I purchased a Martin Saber back in november and i'm generally happy with it. But this weekend I went to a virtual hunting range and was quite dissapointed at my arrow speed. The website rates my bow at 311fps at 70#. I have it set at 60# and the system registerd my arrows at a mere 211fps. Does 10 pounds really affect fps in that way? Or does my bow just suck lol. And is 211fps good enough to take down a deer, hog, or turkey?
First thing to tell you is that you should NEVER expect the "rated" speed of a bow unless you're pulling 31" or more, and shooting a really light arrow. Now, secondly, why are you worried about it??? Can you put the arrows where you want them to go??? If so, then whether it's 311 or 211, makes little difference. IBO ratings are a "huge selling point" to a very "IGNORANT" customer base....... No offense intended, but IBO ratings are basically a farce when it comes to reality. An IBO bow rating is done with the bow at 30" DL (which can mean 29.5" with one company while it's 30.5" with another if you were to measure them with the same measuring device), and the bow turned up to 70# (which again may really be as much as 74# or a light as 68# again using the same device to measure all bows rated), and then that bow set that way will be shot with a BARE string (no silencers, no peep, maybe even no loop or nockset to slow it down), and with an arrow weighing precisely 350gr's, which MOST arrow set-ups the average archer/hunter will have are going to be much closer to 400gr's or so I'd bet. Now for every inch short of that 30" DL, you're gonna lose about 10fps, every 3 gr's above 350 on the arrow and 3 gr's on the string will also cost you about 1fps, while each # of lost weight will cost another 2fps or so...... Digest all of this last paragraph, and you should understand precisely why I say that IBO ratings really are a FARCE. Sorry for your disappointment, but in archery, if we'd all stay away from chronographs and the technical mumbo jumbo of kinetic energy calculations, we could probably enjoy the sport a lot MORE!!!
My bowtech d350 is the first bow i owned that ever met it's ibo rating after some tweaking i got it to shoot a little over it's birth cert of 349 @350 grain arrow.. I hunted with a 360 grain arrow 70lb 343 fps 30'' draw in full hunting trim and is the best shooting bow i have ever had in 40 years of archery. I have also seen some Top of the line hoyt and pse also meet it's ibo ratings at my local archery shops chrono and a few others that came up way short..... If you want a speed bow make your archery shop "show you the speed" before you lay down your hard earned $$ for.
IBO is very unspecific, so I wish more companies would use ATA like Hoyt does. Best thing to do is put it thru a chrono.
arrow weight.....tuning...draw lenght....draw weight.....weight on string.....fletchings....tips...spine....nock...diameter of shaft...arrow material....these all have effect on fps
While I don't necessarily agree that IBO ratings are a "farce" they are set to a specific standard. If your set-up deviates from that standard, as Doug pointed out, and as almost everyone's gear does, you're going to see a reduction in speed. Also note that those Techno Hunt chronographs aren't always that accurate. I do agree with Doug that we'd all be a lot happier if we stayed away from the chronograph and focused on having fun hitting our target rather than worrying about who's got the fastest rig.
This. IBO specs ARE pretty specific. Just not everyone measures with the same yardstick. And then you've got to be cognizant of all the things that will lower the IBO rating, as has been pointed out.
Several years ago, I had a buddy that was shooting a 60# bow at 30" DL, and the IBO of the bow was 308fps. He was shooting a 2219 arrow with a 125gr tip and said his bow shot 308fps...... :D I was shooting a 305 IBO bow maxxed out at 72# with my 29" DL, and my bow at the time was shooting about 265fps w/ my arrows. He watched me shoot, and asked how fast it was because he thought it must've been one of those "speed" bows seeing how fast the arrow came out of it.... :D :D I told him those arrows were "screaming" out of that bow at about 265fps, to which he argued that they HAD to be faster than that. After some arguing and him saying that the guy in the bow shop told him his bow would shoot the arrows he was shooting 308fps, we obtained a chrono, and we shot my bow first, 265, 266, 265.... Then his bow..... :D :D :D ....216, 214, 217.... He was rip-roaring mad, swore the chrono couldn't be right, etc. Even after a detailed explanation of what the IBO rating really was, he was still in denial. Never for the life of me could I get through to him that this was the "expected" and accurate result. We don't speak anymore for various reasons, but I'd bet even after seeing with his own eyes how slow that bow really was, he'd still try to tell someone it shoots 308fps as it was set-up, because somebody told him it would, and he didn't want to face reality. He did kill a couple deer with that bow, both pass-throughs with good results, but regardless of how clear the writing was on the wall, he was so blinded by an unrealistic expectation that he never saw it. Moral of the story, it don't matter (to some extent) how fast the bow is, it's far more about how well the shooter shoots it.
Other than the FPS the bow itself is very accurate and after working on my form a little more I should be able to get the results I want next hunting season. When I first seen the bow it wasn't the FPS that attracted me to it. It was the very affordable price tag. The FPS was just an added bonus. I appreciate the input, and I realise I have much to learn about the sport.
Jeff, I don't think he means he's gonna gain speed as much as he means he's gonna gain accuracy. Or at least I hope that's what he's meant. Seriously, I think it's sad that guys often times don't really have a good idea of what specifically they're getting when they get a bow that is rated for "xxxfps IBO." I wouldn't say it's "false advertising" because it's not, but it is in many ways very deceiving to say the least to an uneducated consumer.
With my 27.5" dl it always is a little dissapointing when I see what speeds I'm actually getting out of my bows.
It's okay little fella..... . . . :D In all honesty, I set most of my stuff up for the optimal tune-ability which tends to be around 275-285fps. At these speeds I get good BH flight and nice consistency that I just can't seem to get when I set something up that will shoot over 290 or so. Some of that may have to do with spine, but I think some of it has to do with the "arrow-dynamics" of an arrow moving that fast. I'll never be a "great" archer, but I CAN shoot pretty consistently most of the time.
LOL, What I meant was, that working on my form and accuracy is more important than trying to make my bow faster. From what I looked up about recurves, compounds are twice as fast, but guys who hunt with them are still successful. Sorry about the confusion.
