So I have still been tinkering with the idea of going a bit heavier on my arrows. Been a year now and still can't decide. I know, I know, sh%t or get off the pot. Anyways, I always hear people say that unless you shoot faster than the speed of sound, deer can react to your string/bow sound. So you guys that go heavy with arrows and say it quiets your bow down, in the end are you still getting deer that react to the string? I mean your bow is not completely silent for sure and the deer can hear it correct? So whether it sounds like a 22 rifle or pellet gun the deer still hear it and react no? I may not be making any sense at all, but it just has me curious if one can ever get their bow quiet enough so deer won't react.
I notice a huge different in sound between the 425 grain arrows I shot a couple of years ago versus the 580 grain arrows I shoot now. I have tinkered with arrows as heavy as 630 grains. They were even quieter. I went with the 580 grain arrows because I didn't like the severe drop off in trajectory at 630. Incidentally, to answer your question about deer reaction. I shot a doe a couple of weeks ago with the 580 grain arrow set up at 18 yards. The deer made no attempt to move out of the way, had no idea it had been shot. It took two steps, stood there for a couple of seconds and dropped on the spot. I am convinced the quieter arrow set up is why she didn't run, had no idea what happened because the noise did not frighten her. The arrow was through her so quickly with complete pass through that she didn't know what happened.
I too have been pondering this question. And still being in my first year of all this, with only 1 notch in my belt to claim, the sound of the bow seemed to make absolutely zero impact. The deer was 15 yards out, I am shooting a 600 gr. arrow at roughly 60 lbs. which (if I did math and assumptions correctly) should be getting it off my bow at around 270 fps. All things considered to this point, that deer had roughly 1/6th of s second to not only react, but also move its body enough to prevent my shot from hitting its mark. Even if you double the distance for the shot and over estimate some other factors (like friction, wind resistance, etc....), at 30 yds out it would have less than 1/2 a second to react and move its body enough to effect shot placement. I would say just try running heavier arrows and see what happens.
For the past 15 or so years I would consider my bows about average in noise. I have always shot light arrows, sub 400 gr. over 350 gr and 70+ lbs. so with my short 26.5" draw I usually shoot in the 280 fps range and I can say that I have not had deer duck my string noise to the point that I missed. Now many of them have been hit higher and that could be noise, elevation in the tree and/or me just shooting high in general. What I have calculated is that if i go from a 390 gr arrow to a 440 ish my momentum goes up from .48 to .51 and my KE stays at around 69 ft. now my speed drops from 283 to about 266... I am just wondering if that extra 50 gr will make a difference in noise. Or even if would be worth going out and getting new arrows..
Good lord I wish I had your draw length, you must be 30" or better. I'm a 27.5" draw length, if I shot a 600 grain arrow at 60 lbs. I'd be lucky to get 170 fps.
I was thinking the same thing...for guys with 28" plus draw lengths, going heavy is really not a delima, still get decent speed and a lot of punch....short draw like me, we just suffer all the way around...
A heavier arrow will make your bow quieter, but IMO the deer aren't reacting to the sound of the bow. They're reacting to the sound of an arrow speeding towards their vital organs. Go stand down range (out of the way of course) and listen to someone shoot a bow as the arrow zips past you. You don't even hear the bow, but you certainly hear that arrow in flight. I promise you that you won't tell the difference in how the bow sounds shooting a 400 grain arrow versus a 600 grain arrow from 20 yards in front of it. Because we're shooting the bow, we hear the noise and feel the vibrations so we automatically think they are a lot louder than they are. Then we extrapolate that out to convince ourselves that deer react proportionally to what we're hearing and feeling. Arrow noise is a factor of the broadhead and fletching design. The quieter you make those, the better chance you have at the deer not ducking the arrow. Now, with all of that said, I don't believe there is a cure for deer ducking the arrow (not the string). They all react differently and it's not always the way you think it will be. I've had deer on full alert not move a muscle before the arrow impacts, and deer that are casually feeding and not even paying the least bit of attention to anything come absolutely unglued. I've shot sub-400 grain arrow and mid-500 grain arrows with all sorts of broadhead designs and different fletching combos. And guess what? Deer still duck the arrow from time to time.
I have the same draw length and cut my arrows to 26" since that is where the arrow meets the edge of the riser. Instead of buying a half or full dozen, you can buy individual arrows from Lancaster Archery and tinker around with different spines and arrow weight combos. I found that my bow needs a 300 spine for under 550 grains and 250 spine for over 550. I shoot Black Eagle Renegades. They are under $9.00/arrow when you order individually. Order one of each spine and start tinkering in the off season. https://lancasterarchery.com/products/black-eagle-renegade-arrow-shaft
Opening day of 2019 I shot a doe quartering away at 16 yards, from the same tree I killed one in the post I mentioned above. The two deer were less than five yards apart between the two shots. The 2019 doe, the arrow stuck in the offside shoulder, didn't hardly bleed and she made it 700 yards across the property line before I had to give up tracking. That doe moved at the arrow noise. Two weeks ago, almost the same shot out of the same tree, that deer didn't move, got complete pass through and died where it stood. Poor penetration when the deer moved at the shot led to me trying a heavier arrow set up. Dead deer don't run far, if at all.
with my Ritual 33 shooting 432 gr arrows, it is super quiet the way it is ... I see no need for heavier arrows for deer, hell, these are the heaviest arrows ive shot since my old aluminum arrow days in the late '80's/early 90's and see absolutely no reason to go heavier, considering the great penetration and all the deer kill by these (Goldtips since they came out) .. I'd only go heavier for elk or moose, keeping the same for hogs, caribou and black bear ... and Ive used both mech's and fixed in this time frame, and prefer fixed overall .. some bows are inherently quiet, others not so much .. if one feels the need to tinker and try to quiet it down, have at it ... the buck killed this year was another full pass thru taking out the heart/lungs using a Wicked Trick and GT 300's/432grs
I am still heavily skeptical to a Deer having the reflexes to be able to duck an arrow traveling at 250+ fps under 30 yards out, where most bow hunters are looking to take their shots from. I mean, at 250 fps, out to 30 yards, that Deer has about 1/3 of a second to not only hear the arrow, but then physically react and move out of the way enough to make the shot miss...? Does anyone (I mean this sincerely) have actual High Speed footage of a Deer ducking an arrow? In other words, camera angle that shows the arrow being on target, and then the Deer reacting to the shot and arrow and moving out of that Shot Line!
I have seen it many times and have videos of the same buck doing it twice to me in the same season. I don't post my videos, so no way to show you. But like mentioned above, lots of videos on YouTube show it. It's almost unbelievable at there reaction time. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
