Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting Shock and stunned amazement with chronograph results

I don't know how many of you guys own a Chronograph or have used one to shoot through.

I have a nice one that is perfect for archery. Dozens of guys have shot through mine. In most cases there has been stunned and disgusted shock at the results. I'm not sure what people think when they buy these 300fps bows, but they are not getting 300fps with rare exceptions.

I can count on one hand the amount of guys that have broken the 300fps barrier. In every case they were shooting arrows that fell on the light side, sometimes really light side.

In every case shooting Beeman 400 or equal and heavier they were under 300 fps. I have heard so many times that my chronograph is wrong, I should send it in, It cannot be right, that thing is a POS, No freaking way this is 280fps! Only once with a guy shooting a recurve was he surprised with FPS higher then expected!

From what I have learned seeing guys shoot through my Chronograph is that bows at 55lbs are shooting somewhere between 220 and 230 fps with regular Hunting weight arrows.

Bows around 60lbs are shooting 240-260fps
Bows around the 70lb mark are shooting 270-280fps.
Only when you exceed 70lbs and shoot very light arrows do we start getting into the 300plus range.

Some of the aggressive cams are much faster too, but many of the guys buy a difficult to draw bow, and reduce the draw weight somewhat. It's a balance to find that comfortable draw range to make it usable.

I did have a fella that was shooting high 70's and struggled to draw the bow with it swinging over head. It was not a usable hunting bow in my opinion as the swinging movement was unacceptable for game to see.

This brings me to another point. As a PH I have had lots of bow hunters with me that struggle and fail to draw while in the hunting blind. I cannot even count how many guys have failed to draw on game while sitting, and unable to raise the bow above eye level.

When you have guys shoot while sitting and not raise the arrow rest above eye level, the draw weight drops nearly every time to accomplish this. Lots of guys came to try this with an aggressive cam bow set over 70lbs and had the bow well over head to draw it. That is a horrible situation to be a successful hunter.

Another observation, shooting into a new block target with a 55-63-and 73lb bow. When shooting 125 grain heads the penetration was slightly deeper with the 55 then the 63 if the 63lb bow was shooting 100 grain. So the draw weight was not as important as the arrow weight.

Comparing the 63 to the 73 the 73 won every time even with the lighter arrows, but the difference was marginal, sometimes less then an inch difference in Penetration.

So whats the point of this? Whats the takeaway? Bows in real life with hunting weight arrows that can be drawn and shot smoothly do not get over 300fps as a normal expectation. There are certainly the rare individuals that can smoothly draw a 70lb bow while sitting and without raising it over head using aggressive cams and light arrows that get 300 plus FPS.

The normal guy shooting even 70lbs is much more likely to be in the 280range plus or minus with a hunting weight arrow and a 125 grain head. Lets say 430 grains or more total. I did have a couple really big dudes that shot right about 300fps with those arrow weights, but when you get to 6' 3" or bigger the draw length helps a lot with speed.

gotta remember to most bow mfg. rate at IBO arrow weights not AMO the AMO speeds will be much slower

MUCH slower!

If you can not repeatably draw your bow while holding on the target you are trying to pull to much weight.

As far as speed goes its a marketing tool.

Also have to remember the IBO is usually recorded from a bow at 30"DL and 70LBS.

My bow shots a 340 with a hundred grain head at 308 at 70# had to turn it down to 67# to get reliable arrow flight but my old aligance shoots 285 with the same arrow and draw lenght

am shooting 265 fps and think that is great. The 10 critters that I shot the past year do not agree.
Speed is way over rated.

I hope you guys understand that this is not a post about having velocity or lack of. I just wanted to share the way people react to the facts when they see that 240-260 fps is normal. Even when they have believed all along they must be around 300, because that is what the marketing hype leads so many to believe.

I know 300fps plus is possible with light arrows,( under 400 grains) but as naive as these guys were about the speed, they all seemed to believe that spears work better then darts. Unfortunately you cannot shoot a spear over 300fps as a realistic expectation. Even if you could, it is not likely you will draw the bow smoothly that can either!

I am glad you made the comment (at the very end) about draw length as a huge factor. I bought a new bow last year and initially it was set up at 32" based on measuring my draw. ( I had shot 31" bows in the past). after getting it set up, 32" on the bow (PSE Vendetta XL) seemed too long. Backed it down to 31" and it felt better. The arrow weight now is right at 465g and I shoot 296. A slightly heavier arrow (due tot he extra length) at 32" DL shot 10 fps faster.
I say all that so say that I am 6' 5" and have a long DL and barely touch 300fps with a hunting weight arrow. Commonly, you will lose 10 fps or so for every inch you go down in DL. With that said, a guy with my same bow set up, with a 29" DL would expect to shoot in the 270 fps range with hunting weight arrows.
You are spot on about speed and what people's perception is. I see guys shooting the crhono at the local shop and shoot 250-270 consistently and they seem P'd off. It's IMO, due to the marketing hype.

Bow speeds are not rated from hunting arrows.

IBO is max 70lb draw, 350gr arrow, and 30" draw.

AMO is 60lb max draw, 540gr arrow, and 30" draw.

These ratings are used not to tell an individual archer the speed the bow will shot for them. Rather the speed from one bow to another bow. In most cases you can expect the bow to shot somewhere inbetween the two ratings. If you are shooting heavy shafts then you might fall below AMO speeds.

JJHACK I look at it like this. In anything archery, shotguns, rifles, sports, arts, Hunting or anything else you have weekend warriors, semi-serieous, serieouse, semi-pro, and pro level particiapants. Knowledge comes from many things(reading, practice,and lessons/coaching) but anyone of them alone doesn't make one an expert or pro. People that have false expectations of their equipment are never experts or pro's by any means.

Bought my hoyt trykon brand new.. the day i picked it up we chroned it at 306.. i haven't replaced my strings and cables in almost 4 full years. Two months ago i had a new rest, sight, peep, and string silencers installed. My tech buddy was pissed that i wouldnt put new strings and cables on. I told him that i shot my buck at 33 yards last fall and blew clean through him. There is little to no sign of wear.. they are fine.. shortly after we paper tuned and made one mjnor adjustment for nock high. Then i shot through the same chron i did years ago.. 296.. i was suprised myself. Thought it would have been closer to 290..
70lb 29" draw..maxima weight forward 350 with 100gr heads.
New strings and cables next season.. back over 300 and i doubt the deer will notice 10fps

Draw length is a major issue on arrow speed. I picked up a Hoyt Charger a couple weeks ago it's a 325fps AMO (5gpp 30") rated bow, I get 290 59# w/ 355gr(6 gpp) Arrows @ 29". Smokin fast compared to my recurve and longbows that average about 175 fps. Here's a link to a calculator that works pretty slick. Makes is pretty easy to compare draw weight, length and arrow combinations. http://backcountrybowhunting.com/articles/calc/

WOW.......... That calculator is exact to the fps!

You need to know several things that are not always at your fingertips. However I entered the data exactly accurate and it spit out the same number my chronograph gave me.

The arrow weight, Foc and Shot angle tabs are pretty neat also. Really all you need to know is your actual draw length, draw weight and what your arrows are.

Changing the IBO amount by even 5fps changes the results a lot. I guessed at the amount as my bow is pretty old SWBXT

I guessed 310 and I was off compared to actual with the chrono by 15fps. I googled the IBO and found it was 318. changed that and it was exact to the amount I measure on the Chrono!

What is nice, is that I was wondering what I could get if I switched up to a lighter arrow. From 425 to something in the 380 range. The speed improved by 25fps.

Then look at trajectory and see the difference. What this tells me, is if I know the range the trajectory does not really matter as much. However at impact, the weight is king. Speed does not beat weight upon impact. Its advantage is only for the quicker trip to the target.

25fps, speaking for me, does not improve the overall performance enough to change to the lighter arrows from the 425gr arrows.

Species specific hunts yes, over all no. I have had several guys in Africa with these 300fps plus bows. During practice shots they are freaking lightening fast. Initially I actually thought, Nothing is gonna jump/duck the string on those under 20 meters! Time from release to impact seemed identical!

However in actual practice antelope still do avoid the arrows. Many of the African hunters have video taken by the 2X1 partner, wife or other non-hunter. At the lodge we can watch these to see the slow motion dip of the animal upon release of the arrows,..... They go right over, or in many cases spine the animal.

The additional speed is very impressive to watch, but it's still not enough to beat the speed of sound and the reaction of very high strung predator stressed game.

JJHACK you got that right.

Better to miss low then high.

No bow is fast enough for a whitetail doe, even at 10-15 yards. Those little 120 lb texas whitetail bucks are pretty fast at dodging a shot also.

JJ, a lot of those guys you see unable to draw in the hunt are too excited and full of fear- of not getting it done. It has happened to me when the animal has the drop on me or of things aren't going right, like being too slow in grabbing the bow with a rutting buck going by too fast to get on it. It's like you know the deal is going in the schitter.

Thanks for a great post.

Isn't kinetic energy worth more then speed?

Absolutely for hunting. No if your shooting 3D.