A compound bow that's shoots 350 fps at a 20 yard (60 ft.)shot arrives it's target in 0.17 of a second. A bow that shoots 250 fps hit's the target at 0.24 of second, that's only a differnce of 0.07 of a second!!!
Doesnt seem like much of a difference at all, but wait until you start getting out to 40 yards. And im sure you have seen how fast deer can react to the noise of the bowstring.
Great Post!!! Yep speed is the biggest gimmik in archery right now. Ya its neat to see all the new inovation every year to get this speed but it comes with sacrafice. People are falling for this big time and if they only knew the facts behing this fps stuff. In my opinion in hunting whitails you need a smoother draw cycle and more forgiving bow more then you need your arrow to get there .07 of a second faster. Or at 40 yards .21 of a second faster.
The thing is that nerve synapses are measured in .01 second increments and I don't care how fast your bow is, sound gets there first and then your arrow has to beat the difference between the speed of sound and the reaction time of a deer... You're better off not being heard than trying to play the racing game. At 40 yards the deer is less likely to hear the shot and react to it than at 20. At 20 yards a deer is less likely to react to a slow, quiet shot than a loud, fast one.
Agreed to an extent. That major advantage with regard to increased speed is the ability to get faster speeds at lower poundages. You get the benefit of an easier (presumabely smoother) draw, while being able to shoot heavier arrow setup keeping KE up without sacrificing tons of speed. Necessary? No. A benefit? Sure.
That is still almost 30% faster. It could be a benefit depending on the situation. Than again a quieter bow can be a benefit as well.
the slower the bow the wider the pin gap has to be as your target gets further away from you, so your margin of error as judging your range and distance are key to a good hit, I have never had a deer duck a arrow on a fast bow but i have in my recurve days. my d350 30/70 shots a 360 grain arrow 344 fps and i am using a single pin to 30 yards try that with a bow shooting 250 fps........... and that is holding dead on with no hold over. In the past i used to shoot a pse mach 4 @ 100 lb with a overdraw,talk about loud but i never seen a deer outrun the sound.
Thanks the replies guy's, I am saying that fps is a marketing tool more than anything. There is no standard form of measurement for accuracy that I am aware of.
IMO....the biggest advantage to a fast bow is........you can shoot a heavier arrow the same speed as the "next guy's" slower bow shoots a lighter arrow.
No stats needed...it is simply fact that a guy shooting a new speed bow that shoots IBO at 350 at 30" and 70lbs can shoot a heavier arrow faster at 60 lbs than a guy with a bow who's starting point is 300 fps with the same specs. If Matt/Pa sees this thread he can post his stats with his 350 this year. If I remember correctly he is getting somewhere around 84lbs of KE at only 62 lbs...that is crazy. You guys that state you have never had a deer react or out run the sound, consider your self in the VERY VERY slim minority. It is fact that a deer can react faster than the fastest bow ever made, not even close in fact.
83.4% of people who shoot fast bows with heavy arrows are satisfied. 11.2% are shooting a fast bow, because someone on TV says it's cool. 4.1% own fast bows and never hunt (think Michael Jackson's glove). 1.3% have IQ's south of a fern.....and their data doesn't compute.
Classic! I agree with Jeff here. The only "true" advantage to shooting a fast bow is the ability to shoot a heavy arrow IMHO. Some of these speed bow's are starting to get really quiet as well. I can say that my next bow purchase will be in the speed category, not so that I can shoot a sub 400 grain arrow at 300fps+, but because I can shoot a 500gr. arrow in the 280's. I think there is a point when the speed race becomes unethical.
I was feeling your post until the last sentence How can shooting fast be unethical? In theory you have a bow with less pin gap, reaching a target faster and allowing for smaller windows of opportunity. I have never heard a rifle hunter say that his bullet was too fast
Agreed, I've seen MANY guys who thought that their 27" DL @ 63# was still going to get them the 3xx fps their bow was IBO rated at. :LOL: Not quite. Had a buddy that was shooting 2219's FULL LENGTH (32.5") out of a bow that was only about 60#, and he tried to tell me it was shooting 308fps because that's what the guy that sold it to him said..... Jeff, The funny thing is, it seems that while about half the guys are wanting to shoot a HEAVY arrow out of these bows, there is still the OTHER HALF that are trying to shoot the lightest arrow they can out of these bows. See Ultramax's post above. I suspect MOST of these guys are not only shooting weak spined arrows, but they are also often times having trouble getting those arrow to tune well.
No argument, here. I shot that way for a long time, because I didn't know any better and because I was drinking the kool-aid.
I re-read my post and you understood it correctly. However, I worded wrong on my part, what I meant is that the needs to get that speed is almost unethical. Some people are trying to kid themselves into a longer DL's, shooting too much weight, dropping arrow weight to ridiculous levels, etc.. You have to be comfortable before you can reach your full accuracy potential. Believe me, if I could shoot my bow any faster without changing anything I would. But as it stands, I'm already at 73#'s and having nothing to blame but my stumpy arms
Makes more sense now, thanks for clearing it up. I'm in the same boat with the short arms and heavy draw weight.
my hoyt still shoots pretty quiet, on all my kills with it, I have yet had a buck or doe duck down on my shots, some shots have been up too 35 yards. So for me, i'm not too worried on speed, I shoot around 270 fps, but keeping your bow quiet is key!
