Arrow Too heavy?

[celticknot]

nathan Good analogy! I like splitting wood too. LOL

[Night Wing]

Let me start by saying I don't take shots over 20 yards at live game. The vast majority of my shots have been taken at around 15 yards.

I also like the deep penetration very heavy arrows provide. This past season I was shooting a 602 grain 2117 aluminum arrow out of my 42# recurve. This is a 14.33 GPP (grains per pound) arrow and it was moving along at 157 fps. My 37# recurve was shooting a 535 grain 2114 arrow. This is a 14.45 GPP (grains per pound) arrow and it was moving along at 155 fps.

Since the wind outside hasn't been blowing like a gale for the last two days, I decided to see if I could shoot a lighter arrow out of both bows. I got lucky. I found I could shoot the same arrow out of both bows, but with different point weights.

The 42# bow can shoot a 476 grain 2212 arrow. This is a 11.33 GPP (grains per pound) arrow and it's moving along at 174 fps. The 37# bow can shoot a 496 grain 2212 arrow. This is a 13.40 GPP (grains per pound) arrow moving along at 160 fps.

I did have to put a pair of yarn puffs on the bowstring of the 42# bow since the 2212 arrow was loud upon arrow release. With the yarn puffs, almost silent.

I'm going to test the 2212 arrow out, shot out of both bows, on small feral hogs weighing 150 pounds and under.

[Friend]

Night Wing - That is a major change for you.

[SlowBowke]

Agree it's ALL personal preference and that makes it impossible to be "wrong".

Ive shot minimum 550 grain arrows averaging more 600 grain out of everything from 42lb to 62lb for more decades than I wish to recall.
A few 700 plus arrows got shoved in there but what few times I did shoot the 10 grain/lb (minimum for me) what improvement there was in trajectory (that I noticed) wasnt something that was going to "fix" anything.

I seem to "average" something around 12-14gr/lb on my hunting set ups (how'd they get so much lighter over the years? LOL)anymore.

Still aint broke, so still no need to fix it, FOR ME.

With the proper practice, trajectory "disappears"( I dont think about it) to me for hunting set ups and don't shoot 3D so I agree it's personal preference for what you use it for and the ranges.

sooooo......agreeing with the choir here on it all.

God Bless

[Night Wing]

Originally posted by Friend:
Night Wing - That is a major change for you.

I did some more experimentation this morning with my 37# recurve. I was able to shoot a 438 grain 2013 arrow. It was moving along at 169 fps, but it didn't "thunk" the target at 20 yards like the 496 grain 2212 arrow did.

For me, the 2013 would make a good 3D target arrow, but I'd be leery of shooting game with it even though it equates to an 11.83 GPP (grains per pound) arrow.

In essence, there is a law of diminishing returns with shooting too heavy of an arrow, but I think the same applies for shooting too light of an arrow also.