do any of yall think that it has truly gotten out of hand? I mean for most game? Seems like 600+ gr is what people are going for. That arrow out of my set up would look like a rainbow . Now I will say i watched a few Bison hunts yesterday and they all required a 2nd and even a 3rd shot to finish it off. And they got very good penetration and one had a pass through with a mech head. They must be one big/tough animal
Problem is the internet, you literally can be arguing and debating with someone that little to no real world experience. Or they have such a narrow scope of experiences however they want to extrapolate that to mean their choice is right for every situation. If you just killing whitetails from A platform in a tree …pretty much anything will work well enough
I remember killing deer with Easton ultralights cut to 22 to accommodate my overdraw. It's all just trends and niches in the market. Do what makes you happy. Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk
I had 3” overdraws on my bows until about 2004. Went to carbon arrows around 97 or 98. Those were the golden days
The move to big, heavy arrows I feel is a complete over-compensation in the industry for guys having poor results with mechanicals a few years back. Running 2.5" mechs with poor arrow flight is asking for poor penetration. So to band-aid this issue, many determined that it was better to run a super heavy arrow that will stabilize quicker in flight and hits hard, still failing to fix the primary issue which is a poorly tuned bow. And if you haven't figured it out yet, everything in archery is hyped up and trends for a bit before going full circle.
I have shot arrows as light as 380 and as heavy 620 there are trade offs to both approaches. i have shot mechanicals and fixed blades. At the end of the day, regardless of broadhead type, I want pass through with two holes losing blood. I also want a reasonablely flat trajectory so that I do not have to adjust my single pin for shots under 35 yards. For my set up, that means 525-550 grains and a fixed broadhead. The doe I shot last weekend was quartering away, my shot was a touch high, cut the top of the liver, back of near side lung, cut the far side lung in half, and broke the offside shoulder with complete pass through, down in 70 yards. Is 540 grains and 18% FOC a little overkill for whitetails? Probably, but overkill is better than no kill.
The reason I went 100grs heavier is that even though I killed a lot of deer with very light arrows, way under 400 gr, it’s always been in the back of my mind. So I decided to end that
I think a lot of people got themselves in trouble trying to push these giant mechanicals through deer with lower poundage and or poorly tuned bows. For years, mechanicals were a bandaid for not properly tuning a bow in my opinion. Can't get a fixed blade to fly right? Screw it, spin on a mechanical and go to the woods. The marketing back then supported this statement too. Thats the thing with mechanicals. In my mind, they're more critical of bow tune in order for them to maximize penetration and cutting effectiveness. The high foc, high weight arrows are imo, more over kill than anything. You will never convince me, with todays modern bows, that I need 600 grain arrows to kill a deer, even on a marginal shot through bone. I personally killed a big bodies midwest buck years ago that I made a terrible shot on. It was slightly low but forward. The arrow broke both front leg/shoulders and he made it a grand total of 50 yards and expired shortly there after. I was shocked because I assumed I hit the front side leg shoulder and thought the arrow simply deflected up into his chest cavity and that was why he crashed so quickly. Nope, I got a piece of the heart and front of the lung but both shoulders where destroyed splitered messes. This was with a 450gr arrow at 14% FOC. Slick Trick Standard broadhead. Shot distance was 24 yards. Would a heavier arrow performed the same? I would say yes of course it will. But its not needed based on my experiences. That to me is the crux of the matter with the guys pushing these crazy heavy arrows. The ability to blow through bone on marginal shots. I get it and it certainly makes sense, but its still way overkill. Now, the only place i'd say that heavy is definitely an asset is on larger game such as elk, moose, bear, etc. But I'd still bet that 450-500 grains is plenty in most situations. Bow tune is far more important than shooting a super heavy arrow. Even when I shot Rage Trypans, I tuned my bow with bare shafts and fixed blade heads as well. I had excellent results with the Trypans and a 450gr arrow at 60lbs.
To me a 400-450 gr arrow is perfect. Mine just turned out to be 480 because of the weight up front . 300 spine arrow cut just under 27 inches would be way too stiff with standard inserts. From my calculations online I came up with 260 fps . Momentum.55 and ke was over 70 . At 26.5 “ draw pulling 70# even with mechanicals I can’t see any problems.
Like mentioned the optimal weight is going to be highly dependent on your bow and draw weight. Just like a bullet in a rifle cartridge and how much potential energy is there. Just like most rounds for say a .243 will have say 55-100 grain bullets while a 30-06 are usually in 150-180 grain range. You wont get very good performance with a 60 grain projectile out of a 30-06 casing and vice versa. There is a range and balance of projectile and all the components that make up the entirety of it that fall in the sweet spot for every individual bow. All the other variables as far as proper tuning and being able to shoot with good form to standardize the tuning is the key. So there is a lot of key factors that have to be right or at least real close in order to have a well shooting setup. Proper arrow build, well tuned bow, shooter with good coordination, form, and stamina. Trifecta
