Cougar Mag

Ok, nothing better to do and I was thinking about arrow speed in feet per second and miles per hour. I don't want to dig out any old math books or look up formulas on the web so, putting myself on the line and maybe showing my ignorance and/or stupidity I came up with this:

An arrow traveling at 300 fps = 204.54 mph
This should mean that at 20 yards the arrow should make contact in .20 of a second or roughly 1/5 of a second. At 30 yards the arrow should make contact at .30 or 3/10 of a second.

An arrow traveling at say...270 fps = 190.90 mph
This should mean that at 20 yards the arrow should make contact in .22 of a second or 2/100 of a second later than one traveling at 300 fps.

An arrow traveling at 260 fps = 177.27 mph
This should mean that at 20 yards the arrow should make contact in .23 of a second or 1/100 of a second later than one traveling at 270 fps or 3/100 of a second later than one traveling at 300 fps.

30 yards using the same specs(300 fps and 270 fps)
300 fps arrow should make contact in .30 or 3/10 of a second.
270 fps arrow should make contact in .33 or 3/100 of a second later than one traveling at 300 fps.
260 fps arrow should make contact in .346(.35) or just over 4/100 of a second later than one traveling at 300 fps.

So at most bowhunting distances(we can calculate farther), does it really make a difference as far as speed in the length of time it takes for an arrow to reach its target? Of course we can use slower speeds as well.

If my calculations are wrong.....it screws my whole post up.

Anyway, I guess what I was thinking about was it really doesn't mean much at all or make a lot of difference when it comes to the amount of time it takes for an arrow traveling at different speeds to reach an animal in bowhunting situations. Think I will go take the dog for a walk.

Washington Hunter

Sound travels faster than our arrows, and thats all I'm going to say.

Dubbya

Let's revisit mobow's 14 page light 'n fast thread.

MO_Bowhnter

Let's not.

The speed of sound is roughly 770 mph which equals 1129 fps which means the sound of the bow goes 20 yds in .05 sec.

Now can a deer duck that fast...I'll leave that for another thread.

Cougar Mag

[/quote]

Ok, taking Mo's quote into consideration...........how far will the arrow have traveled when the sound of the bow reaches the deer at the different speeds posted?

TFOX

The arrow is 1/4 of the way there at 20 yardswhen the sound gets to the deer.


You forgot one part of the eqation,the arrow is constantly slowing down so you have to know how fast the arrow is at contact and take an average speed.


The point of your post is correct,speed means very little in hunting.Even when considering drop it still means very little.People would be surprised if they actually new how little of a difference it makes.


That being said,I still like to have a little speed if I am going to make 40 plus yard shots.Atleat 250 fps but that really isn't fast.[8D] Atleast on Whitetails.

nchawkeye

All the speed does is help with hitting the target for those that don't/can't estimate range properly....I killed plenty of deer in the '70s with a 45 pound Bear recurve...We aren't even close to getting arrow speed up to where a deer can't jump the string....

MichaelHunsucker

Luckily deer cant duck as fast as the speed of sound, then we would be in trouble

Dubbya

Fast arrow: 310fps / 5280 fpm = .0587 mi/sec x 3600s/hr = 211.36mph

So at 20 yards it takes .19s for the fast arrowto reach the target.

Speed of sound: 770 / 211.36 = 3.64 times faster than the arrow. So that meanssound takes .052 seconds to reach the animal as opposed to the .19seconds that the arrow takes

Dr Andy

Man! you guys really are bored!