# Speed vs. Weight?



## aread (Dec 25, 2009)

You will be able to take any animal on the continent with a 55# bow, even with a 25" DL.

I have a short DL also and accept that I'm not going to get much speed out of my bow. So, after a bit of research, I'm on the heavy arrow side of the dicussion. The best research we have is from Dr Ed Ashby. You can read his reports on the Alaska Bowhunting Supply website. Dr Ashby admits that his research is not complete, but it's the best information currently available. The short version is that he favors heavy arrows with as much of the weight up front as possible. But there is a lot more than this to his research & recommendations.

Remember, millions of deer have been killed over the millennia with bows that generate less killing power than your bow. Primitive people the world over fed themselves with bows that seldom reached 200 fps. The 55#/25" bow will do just fine. Regardless of the bow, the key to killing an animal is shot placement. Put a hole through both lungs and it's just not going very far.

JMHO,
Allen


----------



## ron w (Jan 5, 2013)

yup, especially for typical hunting distances. i'll take a relatively heavy arrow over a light one all day. to be brutally honest, a light arrow for hunting just makes no sense, to me.


----------



## subconsciously (Aug 22, 2009)

Would you rather get hit with a 90 mph fastball or a 60 mph bowling ball? 

But there is a happy medium.


----------



## Supermag1 (Jun 11, 2009)

I would follow the example of the traditional shooters since they are going to be shooting bows that are slower than you are. They all like heavier arrows with fixed blade broadheads (usually a cut on contact 2 blade or 2 blade w/ bleeder) because they can get good penetration with less energy.


----------



## Splitshafts (May 7, 2012)

Speed is a good thing...to a degree

After you lose the speed, what do you have left? In most cases we hope to have some decent kinetic energy left to make the arrow do what it was sent to do in the first place. Penetrate as deeply as possible and kill what you hit quickly. If that means that you have to go with a 380 grain arrow and shoot at 270 feet per second. Then so be it,

My wife shoots a Hoyt carbon element set at 58# with a mere 24.5" DL. She shoots Gold Tip 5575 shafts that are weighing in at just over 375 grains. Her arrows are passing through every single deer or turkey she has ever shot. At ranges out to 30 yards, using a muzzy 3 blade with a trocar tip. 

My father in law is shooting a Hoyt pro hawk. With a 27" DL set to 45#. He shot and killed a big 188# wild hog last year. That ran no more than 30 yards. He shoots a 380 grain arrow with a 125 grain thunderhead three blade. This year I got him a dozen cut on contact buzz cuts at 125 grains. In certain he will get pass through on any white tail he shoots out to 25 yards.


----------

