No offense to anyone but I have no idea where guys pull the "20 yards or less" stuff out of when somone brings up drawweights less than 50 or 60 or 80 or whatever poundage is "just right" in their opinion. I like my shots under 20 yards 'cause I tend to be more accurate inside 20 yards... but the flying arrow doesn't suddenly transition from a lethal penetrator at 20 yards to an ineffective dart at 21 yards. Arrows are potentially lethal to the full extent of their flight and penetration at 25 yards can easily EXCEED penetration at 5 yards even with well tuned arrows simply because the close range arrow is still throwing energy into oscillation and failing to keep all of its momentum directly behind the arrow tip. An arrow over 500 grains in mass weight shot from almost any bow pulling 40 pounds at 26+ inches and tipped with a sharp broadhead is a VERY lethal projectile. Having seen a bit of game shot with various bows of widely differing drawweights I am amazed at how little performance difference there is between 40 pound draws and 60 pound drawweights when penetration is the quantifier. Even when a chronograph shows widely differing speed and energy levels penetration can be remarkably similar. I've taken 8 Javalina with various bows, drawweights and broadheads at various distances-while I generally have had entry and exit wounds the Javies have consistently carried the arrow. My dad shot one earlier this month and his arrow sailed on through several yards beyond the peccary. He was drawing about 36 pounds at 24" with 485 grain arrows. He got more penetration than I did shooting 600 grain arrows from 53 @27 (which gave about the same result as when I shot 485 grain arrows from 43 @27) I love the draw weight and arrow weight debates but besides the sometimes mentioned issue of actual bow performance (where one fine 40 lb bow gets the same speed with the same arrow weight as some other doggy 55lber) there are A. Too many variables to KNOW exactly what will happen in any given scenario and B. Too much evidence that most any straight flying sharp broadhead tipped arrow will penetrate "enough" if it is sent to the vitals of light big game. There must be some threshhold where broadheads will fail to penetrate more than they succeed but I don't know where that threshhold lies other than it is below all commonly accepted hunting weights, below the few states where the legal limit is 30lbs and, I strongly suspect, well below the performance generated by most "kids' bows". Of course raw "power can help with bad shot placement and does no harm when placement is good but, while some energy and momentum is vital to arrow performance the level of energy needed for an arrow to do its work is very small.
Topic: Is it enough...... (Read 747 times)
