Recently, John Dudley did a whole series of podcasts under the umbrella of "Truth About Arrows" where he interviewed a variety of people on different aspects of arrows, broadheads, broadhead lethality, etc. I haven't gotten through all of them yet, but I've got 4 of the major ones. So far, here are the main takeaways for anyone interested. 1. The most important factor in killing any animal is shot placement. If you're going to obsess about some part of your archery game, obsess about becoming the most proficient archer that you can be. This is the main point of pretty much this entire series and the basis of John's recent rants. We see people absolutely obsessing over their arrow setups and going through a bunch of needless micro-tuning exercises, trying out all these different insert and point weights, and chasing something that they often never find. In some cases, we see people getting worse arrow performance than they started with. 2. Optimal arrow weight for 99% of bowhunters shooting modern archery equipment is 450-550 grains. With modern archery equipment and either a fixed or expandable, you simply don't need any more than that to kill anything short of large African game. This is especially true for those shooting fixed blades. Which is ironic because they are often the same people we see shooting needlessly heavy arrows. If anyone needs more weight, it's the mechanical shooters. 3. Optimal arrow speed seems to be in that 285-300 fps range. This provides plenty of speed for flatter trajectory down range while offering some forgiveness, which is super important in a high-stress hunting situation. 4. You can tell much less about the type and lethality of your shot from the blood trail than most of us think. Reason-being, most bleeding happens internally and blood is often aerated as it's exiting the body and falling to the ground so "bubbles" don't always indicate lung blood. Also, every organ hit is not created equally, which is why sometimes you double lung a deer and they go 40 yards and pile up with blood sprayed everywhere, and other times they run 150 yards and leave little to no blood trail. There are an almost infinite amount of factors that control how quickly that animal will die and what sort of trial it will leave, and the vast majority of them are out of our control. The moral of the story: Set your bow up properly with a decent tune, get a properly spined arrow that flies and groups well for you, pick whichever broadhead style you think gives you the best chance for success, and PRACTICE 10X more than you're doing right now. Stop looking for a mechanical solution to a human problem. Simply put: become a better archer.
I've been listening/watching several of these as well, and my only comments are points 2 and 3. For me to shoot 285+ I couldn't be heavier than 455 gr. so I would guess most "average Joe" archers are going to listen to that speed/weight numbers (I have heard him and Iron Will Bill say those numbers) and they will have to pick either point 2 or 3 and throw one out the window. me - 30 inch draw at 64 pounds (my bow IBO 335) I would have to shoot an 8gpi shaft to meet both points 2 and 3 If you have a 27 inch draw and you want to get to 280's in speed you either need to pull 80+ pounds or shoot a very weak arrow I understand the point he is making and I don't disagree in general but including what seems to be specific numbers like points 2 and 3 which are not achievable by a lot of archers kind of hurts some of his case.
What's your fps with a 500 grain arrow? At that draw length you should be around 275 fps @ 500 grains and 290 @ 450 grains. I would also venture a guess that most adult males are shooting 28-30" draw lengths. I'm sure there are those under 28", but they are in the minority. Even at 27" a 450 grain arrow should push 260-ish fps.
using an online archery calculator (I understand not 100% accurate) 494 gr arrow ~275fps this is a 9.3 GPI shaft with 50gr insert and 125 gr head 3 fletch stepping Draw Length down by half inch at a time 29.5 268 fps 29 263 fps 28.5 258 fps 28 253 fps with that arrow and a 28 inch draw you'd have to be pulling 80 pounds to get to 280fps
Apart from the human factor, a great call out, the key word is 'optimal'. It's less about throwing away one factor for another, rather recognize there are trade offs and accept any consequences. Heavy arrow with less speed = more arc (attention to clear flight path/trajectory), maybe some distance limitations (self imposed or animal reaction-duck/drop/turn). Lighter arrow with more speed may yield flatter trajectory, could reduce penetration/pass through. Always seems to be some tradeoffs.
"Optimal" here, like you said, is the key word. In an ideal world we would probably all be shooting 450+ grain arrows at 300+ fps, but in order to be in the "optimal" zone in both of the original post's weight and arrow speed categories you almost have to be shooting a 70# bow with a 30" draw. The reality for most hunters is that we have to settle for a speed or arrow weight that is below what is considered optimal. I'm close to meeting those optimal requirements with my 65# - 29" V3. I shoot a 450 grain arrow at 280 fps. I opted for a bit lighter arrow to increase speed with this bow. My old back up bow, a 60# - 29" Heli-m is a different story. I shoot 530 grain arrows out of it and it is WAY slow by comparison. I obviously opted for a heavier arrow and sacrificed speed.
Great Podacst, I never was sold on heavy arrow. I try to keep it between 400 -450 myself. Great info on the broadheads with cut out holes to make them lighter, didn't think about that but was more concerned with noisy fletching.
Nothing wrong with more practice and being a better archer. But even hitting exactly where I was aiming, I have had a few really weird things happen with ~435gr set ups after hitting bone, both in an elk and a few whitetail. Now I'm up to about 540gr and those weird things haven't happened. Not saying they can't; just saying hasn't yet. Overall I get better penetration, too. Haven't sacrificed effective hunting ranges a bit. @Justin I did like the PinchPoint bit where you mentioned the 'jumping the string' effect decisively being the noise generated by the arrow flying at its intended target rather than the bow cracking off. It makes a lot of sense in that I have never had a deer quartering away jump the string (ears facing away) but if their ears are cocked toward me at all they almost always do a bit. I have also 100% had one duck and wheel because it could see the lighted nock zooming at it because it was windy, leaves were rattling and no way could it have heard it.
Very good info. At least i know my new arrow build is right in that range. Practice is the key. We are all busy but its just like exercising. Excuses are like A-holes. It doesnt take that long to shoot a few dozen arrows 5/6 nights per week.
I’ve been preaching this for over 10 years. I first noticed how loud arrow noise is when I joined my Arkansas club and went to a lot of bow shoots. I could hear the arrows hissing through the air so I would get behind large trees down range and listen as guys shot from 30-60 yards. The sound of the bow is almost imperceptible but that arrow hissing coming in and getting louder as it travels is a real attention getter. This is why I’ve switched to lower profile vanes. They don’t make nearly as much noise.
This is one of many reasons I stopped shooting rage. Not looking to hijack the thread but those heads were stupid loud. Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk
A lot of media out there pushing newer guys/gals into information overload. Shoot what ya got more than you're doing now and learn the art of getting stealthy. The guy who likes walking is going to go further than the guy who just likes the destination.
