Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting Speed. How important is it?

I am shooting a Mathews Switchback LD with a 32" draw, full length arrows, and 100gr Thunderheads. Its quiet and accurate but noticeably slower than other bows I have shot around. How much does speed matter when bowhunting?

Compared to how well you can place an arrow in the vitals? Not much...

Closes up your pin gap if you don't think range estimation is as important as it should be.

Keeps the price of bows up for the speed-freaks that have to have it.

JMO, the Switchback is one on the best older bows ever made by Mathews.

Hitting square and slower will penetrate more than fast and off skew. That seems obvious until you listen to some dude bragging on shooting superlight arrows at animals and how fast they fly.

There's a balance of energy, arrow weight, spine and head weight to make the two nodes of an arrow fly straight and square.

Usually if you up the energy, use a higher energy bow, ect you will need to change the arrow setup to balance and contain the new level of energy. Generally this adds weight which affects speed... penetration improves, which in hunting is the prime factor.

So with the correct setup you may not see a huge jump in speed but a substantial jump in KE and penetration.

Of course if the setup now is a very heavy arrow that can absorb much more energy yet... then ya...

It's one of those questions that seem simple but isn't.

Kent

Well, for the other side, Texas deer, speed does make a difference of where the arrow hits vs where you aim.

They move before the arrow gets there. So faster is better.

But we have old bows, circa 90-94 round wheel mostly. And have always limited shots to 15 yards and under. Old slower AL arrows and heavy broadheads I've had to aim at the bottom of the chest at 15 yards, to hit where I need to.

MOve to lighter heads, and carbon arrows and you can hit almost where you aim.

No clue what our speed is though.

Beyond that as AH notes, its pin gap or drop, but range estimation is done by rangefinders these days so not such a big issue as long as your deer hold still for the shto.

I have the SWBXT, it's going 270 with 425grain arrows at 28.5" draw at 63lbs

You should be faster then that with a 32" draw?

Faster then 270 is very fast, be thoughtful on what you consider is fast when watching "other bows" not every bow is managed properly with the correct arrow weight.

I have seen enough people shoot the lightest arrows to get 300plus FPS. I would not use them for hunting anything more then a whitetail. Even Deer would be better managed with more weight to the arrow.

At indoor 20 yard ranges those arrows seem astonishingly fast to the target. But none of us hunt at an indoor range. My old 270fps switchback shoots clean through every bear and elk I have taken. Even bears up to 506 lbs. My Luminocked Arrow on video shot through the 400lb bear a week ago with hardly any hesitation.

Speed is mostly important for longer range shooting and the indoor range "cool" factor in my opinion.

I think speed would matter more for Western Hunting and Mule Deer or Elk than here in the East from a tree stand for Whitetail

Kinda what I was thinking.

I personally don't think you can tell the difference between a bow the shoots a arrow 20 ft fast than another bow in the real world of hunting without a chronograph . Kind of like the 6mm Rem verse 243 or the 30-06 verses the 308 . Like Hillary said, what does it matter

Location for me doesn't matter, a 40 yard shot limit is the same in Idaho or Virginia.

I think the speed-need was fueled by the marketing hype done by the bow companies, but the need for repeatable tuning and sustained accuracy has replaced some of the weighted factors in bow purchase decisions by the hunters/shooters.

So I do not need to be in the market for a new bow? Haha.

Accuracy and quietness are my first choices,speed helps in distance but for me bow hunting is a close in affair.

Well, I went on a bow-shooting experience over the last few years, and tried several of the higher-end speed bows (Reezen, Monster, Z-7, CRX-35, Prime Shift and Centroid). None were as quiet, or as forgiving as my Mathews S2, and I'm back to 1-2 bows for the season and the range. If you can stick the arrow where you want it, and be quiet on the shot, no.

If you want to experiment with new bows...well, the Classified section is always an option later...

I personally don't shoot at deer over 30 yards , but with my compound i can hit very well at 40 yards , but just to much can go wrong shooting at deer at long bow range . Hate taking a chance on crippling a deer and losing it . With my Long Bow i like 20 yards and under as my limit on Whitetail. Where i place my tree stands for Bow Hunting a 40 yards show would be the longest one i could take with most a lot closer. Bow Hunting to me is getting close and make a killing shot, if not i pass the shot for another day, but this is me and know others like the longer shots, but i will the long shots for target practice.

How much? Just enough to get there...and pass through.

Amen, nothing sucks worse than watching a deer run off, wondering if you had a solid hit or not. Plus, with the aging of the eyes, I'm not seeing the twigs and such like I used to at extended ranges.

I've only had one deer duck an arrow, and doubt another 25 FPS+ would have made any difference, he was a smart sum-buck..

probably just a reaction as he lower himself to jump and run and you your aim was right on , only if you had held a little lower .

Bea175

That is my feeling exactly. Archery was and is still in my opinion about the purest form of the hunt. Planning to be where they are before they arrive, or stalking in close with your skills VS their ability.

It's a close range affair, to me at least needs to have that eyelash visible adrenaline rush to mean something to me. I am primarily a bear hunter, wish we had pigs here they would likely become my main target.

There is just something awesome about seeing a bear at 12-18 yards searching for what he knows is "off". Watching him open his mouth and taste the air with his tongue, nose held high deciphering every molecule of the air to sort out what he knows is odd or peculiar.

When they stand on hind legs to get up higher and look right into the wind. I have been able to smell them from my stand with the wind correct. I know that with the wind wrong I would be busted!

Then having to draw the bow without him seeing movement. How I have wished my targets were further on occasion so I could at least move to draw the bow! How many times the draw has to be timed with his pace as he walks behind a tree.

Then once at full draw having to wait on the facing front leg to take that one last forward step. It's about the rush to make this happen at point blank that makes me addicted. Shooting 50 yards and beyond is just not even close to the same as this!

Great shooting is admirable, but great hunting is what I am impressed with.

Speed is famous for making you miss quicker. Tom

I think bow speed is over rated. There ain't no bow even close to the speed of sound so the deer is gonna hear a loud bow no matter how fast it is before the arrow gets to it. I believe quiet precision with the bow is the way to go no matter what the speed. My slow azz bow sends a 475 gr. arrow through enough whitetails most every year to fill my freezer and put some nice horns on the wall.

I look at speed like this. Im a short draw archer. 26 3/8" to be exact. I shoot a 70# Invasion that pushes a 400 grn arrow to 290fps. My bow is forgiving. Its quiet. No vibration. That speed is important to me. As for others its just a matter of who wins the pizzin match around the shop chronograph. For others, a fast bow means you can get close to same arrow performance while dropping DW. Do you have to shoot 350fps to kill an animal? No. Will that extra speed benefit you any? Maybe. Could mean hitting a deer even though you underestimated the range. But as for warp speed being necessary, nah. Its a matter of personal preference