I match my arrow and broadhead to the animal i am hunting,for whitetail or black bear i usually shoot a 400-440 gr arrow with a mechanical or fixed broadhead(i like both).I shoot 61-68 lbs usually from my setups.I step my arrow weight up and use a fixed broadhead for moose hunting.I hunt with the equipment i feel confident in,i am not anybody's minion and i follow no one but myself.What i like and shoot,others may not.I will still sleep well at night.Put the arrow where it's supposed to go and enjoy the hunt.
Life changing vid Curious as to what video you watched. I changed my views after lots of reading and vids about Dr Ed Ashby's research and findings. Also a great article in one of my hunting mags. Still trying to find that particular one to give credits.
Put down the remote and don't base your set up on what you see a "pro Hunter" use. I like Rage heads but I use them with a heavier arrow 475 grains, I shoot the arrows with a 74# DW and a 28-1/2 DL. Think mechanicals can't go thru bone with enough KE there is no problem pushing a Rage thru both shoulder blades.
As I understand the OP question/debate. Energy output of the bow itself is not the root of the question. For example, if a bow is not tuned well, it will not transfer its energy to the arrow as efficiently as it should/could. Yes, you can generate the same amount of energy out of todays bows at 60lbs that you could only achieve out 70lbs, for example, from bows in the past. But thats not the question or debate here. With all things regarding the bows of today and yesterday being equal. A heaver, high FOC arrow out of either bow should penetrate better. I said should. Broadhead design factors in here. Less cutting surface equals less friction/resistance. Also, heads that use upu energy to deploy blades will typically penetrate less. Its really not much different than a train. Take two trains traveling at the same speed (I said all else is equal right?) One train is pulling two cars, the other 50. Its much harder to stop the heavier train. This is a simple explanation, but it gives the idea. I much prefer fixed heads and heavier, high FOC arrow/bh combinations. I shoot a tiny, by today's standards, Slick Trick Standard with a 1" cut. I have never seen the need for giant cut mechanicals.
I think the answer is that speed is a primary factor in today's archery/bowhunting world, and in some places where animals are always on alert there is merit to getting the arrow there faster. You can see this by some of the negative comments about the new Mathews No Cam and it being "so sllooowww"...
There is not a bow that is fast enough to justify taking a shot on a deer on alert, there is no way that you can put an arrow where you want on an alerted deer.
I will add to that. There is not a bow fast enough to overcome a deer dropping at the shot. Sound travels much faster than any arrow would.
Another benefit of certain brands of the heavier one pieced fixed BH is that some of the makers have lifetime warranties. I shot one through my hay bale into a railroad tie (spelling don't count, haha), sent it in w/ honest explanation and they sent me a new one!
In my ignorance (or naivety) aren't most deer kinda already in the process of ducking when the arrow is released because they know something isn't right? I have a hard time understanding how an animal fully relaxed can go into flight mode in a fraction of a second and react within tenths of a second. Of course, I live out west and hunt mule deer and elk and haven't experienced the dropping phenomenon.
No they have a stronger and faster flight instinct than you can imagine. Some say a deer can drop faster than gravity. I just know a deer that is alerted can move enough that a well placed shot can be a poorly placed failure.
Speed of sound is 1,127 fps I believe. Even if you are shooting a fast bow at 300+ fps they still have time to react and make a perfect shot end up in a poor place.
A deers' muscles are designed in such a fashion that they are already "high strung". The way I understand it, its the same as if you tense your muscles almost to the point where you make a muscle. Essentially, evolution made them so that they can spring into action instantly to avoid predators. Rule of thumb for me. Aim for the bottom half of the chest on all shots. It will either be a heart shot, or if they duck enough, a lung shot. I take no chances, relaxed or not.
I'm currently shooting a pretty light arrow. Partly because my draw weight is low while I'm just starting out with archery. After reading a lot on line and in this forum I am interested in making a move to a heavier arrow and single bevel fixed blade BH. It seems like the GrizzlySticks are at the top of the list for a lot of people. Are there more affordable options for someone who is just starting out?
I wouldn't recommend Grizzly sticks, no matter the price. I think there are severally better options for heavier shaft then them. Take a look a GT expedition hunters with weight added to the insert...or GT kinetics. Easton Axis and FMJ... BEA Carnivores and Rampages with added weight up front.
I would recommend a heavier fixed/solid broadhead, but you have to have an arrow with a heavier spine. I shoot one piece, 2 And 3 blade broadheads, like the Magnus classic, 200gr. Or Snuffer 200gr. Great penetration! I also shoot a 3 Rivers Woodsman. All have lifetime guarantees.
Why not? Why wouldn't you recommend Grizzly Stiks? no matter the price? Even dollar for dollar the flight of a tapered shaft will be better, overall, then a straight shaft. It may be marginally better but you'd have to agree, it would be better. I'm curious as to what your reasons are.
The tapered shaft does nothing for me considering its at being steered by the profile of the broad head anyway. Look at target arrows like the x10 that are tapered, they follow the parabolic point and tapper from there....take a broad head place it on the front and the tapper follows nothing other then what the aerodynamics of the broad head provided. Then add to it the larger profile of the GS compared to a heavy dense smaller profile non tapered shafts. It's clear from a penetration stand point if all things are equal the smaller/ thinner shaft will penetrate better, more so if its following the path of a larger profile head. Onto the shafts themselves, we were looking to set of a 800 grain plus arrow that was going to be used for Cape buffalo. The half dozen we tried to tune were inconsistently spined we had to add different amounts weight up front to get each arrow to tune. We then confirmed this of a RAM tester, believe it or not my friend bought it just for this reason as we couldn't consistency tune the arrows. He went so far as to buy a second half dozen in a different spine, and we still could not get consistent arrow to arrow results. We ended up using 250 FMJ DG, had to cut them back a bit to get the spine with the weight we ran up front but it worked out really well, they were consistent from arrow to arrow. The only modification I made to them was building footings for them. If I had do the same build now I would use BEA 150, use a SS half out, add and over collar and add additional 50-100 grain hit for more weight...with a 175 or 200 grain head up front.
