That was enlightening...

[zilla]

Bought a Chronograph last week.  So tonite I went out with expectations of a 200 FPS arrow..  My bow is  a Meland Ferret, 52#@29.  I am guessin my draw is around 26., maybe a bit less.. Never really measured it since I put the wheelie bow down years ago.. Arrows: Sitka Spruce, @438 Grns, Carbons @ 430 Grn, laminated Birch at 620 grn.  

The carbons were doing around 175 av, top 179.  Sitka Spruce around 168, top 175.  Lam Birch 140 or so.  

Now I have a  bunch more arrows here I wanna  try and play with.. And a couple more bows..

Looks like I am gonna hafta work on gettin to full draw or at least this'll make me think about it more..

[draco]

That chrono can sure show you alot besides how fast your bow is`nt. I really learned a lot from one,some stuff I did`nt really want to know.

[30coupe]

That's interesting, but ask yourself: Do I hit what I shoot at? Do I get good penetration on game? Is my bow quiet?

If the answer is yes to these questions, I wouldn't worry about the chrono numbers. Hunters have been killing deer with bows for longer than there have been chronographs.

You are drawing about 43# with that bow if it is indeed 52 @ 29 rather than 28. That being the case your first two arrows are about perfect for weight. The lam birch is pretty heavy for that bow (14.4 gr./# of draw). Not only will they be slow to start with, but they'll drop like a rock.

I wouldn't mind using a chrono to see if I could confirm what my eyeballs are telling me. Other than that, I'm not overly concerned about the speed. The arrows fly well, hit where I look, fly quietly and shoot through deer. The chrono can't tell me much more than that.

[BamBooBender]

Chronys should come with this label. [WARNING This device may cause the user to become disappointed with a bow they were otherwise happy with]

[robtattoo]

Absolutely. Throw it away & forget you ever saw it.

[Mike Brown]

I bought a chronograph a few months back.

I found out that my longbows do shoot about the same speed as my recurves, slow.

About 160 fps.  The game still falls dead.  But 160 fps make you feel like the "shortest" guy in the locker room........

[Flesner]

My arrows are soooo fast, sometimes the squirrels don't even know I shot at 'em!  :D  

They shoot all the way through deer, so I guess the bow shoots fast enough.

[Coop]

A very good friend of mine got one last year and measures all his bows. He is an engineer and uses those numbers to work out his bow designs. They have their uses but don't let those numbers dictate if you will use a bow that you shoot well.

[vermonster13]

A chrono is just another tool. It can be a real good measure of how consistent your release is and general form. If you get real wide speed variations on your shots it can go a long ways to explaining poor groups.

[KodiakBob]

If you want speed over 200 with your current poundage, try a DAS with Winex limbs, Gamemaster with Winex limbs, Gonna have to shoot carbons also.

[SlowBowinMO]

It has been my observation that many shooters without chronographs believe they are shooting in the 180's - 190's, and those with a chronograph are mostly shooting in the 160 - 170's range, at least with a decent weight hunting set up.

A true hunting bow that shoots in the 180's with an average draw is a real smoker IMO.