Doegirl75

Thanks, Bigcountry, I will.
I can see your point with the "I laugh when" statement as being disrespectful. I just got mybritches in a bind-this arrow weight issue sure does get people emotional.
And let it be known that I respect your opinion and others on this board. Even with a viewpoint I strongly disagree with, it's never my intention to demean anyone.

bigcountry

No problem doe, I respect you too. I have even sent a few women bowhunters your way when they asked advise. Holy cow your shooting silverflames. Beautiful heads, just would be scared to loose one. I have settled on muzzy 200gr phatoms.

Paul L Mohr

I agree everything needs to be taken into consideration. Along with a good weight arrow you certainly should be shooting a broad head meant for what you are doing and they should fly straight. I just sort of figured that as a given. I never said you couldn't kill game with a lighter arrow, I am merely suggesting that a heavier arrow would perform better. If you ever shoot a deer and don't get a pass through and have a tough tracking job chances are the heavier arrow probably would have accomplished that for you, providing you had proper shot placement.

Most don't consider 400 to 500 grn arrows heavy either.

My bow shoots a tad over 200 fps with 450 grn arrows and I don't need more than one pin out to 25 yards which is all the farther I care to shoot at deer. Oh, and my bow has an IBO spec of 324 fps (bowtech mighty might) so it's plenty efficient, I'm just little is all. I used to shoot a bow that was less efficient with arrows around 350-360 grns. It worked, but once I upped my arrow weight I noticed better performance on game at hunting distances. And the better bow just makes it all that much better.

I personally have no desire to shoot over 250 fps. If had a more efficient bow, or longer arms that would let me shoot 280-300 fps I would most likely up my arrow weight until my speed came down to around 245-250 fps.

If you want to disagree with decades of experience and testing feel free, you are welcome to believe what you want. However like I said before, to those of us that know better you won't change our minds. Just because you don't think you need a heavier don't try and make us believe it wouldn't work better because we know it will.

A really simple example of this is my kids little plastic recurve bow. If you use really light youth arrows it won't stick in my back target more than half the time. If I grab some of my heavier aluminum arrows (400 grns) it will consistently stick in the bag. The light arrow might get there a bit faster, but the heavy arrows retain more energy and momentum to the target letting them work better. Both have the same energy out of the bow, the heavier ones just retain that energy better.

Paul

Schultzy

Very well said Paul!!

yajsab

Ok, this has turned out to be a good and emotional thread. I apoligize if I offended anyone. I have almost a decade of elk/deer hunting with bow, and I am still learning new thing each day/year. So, I would like to hear from all the more experience folks what should I give and what should I take out. I am going to use me as example so no one will be offended. Here's my setup:

Bow: Equalizer
DL: 25"
DW: 60#
Arrow weight: 360 grn
Speed: ~250 fps

KE = ~50 ft-lb
Momentum = 0.4 lb-s

Compare this to a 450 grn and 200 fps:

KE = 40 ft-lb
Momentum = 0.4 lb-s

In this case, which arrow/speed is better? Shall we say they're the same theoretically? Which would you choose and why?

Paul L Mohr

Is this with the same bow? Because there is no way you are going to up your weight that much and keep the same momentum and lose 10 ft/lbs of KE, if anything it will go up slightly.

Me personally having nearly the same set up, except I have a mighty might with 26 inches of draw I would and do use the heavier arrows.
Paul