700 grain arrow for 55# draw?

[Bob L.]

For deer, Elk, hogs etc.. What is everyones thoughts of that much arrow weight for that poundage bow. The problem I have is I have a 34" shaft so I cant go with a light Carbon with lots of weight upfront and finish between 500-600 grains Carbons are to short. My bow bare shaft tuned best with 285 grain upfront, FOC is 20%, finshed arrow 712 grains. Shoots 6" low at 30 yards. Never killed anything with this setup yet.
Thanks
Bob

[Jason R. Wesbrock]

Personally, I've never hunted with an arrow anywhere near that heavy. I generally stay right around 500 grains or slightly less. The deer, moose, elk and hog I killed didn't have any complaints.

 

The problem I have is I have a 34" shaft so I cant go with a light Carbon with lots of weight upfront and finish between 500-600 grains Carbons are to short.

My carbons are also full length, compliments of having a 32" draw. That's actually not a problem: it's a gift. It means you don't have to front load your arrows just to get 9+ grains per pound.

I'd forget about trying to load up a bunch of nose weight and just tune a good arrow with about a 125-grain tip that flies well and finishes around 500 grains or so, which will be 9+ gpp at your weight. It should blow through anything in the lower 48 without a problem.

[KVTA TANK]

I shoot 58# and 2216 with 130gn up front gives me 535gn of arrow wieght works great for me...

[TomMcDonald]

It should be OK. I shoot 805 grains with 25% FOC from a 60lb bow.

[Richie Nell]

Bob..that sounds like a very good setup making for some very bad medicene for whatever it hits.  It will also take a while to stop.  To me, your setup sounds like exactly what I would be striving for.
I killed a buck this year with a 2317 arrow weighing 994 grains, 315 gr. Grizzly up front, I think 23% FOC and very quiet....pulling 69 lbs.
The arrow went in rib cage and busted through off side leg bone below scapula.

[Bjorn]

Very similar to mine-very happy with the results.

[Jason R. Wesbrock]

Richie,

It sounds like your setup gives you excellent results. That's the kind of thing we all should be striving for.

For what it's worth, I did the exact same thing to a whitetail buck back in 2004 with a 57# recurve shooting a 500-grain arrow tipped with a 125-grain Ace Standard. FOC was somewhere around 13%.

[Dave2old]

Ashby's most recent (2007) studies show that all his "parts," and EFoC in particular, provide a higher percentage of penetration gain with lighter bows than with heavier. Like you, I  shoot mid-50s in r/d recurves with arrows 650 - 740 grains and with the right broadhead they shoot plumb through elk, even hitting ribs in and out. I don't know that you need that kind of bone-busting power for deer or hogs, unless you tend to make shoulder shots, but if you can shoot them well at huntable distances, why not? I shot over the back of a a beautiful Coues deer buck last month because I went down in arrow weight thinking that's all I needed and could shoot flatter and faster farther, and I practiced. But in the heat of the hunt, my hand-eye coordination returned to the heavy arrows I was accustomed to and I held too high. It would have been among my proudest "trophies." I will never again switch arrow weights for particular game, but will shoot the same heavyweights for everything, from bunnies to bull elk and moose. Why do you ned 34" shafts? What's your draw length? As others have noted, that helps with FoC, but it totally screws up my instinctive aiming. Wish it didn't. Dave

[longarrow]

Bob,
I have a 27" draw and shoot about 50# bow, my arrow are 29-30" long with @260 g up front...total arrow weight is 700+ and I don't have have problem with any animial!

[Bob L.]

Dave2old,
I have a 33" draw, it takes a 34" shaft so the Broadhead clears my bowhand. Coues buck that has to be a hard hunt! Thanks for all the input.
Bob

[amar911]

Bob L.,

A 33" draw?   :eek:   Do you play for the NBA?

Allan

[Bob L.]

No, But I did play until I hurt my back in High school, now I just fling aluminum yard sticks

[huntinoly]

Bob, I killed my elk this year with a 700 gr ash arrow shot out of a selfbow 57# at 27". The bull was 18 yards and I got a complete passthru. The bull went down in 30 yards. I would not use anything lighter, I am acuate out to 35 yards.      Greg

[kibok&ko]

Hello, actualy i'm shooting 725 grs arrow with a 52 pounds PSA recurve, "Sanglier" don't like it !

[O.L. Adcock]

"A 33" draw?  Do you play for the NBA?"

Do you play miniture golf?    Sorry, couldn't resist!

I'm shooting just under 14gpp but that may be the wrong comparision. Like Dave pointed out, we all get used to a certain trajectory and changing from one to another takes time to adjust. The other factor is some bows will shoot as fast at 14gpp as others do at 10 or 12 making what someone shoots compared to others a moot point. We know higher FOC's have advantages with no disadvantages, we know heavier has pros and cons, each has to set their own priorities. Sounds like a bone smashing set up to me!   ....O.L.

[30coupe]

I got used to the trajectory I got with 505 grain 1916's (170 gr WW up front) from my 46# Kanati. When I got my 52# Kanati, I could shoot the same setup fairly well, but the arrows shot WAY flatter and faster. I started toying with carbons for the 52# Kanati. What I ended up with was a GT 3555 at 650 grains cut to 29.5" The trajectory was almost identical to the 1916's in the lighter bow. My groups shrunk. Now my groups are about the same with either setup.

The added bonus of the heavy carbon arrows is a huge difference in penetration. I have a double layer of old carpet behind my target. Behind that is a 1/2" sheet of blandex for any that get through the carpet. Since the 1916's shot higher from my new bow, some escaped the target (i.e. missed). They would bang into the blandex and a few even stuck. Sometimes the tip would poke through a bit. When I experimented with missing the target with the heavy carbons (i.e. missed), the arrows would be sticking through the blandex by at least 4"      

I may have to get a thicker backstop (or stop missing). Now that I have them dialed in, the misses are rare, but I still pluck the string once in a while and send one to the right.

The bottom line, if you shoot the heavy arrows well, stay with them. I plan to.

[LKH]

I think it depends on how you hunt.  If mostly out of trees with close shots, it's probably great.  I have some old forgewoods that weighed about that, but they had the trajectory of a fat rock and weren't well suited to my open country spot and stalk hunting, which is what I do 95% of the time.

I did kill elk, Kudu, bou and deer with them and they definitely give great penetration.