extreme foc?

[shortstroke 91]

Is 30% too much?
I'm shooting a 30" Gold Tip Ultralight Entrada with 3 feathers, a wrap, 100 grain brass insert and a 250 grain head, for a total of 550 grains. By my calculations I'm looking @ 30% foc.
I only shoot my Tomahawk longbow @ 43# with my 27 1/2" draw.
My only reason for this setup is I've been struggling to find a good setup and finally my bare shaft and fletched shaft shoot to the same spot within 1/2". I know there are a lot of Gold Tip haters out there but my question is if 30% is too much. I've read the Dr. Ashby reports but I didn't get if more is always better.
Thanks for any and all help.

[Russ Clagett]

Shortstroke,

Wow bro. I think that's awesome. I dont see how you can go wrong with real high FOC, mine is about 25%. I shoot 5575's with a 100 grain insert and a 200 grain tip. Shoots great, hits hard. What could be wrong with that?

[snag]

I am a rookie when it comes to this. But I just wonder if you can go too far one way or the other. You see compound shooter starting to turn back from the super light set ups. Are we going too far into the heavy arrows? Like all things in this world you usually see a balance that works best. What that balance is I don't know. Just thinking out loud.

[Dr. Ed Ashby]

Brandon,

I haven't mentioned a lot about any Extreme FOC upper limit of benefit gains. That's mainly because I haven't had time to set up and test a progressively increasing FOC matched arrow set that goes up and up, and don't know if there is an upper limit of benefit!

I have done testing with various setups having FOC levels up to a bit over 30%. The data is STRONGLY suggestive that penetration gain DOES continue to increase as the degree of FOC increases.

So, in a nutchell, here's what APPEARS to be the FOC boundries. The first noticable jump in FOC supplied penetration is around 19%. Above that level, the more FOC you have, the better it seems to get.

David,

In terms of the arrow's terminal performance; as long as everything else is equal between two arrows (dimensions and flight quality), increasing arrow weight increases the terminal performance; more mass means more penetration potential. The only limiting factor is the bow's ability to cast the arrow with a trajectory adequate for the hunting YOU do. The most critical mass-related penetration factor is the heavy bone threshold.

Arrow mass is like bow-derived arrow force. You'll benefit from using ALL YOU CAN EFFECTIVELY USE.

Ed
TGMM Family of the Bow

[shortstroke 91]

Thanks Dr. Ashby, both for the reply and all the hours of sweat, frustration and the pile of money you have no doubt invested in helping to better this obsession we all share.
Thanks again to all.

[snag]

I agree Ed that the human factor or judgement comes into play when dealing with trajectory of a heavy arrow.