, which means Victory identifies and marks each arrow’s “high spine” for you. The high spine is the stiffest part of the arrow. When shooting compound bows, you want that high spine facing directly up for the best consistency and arrow performance. Target archers will spin an arrow in a tool that presses down on the middle of the arrow and measures resistance to find the high spine for themselves before fletching. With the RIP TKO’s, Victory does that at the factory and puts a graphic on the arrow shaft to mark the high spine. 

ICE Coating

RIP TKOs are also covered with Victory’s ICE coating, a ceramic coating designed to aid penetration and make these arrows easier to remove from targets. I don’t know how you tell if the coating aids in penetration on a game animal, but I can attest that it makes these arrows easier to pull from targets than arrows that don’t have the coating.

Diameter 

The .204 diameter is the hybrid shaft size between 4mm micro-diameter arrows and standard 6mm arrows. So it’s designed to cut through wind like a micro-diameter, but it leans more toward the standard-size arrow’s increased strength and lighter grains-per-inch weight.

Components

RIP TKO’s come standard with an AAE .204 nock and Shok TL204 aluminum insert/outsert, which weighs 50 grains. The insert/outsert features a threaded post that is glued inside the arrow shaft. Attached to that post is an extended collar which slides over the end of the shaft by about .25 inch. The outsert portion of the system acts as a protective sleeve for the end of the arrow, preventing it from fracturing during hard impacts. 

Additional weights can be screwed into the back of the insert through the nock end of the arrow to increase FOC — the overall weight at the point end of the arrow. Also, there are aftermarket stainless steel, aluminum, and titanium insert/outserts available for these arrows, if you want to increase or decrease the amount of weight at the front of the arrow.

Testing the Victory RIP TKO on the Range 

To test the Victory RIP TKOs, I bought a half dozen Elite V1s in 300 spine. I built them with 4-inch TAC wraps and three TAC Driver 2.75 vanes. After cutting the shafts and gluing in the inserts, my arrows measured 30.25 inches from the back of the nock to the front of the insert.

The 300-spine RIP TKOs are listed at 8.8 grains per inch. Compare that to a 300-spine, 4mm VAP TKO that weighs 9.5 gpi or a standard diameter, 6mm VForce that weighs 9.7 gpi. The RIP XV — extreme velocity — is a .204 arrow built for speed, and the 300-spine version weighs 7.1 gpi.

Before putting on wraps and vanes, I weighed each arrow and insert, since Victory guarantees the RIP TKOs each weigh within a 0.5 grain of every other arrow in the pack. Four of mine weighed 312.8 grains, and two weighed 313.2 grains — a 0.4 difference. 

My built arrows, with 100-grain points, weighed 439 grains. That’s definitely a bit on the lighter side for me, since I’m used to other .204 and 6mm, 300-spine arrows weighing 450 to 480 grains. And don’t forget, the RIP TKOs have those 50-grain inserts, where others often have inserts weighing only 16 to 21 grains.

Read Next: Best Hunting Arrows

I shot my RIP TKOs from my Mathews Lift, set at 30-inch draw length and 67-pound draw weight. Under those conditions, the RIP TKOs flew 298 fps from my bow. That’s pretty fast for a mid-weight hunting arrow.

According to Victory’s Kinetic Energy Calculator, my arrow setup produces 84.85 foot-pounds of KE. Victory recommends 25 to 41 foot-pounds for medium game, such as deer and antelope; 42 to 65 foot-pounds for large game, such as elk. So at least in terms of kinetic energy, my setup is good to go for nearly anything in North America. If you wanted to build a super heavy arrow or are interested in pushing the limits of FOC, the RIP TKO is a good shaft to look at. Mainly because it comes in a super-stiff 200 spine, which will allow you to load the front end with a bunch of point weight.

After collecting these statistics, I just started shooting the arrows at varying distances from 20 to 70 yards over the course of several days. They performed flawlessly. They hit behind my pin. They grouped well. I had no unexplained fliers. If I didn’t hit what I was aiming at, it was because my bow moved — not because of the arrows. And I’ve certainly shot arrows in the past that just didn’t group tightly. 

One of the nicest features of the RIP TKOs is that ICE coating. As I mentioned, I can vouch that these arrows easily pull out of targets. You can feel the coating on these arrows. It’s like glass. Even on a new target, the RIP TKOs pulled out with minimal effort.

Final Thoughts

The RIP TKOs are quality arrows. As such, they aren’t cheap. The Elite V1 unfletched shafts I bought cost $110 per six-pack — including the inserts. That is one of Victory’s most expensive hunting shafts. But there certainly are several hunting arrows on the market by Victory and other manufacturers that are more expensive, so they aren’t at the top of the pricing pyramid.

Overall, I’d say the Victory RIP TKO Elite V1 arrows are well made, durable, cut nicely through wind, and they weigh enough to do the job on deer-to-elk sized game animals. It’s a solid arrow that should perform well for those bowhunters who want a combination of speed and penetration.