What do you consider more important?

[rybohunter]

When selecting arrows there seems to be many different things to look for out there. From a performance side, how do you rank the following things?

FOC
Total Arrow Weight(>600 gr)
Certain GPP threshold

I've read thru some of the studies, but when it all comes down, what do you guys put the focus on most?

[Bard1]

for me I take it all into consideration, however if I rank them, I think it comes out like
FOC
GPP
and as close to 600 as I can.  
I am assuming that the magic number of 600grns. came out of Dr. Ashby's reports.  I like his reports very much and have learned lots from them.  I like to get 10grns per pound of bow more then just having >600grns.  Remember he's testing on waterbuffalo.  Heck of a lot bigger then the little deer I tend to shoot. ;-)

[vermonster13]

What flies best from a particular bow is what decides it for me.

[ks_stickbow]

I think you can make any arrow fly from any bow, it just depends on how much effort you want to put into making it fly.

IE: I have a short draw, and when I cut a typical carbon down to my draw the spine shoots sky high...then it's time to adjust the weight, but rahter than cuttung my carbons to my draw I leave them long, and put lesser effert into making them work.

It would be hard to focus on just one of the things you mentioned. It has to be combo...You cannot find an arrow that fly great, and add front weight to it...you might get lucky and it will still fly, but you should of rather found an arrow that a little overspined and then add your tip weight. So before you add to your FOC youarrows might of not flown so well.

SO If you want a high FOC you need to plan ahead. I know people that say shooting high FOC is not good cause the arrow will someday explode on you...I don't buy it and shoot high FOC...100gr inserts and 125gr heads..not as hight as some but enought to make my arrows hit hard.


hope this makes sense I am typing this as I run out the door. If you want we can get together and dicsuss this.

[James Wrenn]

I buy the shafts that will give close to the weight I want.I shoot big broadheads and that takes care of the FOC thing.If an arrow comes out a little heavy or lighter than I intended I don't worry about it.Proper tuneing is the most important thing of all.I try to keep arrows right around the 500gn mark, give or take 50gns.  

[Mr.Chuck]

At 9 grains per pound, I get the most effiency out of my bows in general. That give me good arrow speed, and good physical weight for penetration.  When I can put an arrow thru a bear as if it weren't there,  that is plenty of speed and penetration. :-)  

[jrchambers]

when i have to make a choice it would be what arow offers the most versatility,  easy adjustments with out buying a whole bunch of stuff i dont need, there are alot of makers out there that have that now.  i chose some gold tips because they were one of the first to have the weight inserts and adapters, if you plan ahead you could get the right spine to really beef it up in the front and overall.

[rybohunter]

My plan is CE heritage 250's with 100 gr insert, & probably a 100 or 125 head. Then trim a full length arrow until it bareshafts properly, and whatever length & overall weight things turn out to be is where it falls. I'm not going to hit 600 gr without weight tubes. Just wondered how much I should care that I don't. I will be around 9.5-10 gpp.

[McDave]

For me the most important is that the arrow is well tuned for the bow.  Dr. Ashby agrees with that, by the way.  If you read his articles carefully, all the things he thinks are important for penetration: FOC, arrow weight, type of broadhead, etc., are predicated on having an arrow that is well-tuned for the bow.

[Jason R. Wesbrock]

Originally posted by rybohunter:
When selecting arrows there seems to be many different things to look for out there. From a performance side, how do you rank the following things?

FOC
Total Arrow Weight(>600 gr)
Certain GPP threshold

I've read thru some of the studies, but when it all comes down, what do you guys put the focus on most?

Of those three, a certain gpp threshold is the only one I pay any attention to. The only thing I shoot >600-grain arrows for is bowfishing, and I have yet to ever give FOC any concern when setting up arrows.

[ChuckC]

My very biased opinion is...although I love reading Dr. Ashby's stuff, and I agree wholeheartedly with much, maybe most of his findings...  I feel it is difficult to overcome the fact that medium weight arrows carrying not so sharp broadheads have been killing lots of deer sized critters for centuries.  

I myself like to shoot for 10 gpp when I can becauese I think it keeps the bow quiet. Since I normally shoot a 61 pound longbow, that means 600 grains or more.. actually the arrows I have been hunting with are much more than 600 grain.

I tend to have more FOC, not because I am trying to, but because I really like Grizzly Sticks with 100 grain steel inserts and 150 ish grain broadheads.    I think that..within limits of course....anything from 450 to 1450 will work fine on most deer shots.  

When you move up to elk and moose, well, maybe we should rethink the game and go for the best we can get.

I don't know it all, maybe even don't know much...but I know what I like !  
   
ChuckC

[Bill Carlsen]

I am sort of in the same frame of mind as Jason Westbrock. For years I just made arrows and they were the weight they were and as long as they performed well I really didn't do much more than select the spine I needed, made up the arrows and attached "standard" bh's to them and went hunting. When I made the switch to carbon there was always the weight problem. I played around with all sorts of ways to get the weight up and ended up shooting 650 grain arrows from my 65-70# recurves. These arrows had some sort of weight tube or weed wacker line in them and along with that all the little things that make you crazy like nocks popping out, noise, etc.  Then I read about the high FOC arrows being used by Bob Morrison. When I got my DAS bow I dropped weight down to about 60# so had to get new shafts. I had been using Axis 300's with about 225 up front. I started using the Beman shafts, size 340, with 225 up front. They tuned perfectly from my bow so I just left it at that. My wife shoots Bemans, size 500, which were technically too stiff for her 45# DAS. So I put 200 grains on the front of her arrows and they tuned perfectly. I have found that the extra weight up front has seemed to improve my penetration but the goal has always been to get an arrow to tune perfectly. If you don't have a straight shooting arrow all the other stuff amounts to little or nothing, IMO. I know lots of guys that shoot lots of animals with "regular" arrows without high FOC or much consideration for anything other than straight shooting shafts. For any game in North America almost any arrow that is tuned to  your bow that gives perfect flight will be fine on any game you decide to shoot. The trick with any of the issues in this thread is to come up with a formula for the arrows you shoot and stick to it. Once you find an arrow that shoots/tunes perfectly from your bow don't try to "fix" it by adding weight, FOC or any other variable. The only reason I have high FOC on our arrows is that is what makes them shoot the straightest and only coincidentally do we achieve  arrows that most would consider to be hefty enough for big game hunting. If my arrows had turned out to be 500 grains instead of 600, but still shot well, then that would be the end of it. If I were going after big and dangerous game I would probably get more "into it" in regards to the concerns being discussed here. The real goal, I guess I am saying, should be an arrow that just plain shoots straight with your choice of bh. For the game that most of us hunt that is all that will be required.

For next season I was going to try to get my FOC up to 300 grains. I set some arrows up like that but found that my sight picture changed too much for me as the arrows dropped way too much along with other tuning issues. After thinking about it for a while I decided that to get the 300 grain FOC shooting well would require changing too many things and cost too much money. I am very happy with how my equipment works now and it put down a 600 pound moose this year that only travelled 20 yards after the shot. I doubt that I will ever shoot an animal any bigger than that moose. While I now prefer my arrows to have that high FOC if I could not get them to shoot perfectly I wouldn't be using them the way they are. All the things Ashby has concluded has its merits but none of it is really scientific and is all anecdotal. The only thing that I have found to be indisputable is the need for an arrow to be shooting straight and for bhs to be sharp.