Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting Would it............................

LOL, I need to chrono them to see how fast they run, you can really hear the difference when they punch the target.

I switched to a high anchor and 3 under when I got hurt and couldn't practice much.
With weighted carbons (for proper spine)........it allowed me to use my arrow tip as a sight.
Pretty handy.
Static and not fluid, esp when shot without looking at arrow for 30 yrs............it felt weird. But worked.
Ended up smoking a deer at 25, hit right where I wanted too. Arrow stuck in opp shoulder and must have had some weight on it, as he fell when it thumped him. Never got back up Tried a couple times, bleated and that was it.
Of course it was a dink and not a Booner.

10 yards..............LOL.

Had some archery club event, when celebrating the town's 100yr anniv.
Bunch of kids shooting stuff, so I got stuck shooting 10 yards with them...........running my BW SA2.
I shot all dang night.

Had a 3D shoot next day, was doing OK but completely missed a black bear at 25. Went over (was also in shade).
The guys were hootin' and hollerin'............reaming me a pretty good one for a zero.

I went and got my arrow from behind and they were on the trail, and I saw a chipmunk. They saw it run past the path to the target too.
More ridicule.

If I can't hit a big bear target, how in the heck can I hit a chipmunk? I said "watch this...............heart shot"..............and snuck over to the hill where he went. The boys were really giving me crap then, and I spotted the chip and shot.

More laughter, and then I walked over to my arrow............10 yards away.
Chipmunk on the arrow................I walked back to them and they were all standing there mouths open.

Shot through the heart, as called.

Shot so much the night before, at 10 yards............I proly could have done that one eyes closed (muscle memory so ingrained).
15 yrs later that flub and redemption is still brought up often by the gang.

My concern now is my Bear Kodiak.........setting up for bowfishing.
I run a BW 3 under calfhair tab for hunting, and high anchor last 3 yrs.
But if I shoot carp, might go with a couple KP300 split tabs from old bowfishing days.
Think if I just bowfish a couple times, and then stop, won't mess me up.

The high anchor deal is still not automatic. Used with success, but in context with all the other arrows I've launched...........it's still too "different".

I'd still prefer a KP300, middle finger at corner of mouth. It feels better on my shoulder.High anchor makes draw arm feel funky, always has.
Weird.

Dunno if it's mechanical issue or one of just familiarity.

If that high anchor works for ya, run with it........see how far it takes you. Might be perfect.
I'm still battling the feel of mine.

Good luck!

All good info again Hook, I appreciate it greatly, and yes LMAO on the 10 yard deal too, was advised to begin practicing at 5 yards, then had hubcap sized groups at 10 yards, this is why the three nearly touching at 10 yards blew me away so bad, proper configuration is key, especially when I did not know I wasn't in the beginning.

Cheekbone anchor, and three under aiming is the only way it's gonna work for me, I draw, hold, aim the bow and fire, stacking or whatever they call it is a non issue, had to call Toelke to make sure I wouldn't break the bow with a 7-3/4" brace height while drawing near 31"s, he said the bow would easily handle it, and so it will be, will move back to 15 then 20 yards when I have time for more practice, will also chrono a couple of the heavy arrows to check for speed.

G500, when it clicks you'll be amazed at how all the stress/worry was for seemingly "nothing".
Don't be surprised in short order, that much shooting at 10 yards gets expensive.

15 and 20 will be easier on the wallet.

Might have to go with a single arrow per spot, at 10....if wanting to shoot multiple 10 yarders.

I liked a single spot target, the IFAA Blueface. Just aim at the "X". But older now and I don't see a crisp X anymore, and at 20 it's just a white dot.
Still small enough to give a decent aiming point, but IMHO the loss of visual acuity has for me, also given me lesser mental focus.

Slow bows, you will probably learn a bit.........of how to be off and still get them to go to the bull.
That's a bad habit, to rely on slop.

I did very well with such corruption, and it took a bit of work to get rid of it.

Just saying, bullseyes aint always good.

My bag target's factory spots are all faded. So I just slap a sheet of cardboard over it and Sharpie marker a dot. Or use those pricing stickers.........the small florescent ones.............about the size of a postage stamp. Used them on my 3D deer too.

Now that you have the tune and proper arrows............you'll be working on targets/sticker combos quite a bit

Should find a preference rather quickly, cheap and helping you focus.

It's all fun..........figuring out what works, and how to do it on the cheap too LOL

Chrono....................yeah. I did that to my SA2 running 2216's.
Was like 185 FPS. I was mortified.
$860 for the bow, clean release and well short of 200 FPS.

WTH?????????????

Of course it whistled through my 8 pointer, arrow stuck in the dirt even. Switched to carbons and picked up about 10 FPS.
Shot some tapered carbons a bud had............way light, bow loud and shocky...................215 FPS.

Wasn't gonna wipe out a set of limbs, or deal w the noise/shock...........for a few points more in 3D.

Have had 4 Widows since, plus a couple of others...............none of the chrono'd.
They aint fast. Don't need to know how slow they are.

Bullet holes in paper tune and dead critters are good enough for me.

Just throwing it out there..................that chrono readings might but a bit of a funk on your head.
Kinda did for me LOL.

My rigs aint the fastest but they shoot great and kill stuff clean. Chrono ignorance is bliss

I have never used a chrono with a bow, so I have no idea on my arrow speed. I just know they get the job done.

Chronos are best used by bowyers when developing new limb & bow designs. Objectively measuring the performance of a design and then changing ONE thing (and ONLY one thing) and then remeasuring (with precision) can inform the bowyer about the efficacy of his design change. What better performance buys the archer is to be able to shoot the same arrow the same speed with less draw weight.

Here's a little light reading for the nerds out there:

http://dryadbows.com/Defining%20Bow%20Performance%20Dryad.pdf

Yup.

My old BW 1225 is a B50 rig.
Wonder what a new bow would get me w FF.
Maybe drop 5-10% in weight?

I did chrono alum vs carbon, but my 55# SA2 was always FF equipped.
Did not chrono my HS60 and it was B50.

It thumped deer pretty hard at 60#. Loved that bow, just couldn't handle 60# anymore.
Be super cool to get a 50-55# w FF rated limbs.

BW redid forms for more preload, so the old rigs are obsolete.
A greybark PCH maybe next yr.

My goodness men, now I'm really confused, thought arrow weight AND speed were determining factors on the size of game you can hunt and the amount of penetration you were likely to get, having only shot a small doe with my longbow I don't know what it takes for larger tougher game [think hogs].

My 697 grain arrow and field point just went 158 fps, I have no idea how that computes to energy or penetrating ability.

Thanks again for all the comments and experiences, it's all being filed in the memory banks and on paper.

Tips play a big role in penetration. Same arrow and bow setup gets less with big heads, and more with smaller heads. Deer in this state require @1&1/2" cutting size, but that would not do any real good against bear, where the need is smaller heads for any chance of hitting vitals. The bear tips I've seen were just larger than the shaft itself, for maximum efficiency.

Edit: this is also the argument I am using with ODNR to overturn the ruling on "no second weapon allowed during deer hunting" rule. Legal requirement deer tips will more likely wound a bear, should a hunter need to shoot a bear. (No clean kill/ much more dangerous)

I'm shooting the 160 gr STOS broadheads, hope they will do a good job when I send one into a big pig.

Haven't shot a pig (yet).
Buddies have.
Fans of single bevel heads, FF strings (newer bow styles/higher efficiency) and 55# or heavier in recurve.

More info here than you probably want to dig through, but Dr. Ed Ashby's work is the benchmark for what matters in arrow penetration.

http://tuffhead.com/education/ashby.html

This one chapter begins to explain what factors control penetration:

http://tuffhead.com/ashby_pdfs/ashby%20ours/PDF%20Arrow%20Lethality%204.pdf

IMHO too many think they have good flight and don't.
Paper tune.

Once you get dialed in, then you are done. Just shoot and learn sight pictures.

Nice to get all that other crap out of the way. Worry free shooting is where it's at

Ashby has some good stuff......definitely onto something.
Think the experiments a little lacking though.
Enough to not accept his statements as being ready to chisel into stone.
I haven't read his stuff for the last couple of yrs so dunno what else has been done.

Do like around 20% FOC. Boringly good arrow flight. 2 holes in deer.
Got some old arrows from a heavier bow, got heavyweight tips to try and get them to spine for my lesser # rig.
Might try a comparison (be well past 20%).
If anything the heavies might give a dead on point hold at 20 yds.
I'd like to kill all my deer at 20 or less.

My recurve arrows have been 480-530 grains. Cut on contact heads. Works fine (pass throughs).
Did run 560 grainers one yr (diff bow) and it whopped the deer pretty hard (stuck in opp shoulder).

The heavies if they work out, will be just over 600 gr.
Dunno if there's a threshold or what.

Do things magically get better once arriving or does the improvement just continually increase up to some point?

The last Alaska/Yukon bull I shot was with a 51# @ 30" recurve using a 625 grain arrow with TuffHead broadhead (single bevel 3:1 ratio). The arrow cut entirely through a rib going in, passed through 30" of tissue, cut through a rib on the off side and then stopped when it hit the opposite shoulder knuckle. Generally heavier arrows are better for maximizing penetration but a big A/Y bull has big ribs and is not small. I'm not sure if there is a point where too much weight is counterproductive. After all, atlatl darts weigh thousands of grains and are not traveling fast yet they will pass entirely through big animals. For bull moose a reasonably fast arrow with a good broadhead that weighs around 600 grains will do everything I need.