heavy bows, arrow speed tests comparisons.

[foudarme]

I made some speed tests' with some of my bows in order to compare them.
My draw length is between 28-28,5 inches (28.2). All the bow have at last one set of string silencers.
The arrow tested was a 2020 830gr legacy (and sometimes a 630gr 2317 xx78).
My release is static, for a dynamic one (snap shooting for instance) add 12 fps of more (except for the compounds).

long bows:

- French Phoebus blackfeet 80#@28: 158fps
- french Guy waka 80#@28: 156 fps
- french Guy waka 90#@28: 166 fps
- french Guy waka 100#@28 (drawn at 27.5"): 179fps.
- scottish Border falcon 80#@28: 152 fps (dacron string), 20 years old bow.
- american Robertson vision, 61#@28: 148fps (165fps at 630gr)
- american Morrison dakota 58", 61#@27: 150fps (168fps at 630gr)
- italian Rosini indiano, 70#@28: 156fps (173fps at 630gr)


Recurves:

- american Fox breed, 80#@28: 162fps (182fps at 630gr)
- american Schaffer silvertip, onepiece, 80#@28: 162fps (184fps at 630gr)
- american Schaffer silvertip, take down, 82#@28: 172fps (192fps at  630gr)
- american Blackwidow TF3 ( 2006 year), 80#@28: 156fps (dacron string)
- american Robertson falcon 77#@29: 159fps
- american Robertson peregrine, 62#@28: 155fps (172fps at 630gr)
- american BW MA silver anniversary 98#@28 : 174fps (194fps at 630gr)(dacron string)
- american Morrison shawnee 54", 67@26: 163fps (183fps at 630gr)
- american Blacktail élite 64", 60@28": 147fps (165fps at 630gr)dacron string.
- french Phoebus arawack 86#@28: 165fps
- scottish Border khan xp30 70#@28: 158fps
- italian Rosini rapace, 75#@28: 160fps

compounds

- bowtech tribute 92#: 224 fps
- matthews switchback; 70#: 196fps (222fps at 630gr)
- reflex grizzly, 50#: 156fps (176fps at 630gr)
- hoyt ultratrec xt3000, 70#: 206fps with a 630gr arrow.

[Gordon martiniuk]

whats your point heavy bows < why compare compound bows to trad bows diffrent duck dont you think  

[Bjorn]

Wow! That's a lot of bows. Thanks for sharing the results with us. What kind of hunting do you do?

[knife river]

Looks  to me the standout in the bunch is the Robertson peregrine.  Good speed for a bow that was much lighter than many of the other bows.  Unless they have some wonderful aspects that you didn't mention, the Guy wakas seem to be bringing up the rear.  Interesting numbers!

[foudarme]

Originally posted by Gordon martiniuk:
whats your point heavy bows < why compare compound bows to trad bows diffrent duck dont you think              

for many reasons:
- have you ever shot a 100# tribute? it is not a very common bow (I have been the first european hunter to get this one) and it's for me the occasion to share this experiment with people who wonder about a so powerful bow...I think it's interesting to see what can really make such a compound in an hunting configuration...there are some little differences between these results and the IBO ratings.
- I wanted to discover what should be the compound power which could correspond to a 80# recurve one...at the last, it seems that a 50# compound gives the same speed results that a 80# widow, I think that it's interesting to know...
- in my country, there are many bowhunters who shoot 70# compounds (I don't hunt with my compounds, it's just for fun and maybe a safari next year, but I would prefer to make it with a 90# recurve)and who find that I am over weighted (what it's true, obviously)..in testing my 70# compound I show them that I am not the only one...
- don't you find intersting to compare recurves-longbows-and compounds at the same draw weights...

[Precurve]

Very interesting!  Thanks for sharing this with us.  What do you mean in your reference to a static and dynamic release?

[foudarme]

Originally posted by Precurve:
Very interesting!  Thanks for sharing this with us.  What do you mean in your reference to a static and dynamic release?

During all the tests I kept the full draw during 5 to 8 seconds before each release, just letting the string sliping from my fingers..it's why I called it a static release...if I released in the movment as soon as my fingers has touched my lips (something like snap shooting) I earned 12fps of more on the chronograph for the best shots...the problem was that in snap shooting I have some difficulties to keep the perfect same draw length at each shot so I got very different results beetwen each shot (8 fps sometimes), so I have chosen to keep the full draw during the same time at each shot in order to get the same comparison basis for each bow (it's too the way I use for my hunting or training release). In doing like that I got some very consistant results, not exceeding a very maximum of 3 fps between the highest and the lowest results...that's why I said that I loose 12fps in comparison with the dynamic release of a very regular snap shooter.
However, when I have used a mechanical release to test my own release quality's, in this test I only get a 5fps higher speed for the bow tested (peregrine robertson). I think that the use of a mecanical release for such a test (the best should be to use a shooting machine, but who, in hunting action, is abble to be as regular as such an engine) on a recurve needs to find the perfect place to fix it (I put it just under the arrow's nock), if not the tiller job's doesn't permit to the bow to run perfectly...but there are many bowbuilders on the site, and I think they could perfectly explain all of that much more better than me...

[foudarme]

there's some pics of the bows you cannot know:
under the robertson, the 3 french guy wakas and the italian rosini indiano
           

[foudarme]

3    phoebus   french bows, named: kiowa (semi recurve), blackfeet (lb) and arawack (recurve)


     

[JoeK]

Even considering the 12 fps factor, the speeds seem consistently slow for the weight of the bows.  Perhaps its the chrono, or the distance from the chrono?

[foudarme]

the chrono is brand new and the distance is 3 meters...the data correspond with some 2 years old other tests that I had realised with another chrono...I have a friend of mine who owns a blacktail elite monopiece and who gets 2 fps of more than me with the same draw weight, the same draw length and the same arrow weight but 2" less of bow length...
think that a 70# switchback casts this 830gr arrow at 196fps and that a 70# border khan recurve at 158fps...if I add the 12fps factor, it gives: 170fps..."only" 26fps of more for a top compound, I find, myself, that this recurve is a true bomb !

[doctorbrady]

I think this study is interesting.  Perhaps it's not terribly scientific, but it gives some interesting data that you wouldn't typically see.  When we traditional shooters chrono our bows, it is almost never at the IBO criteria that all of the compound bow manufacturers are now using.  It used to be that they all used AMO standard numbers, but those are not nearly exciting enough.  It's good to see a heavy arrow put through each of these bows to get a comparison.  I think that the numbers sound really close from my experience with heavy arrows.  It's neat to see that the performance gap is closing between today's traditional bows adn the "higher tech" compounds.

[DesertDude]

Thank you for taking the time to share this with us. I for one like the compound numbers added.

Mark