I dont believe so. 366 I believe is the fastest compound and 400 for crossbow. Dont quote me on that. I sure hope we never reach 500 fps personally.
Why do you hope we never reach 500fps soccerdan? The reason I ask is because I'm building a prototype that's sure to break 500, if not 600 fps.
I think it would be cool but people will attempt 100 yd shots and I dont believe it is ethical. Thats just me though. It would be a cool bow to see though.
Defeats the purpose of bow hunting, we hunt with stick and string to challenge ourselves and force the extra work for the close encounters. A line must be drawn somewhere. I start to wonder where and when we will need to re-write the record books. the bows of today definitely allow for much more of a sure kill than those of the 1980's and before. While I completely agree with the need for ethical kills and I do believe new technology increases a hunters ability, I think 500fps puts a bow in the hands of that many more half-ass sportsmen that are going to take much more questionable shots.... Dont get me wrong though I'd love to shoot 500fps for the fun of it, but when i comes to hunting I think I'll just wait till rifle season.
So what materials are you devising to make the limbs out of??? 100% Kevlar limbs??? Then you'd have to figure out the material for the strings as well to hold the force created.... Mechanically, even some of the highest efficiency bows will have a hard time getting 350fps, and there has been a LOT of R&D getting to this point in the last 15yrs. If you can get to that 500fps, you'll be doing better than the whole lot of researchers that have been doing this the last 15-20yrs. So are you a mechanical engineer with a specification in ballistics and reflexive materials??? Good luck, but I doubt you're gonna get us there, and personally, as was said above, I hope it never comes to that. There is an ARC in ARChery, and I sort of like it. Now get an AIR-POWERED system to launch an arrow, and I think you have a chance, but with "sticks" and "strings" I think it's gonna be a stretch.
I have a friend shooting a pse at 395, thats a little rediculous for a bow. But even at that he wouldn't hunt whitetail without turning it down.
I can see the mood on this thread has turned against me so this will be my final post on it, but to answer your questions: The limbs are gordon composites materials (GC-70-UCL, GC-60-UCB etc.) the string is a combination of Vectran and Endura 1512 and the KE of the whole thing is 293.48 ft*lbs. Draw weight: 72 lbs, Draw length: 28.9 in, brace height: 9 in I realize some of you may say its impossible to get 293.48 ft *lbs over 28.9 inches with 72 lbs but if you draw the bow more than once before you shoot it isn't. Believe me I've crunched all the numbers and run all the simulations and it's going to work, and yes I am a mechanical engineer but I don't have a specification in anything
A bow that stores energy from more than one draw cycle is illegal in most states. I actually talked to a design engineer about building a similar bow 4-5 years ago. One that stored one full draw cycle through a ratcheting cam system, then released after the second draw cycle. You drew it once to pre-load the limbs, let it down, then drew it again and fired, as normal (but with 2x the energy). The results would've been crossbow power out of a compound bow. I'm following you. I've thought this out many times, also. The bad news for you is that it's illegal in most states as a "draw locking device."
I'm not against you my friend, infact I admire the fact that you have set a goal/standard for yourself ! Eventhough speed means very little to me in the archery world, I am excited to hear your results and I hope you are able to accomplish your goal. Aim high my friend because the reward will be worth it!
Due to the fact that a crossbow is not a compound bow(as defined by all the regulations I read) and the fact that locking the string in the drawn position is the only way to fire a crossbow, your argument is not valid.
PSE Omen is shooting 366fps and is the fastest compound bow. The fastest crossbow is also made by PSE shooting 450fps or somewhere close to that.
So would you be able to draw once as soon as you get in the stand and then wait to do the second draw on a deer? How would the materials handle the prolonged exposure to that type of force especially in the cold? Would there be a way to bump a cam or the bow in general and have it do something similar to a dry fire? Could you fire it after pulling it back once or would you need to pull it back twice every single time in order to fire it? Just curious as i have never heard of a bow that could store a whole draw cycle.
Ok so my first prototype is actually 5 draws @ 72 lbs per draw, just because I wanted to go big and because engineering it down to 2 or 3 draws is a lot easier than engineering up. So anyway you can draw it 4 times before you go hunting then sit all day in the tree stand until you see the deer, then load the arrow and shoot. The locking mechanism cannot be unlocked until the full draw position of the final draw so there is no dry fire risk unless the user chooses to dry fire. If you want to operate it like a normal bow (1 draw) you can modify it on the fly by flicking a switch and pulling a pin. The materials should hold up just fine but extensive testing will have to be done before its ready to be sold. Since I'm the one that's going to be testing it I put a lot of thought into safety. Anyway it should be done in about 3 weeks, if everything goes right I'll post a video of it
