Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting draw weight vs velocity

I had shoulder surgery last Christmas and now I'm considering a step down. Can anyone give me an estimation for velocity differences between 60# and 70# of draw weight?

Roughly 20fps less

Thanks, that will help me feel like much less of a wimp.

There really shouldn't be any loss of speed if you keep the arrow weight per pound the same. With todays bows 60lbs is more than enough for anything in North America. I would bet that a top of the line bow today shoots the same arrow faster than a 20 year old 80lb bow. I used to shoot 80lbs and even shot one year at 93lbs and my last bow was 60lbs and it's great. My next bow might even be a 50lber.

Increase your arrow weight and shoot a COC broadhad, and you'll end up better in the long run. Momentum and KE is what kills animals, not speed. So what if your pin gap isn't as "nice"? Folks kill everything that can be hunted with 50-60lb recurves every year by shooting heavy(over 450gr) arrows with sharp broad heads.

I've experimented some with increasing arrow weight by putting weed eater line inside. That allowed my to adjust the weight without buying different arrows. It worked fine. A couple of things about it:

Putting the line inside won't affect arrow spine.

the pieces of line MUST be full length so they won't shift fwd & bkwd as that will alter arrow balance in flight. Also, loose pieces will rattle. If necessary, you can stuff a tiny piece of something, like toilet paper, in each end to keep it from rattling.

line comes in lots of different sizes and each brand is different. I bought small amounts of several and weighed 1" pieces on a powder scale so I could figure how much weight I was adding. You can usually put several pieces inside an arrow.

Rock Chuck,
Did you consider FOC when you did your experiment?

Personally, I don't think anyone needs more than a 60# bow any more. A moderate weight carbon arrow with a sharp broad head will zip through any animal when shot out of a new compound.
By 'moderate' I mean anything in the 400 grain vicinity.

Trad bows are somewhat different, and I usually shoot about 9 GPP. That gives me decent momentum while retaining a decent trajectory.

Yup. Remember that the lines are the full length of the shaft so they balance. Never had a problem.

45 pounds is actually more than enough to kill a deer with proper shot placement. Ted Nugent only shoots 45 and most of his hits are pass thrus. With the bow technology of today and the wide selection of broad heads light poundage kills just as well as high poundage granted you limit your range and good shot placement.

I gained 30 FPS switching from an older Mathews to a newer Athens. Same draw weight, same exact arrow.

62 lbs. draw gives me 277 fps with a 400 gr. arrow. Pulls nice, 80% let off, and enough KE to kill pretty much anything.

New bow technology is pretty impressive. 60 lbs produces very good performance nowadays.