Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting Matching arrows to the bow

Just look at any Mfg chart for arrow spine to draw weight and in some cases cam design I think these charts tend to show minimum spine for the bow.

There is a lot involved with draw length too. A lot of people will write about heavy arrows and use 500 or 550 grains or even heavier. It's difficult to shoot arrows that heavy very fast with a 26" draw length unless your shooting 80 pounds!

In my experience in Africa with lots of hunters and lots of game, arrows 350 grains or less do not penetrate sufficient. Add an expandable broad head and its a disaster.

Arrows starting at 400 begin to work well but still not perfect with expandables. At 430-450 using fixed blade heads things start coming together providing exits most of the time on medium size game. Equal in size to mule deer and hogs in America. If only whitetail deer are shot then certainly 380-400 grain with a fixed blade head is dependable.

I don't think there is a formula you can use to select the perfect arrow.
Draw length
Draw weight
Cam design
Broad head
And intended game
Throw in your maximum range too.

Guys that are fit, over 6' tall with a big wingspan can shoot much more powerful gear then a 5'5" guy that is a seasonal shooter with a lower draw weight.

A friend of mine shoots his 70lb bow limbs cranked down getting about 74 lbs. his draw is 30.5" he shoots 520 grain arrows as fast and flat as my 425 grain arrows at 28.5" draw and 63 lbs.

No cut and paste answer, the best I can suggest is shoot a bit stiffer spine rather then softer, if you cannot get 60fpe with your combination then use a cut on contact broad head. They are far better at penetrating then any other type.