Rick James

I wouldn't worry about it because ASA format is the only one that will regulate you on speed. If that's the case, I'd recommend a different arrow recipe to be honest. It would take about a 25lb draw 82nd to slow that arrow down enough for 280........lol.

Arthur P

Yeah, there's another difference in traditional-only tournaments. An entire group of 4 shooters can shoot a target before one open class guy can get off the stake. The last shoot we had at our club, about 10 guys shot through 40 targets with their recurves, then went and signed up again and shot another 40 with their longbows. We started the shoot at noon and were handing out awards by 4:30. An open class shooter will raise hell if he doesn't have a full 8 hours to shoot 40 targets and these trad guys shot 80 in 4 hours.

Like I said, you wouldn't even recognize it as the same game.

Gundeck

Awesome post, Matt. Thanks so much for the detailed info.

Matt / PA

Jeff actually you Do kind of have a point to consider here.......RJ and I mostly deal with IBO events and IBO scoring and rules. The ASA is more of a southern based organization and you might run into speed regulations.
I ALWAYS advocate shooting the absolute fastest bow that you can shoot accurately. But in the ASA they do have that 280fps rule with something like a 3% fudge factor to allow for different chronographs.

When I shot Hunter class I set my bow up to be IBO legal equipment wise but also made sure the speed was about 284fps which made me legal now to shoot both sanctioned events.

I only shoot IBO now so my set ups will be flamethrowers but 280-285fps isn't much of a handicap shooting Hunter class, and you might even benefit setting your 82nd Airborne up to shoot that speed but rather than turning it down do like RJ suggested and get your hands on some big fat heavy stable arrows like X-Cutters or even maybe as big as the 30X from Gold Tip or the X-Jammer from Carbon Express depnding how the weight works out for you.
Or if you don't have any speed regs and aren't worried about it stay with the fat arrows but now look at the light ones like Carbon Express CXL's or Gold Tip 22 series.

In any event decide what weight you want to shoot the bow at, then decide what speed you want to shoot, and finally build your arrow around what you want. Don't build the set up around the arrow, make the arrow fit the set up.

Rick James

Matt's definitely 100% correct on this Jeff. If you are shooting speed restricted 3D @ 280fps I would change the arrow, not the bow. Always shoot the bow wherever you shoot it best, and change the arrow recipe accordingly. You can get an advantage this way that you would be giving away if you simply changed the bow.

You can at least try to make up for that restriction by shooting the fattest shaft that you can shoot wellto cut some extra lines. The year I won my ASA state championship in HC I shot 30X Pro's fletched with blazers, and with 100 grain glue ins at around 281fps. Those things really cut some lines and hog up the X ring and to be honest I never sawmuch of a difference in my scores from a 315fps rig in hunter class all the way down to 280 or so. Speed matters much more from the long stakes, but in HC the pins only go so close together on most sights at these distances.

The lasttarget I shot in that ASA shoot, Ibarely licked the 10 ring with that 30X pro.2nd place ended up 2 points behind me [8D].

TFOX

Hunter class is fine for fat shafts but as Matt mentions,you may cost yourself when stepping back.


I would highly reccomend when shooting long stakes with fat shafts that you have a higher energy setup that has a little ke and momentum to fight off some of the wind drift and other factors that make fat shafts unstable at distance.Most people have no problem with this,I did.


When I won the ASA ky state shoot I believe I was shooting normal diameter shafts.I had a low energy setup and have never been able to shoot fat shafts at distance that the groups wouldn't open up at distance.I believe ACC's was what I was using.


Besides,you are only talking about .020 to .040 advantagein most cases with a fat shaft over a regular shaft.The diameter must be divided by 2 to get the advantage. If you drift that much,advantage lost.

GMMAT

I guess I'm only interested in HC....because I don't know of another I could "compete" in, around here. It's either "open" or HC, mostly.

My problem is.....I don't know enough about arrows to know how to set my bow up, intelligently. I'm going ot get a dozen of the ones Matt (RJ) told me to get.....and claim ignorance about bow speeds as long as I can. I "really" don't think any of the local shoots I'll be going to will chrono my bow......and I'll see how I do in those before worrying about some of the bigger shoots.

GREAT info., guys.....and it's much appreciated.

TFOX

The arrows they recommend are fine and with your setup,fat shafts would be fine at the longer ranges too.

GMMAT

With the 3D season imminent.....I thought it would be a good time to resurrect this thread.

MUCHO information in here.

mobow

Indeed, and I just ordered my 3D sights yesterday......I'm chomping at the bit to get these in......it is a really nice set....

New arrows ordered....man, I'm ready to get to it. This is going to be my first "season" of competitive 3D and I'm excited.