Difference in arrow speed with fingers vs a shoot machine...

[Shredd]

A friend on here asked me what the arrow speed difference was between fingers and a shooting machine...

   Here is my answer...  If any of you have anything to add or share your opinions, I would love to hear it...

I am not sure if you can accurately compare the two...  Some say 2 to 4 fps slower with fingers...   

  When you use a shooting machine you are drawing at one sharp point with a mechanical release... And when finger shooting you are drawing at three dull or rounded points for a span of about 2 1/2"...  Plus add into the fact that some people release different and some people push through their shots with their bow hand...  I believe you could actually shoot faster than a machine with technique...

   I did find this out though...  Before I made my shooting machine I finger shot my bow through the chrony...  I have a 29" draw...  I shot a bow and was getting a consistent 185fps...  being that my numbers were so consistent, only ranging in about 1 fps and maybe 2 fps now and then I was sold on that me finger shooting my bows were very accurate...  Well...  I picked up the same bow about a month later and was consistently shooting 190 fps with it...  I thought, what happened???  Is there a change in temperature?? Did the bow's epoxy come to a full cure and harden more??  Did the internal structure of the glass and wood settle in and stiffened up the new shape that it was formed into??

   So after a few month's of being perplexed I finally got around to making a shooting machine...  I shot the same bow that I shot before and got very consistent numbers ranging in only 1 fps... So I waited a month and tested the same bow...  I got the same numbers... Then I waited 3 or 4 month's, after the season changed and still got the same numbers... 

   So I came to the conclusion that when I finger shot that same bow a month later I either ate my wheaties that morning, had a stiffer bow arm or pushed through my shot, Had better form with more back tension and/or had a crisper release...

   I think the bottom line is if you want to compare one bow to another accurately, a shooting machine is a must...   If you want to know your arrow speed from your fingers it's going to be in a general area of fps speed...  You might shoot a bow and get 185 fps out of it and hand that same bow over to a friend with the same draw length and they will only get 180 fps from it...

[kennym]

Totally agree with your bottom line Rich

[Roy from Pa]

Very good info Rich. Thanks..

[skeaterbait]

I leave the figurin to those most qualified.

[KenH]

Good analysis, Shredd. 

Personally I don't care how fast a bow can shoot an arrow, but how accurate I can shoot that bow. 

IMHO if you want to compare bows, you need to use one or the other -- either a machine or the same shooter the same hour.  You just can't compare machine readings to finger readings. 

[Stagmitis]

Thanks Rich excellent post! I appreciate that 

[Buemaker]

Good post. When testing my bows I use a shooting machine with two chronies set up in a tandem configuration, to make sure I measure straight arrow flight.

[Tim Finley]

Look at Blacky Schwarz test and you will see the difference in fingers and a shooting machine .

[Flem]

Thats some interesting info Rich. Thanks for sharing it. I've often wondered how the human factor affects string release. It would be interesting to see slow-mo video of a machine and finger releases for comparison.