Ken, "all bows will use the exact same style and strand count of string."
And all the bows are going to be the same draw weight or are some going to be 40# and others 60?
This is part of consistancy and standardization, shooting the same strand count on a 50#er as you do a 60#er isn't standardized and unfairly handicaps the lighter bows. This is the same as shooting the heavy bows at 10gpp and the lighter bows at 11 as an example...
"and all bows in the event will be shot with a 6 3/4" brace this year, no ifs, ands or butts."
This is a tough one..."longbows" in general will shoot well at lower brace heights then recurves will. Folks seem to like bows being tested as close to real world as possible. So shooting all bows at the same brace height benefits recurves artificially. 6 3/4" is a good number for longbows as most are going to shoot well between 6 1/2" to 7" so that's a good "middle" compromise. Recurves "on average" in the real world will be shot at a higher brace height more in line with 7 3/4" to 8 1/4+".....Norb looks at the manufactures recommendations and sets them at the lower end of that range. That could be fudged by telling him an unrealisticly low range but after testing a few thousand bows he'd notice and question such numbers along with the sloppy shooting that comes with it.
What we/I do if testing bow "a" against bow "b", if it's a longbow we set brace height at 7" and recurves at 8". The actual number doesn't matter as it's all relative, point is setting recurves and longbows the same isn't realistic or fair. A 1" split would be closer to middle ground averages.
Arrow nock fit, I've seen extreme cases on lighter bows where nock fit robbed 10fps. So if the goal to test the "bows", even 1 fps due to nock fit is unacceptable. If you do/could measure nock release tension with a trigger scale, it's too tight. 2# of nock release pull on a 60# bow is less percentage wise then it is on a 50#..Make them falling off loose.
Arrows.....Since it would be impossible to idealy "tune" the arrows to the bow, they should be bare shaft...Once we were testing a bow and it was reading 5-6fps lower then it should have. Someone noticed the shelf rug was getting tore up. Due to poor tuning and or a high quill, it was catching on the shelf/rug. Stripped the feathers, boom, 5 fps right there. The only time arrow tuning bothers the numbers is when the arrows are way too stiff or way too weak to the point they hit the riser. So bare shafts minimize that problem. Also, what if someone handed you a bow with an elevated rest while all others are shooting off the shelf? Elevated rests will average higher speeds then off the shelf will. In the flight shooting, you can take any given bow and do the best you can off the shelf, then turn around and set it up to the best you can get off an elevated rest, the elevated rest will shoot 100+ yards further..All from the same bow.
Still with arrows....Are some arrows going to be camo, others black, others with crown dips or wraps? Chronos are photo triggered and the sensors can "see" some colors under some light conditions better then others therfore will "trigger" differently. All arrows should be identical in color including tips and nocks. More then 1 fps difference in a several shot string indicates something isn't consistant.
From the video I couldn't tell how draw length was being controled? The quick draw/release doesn't give one faith in it's accuracy...Draw and hold for a second or two. A ratcheting type drawing device to a hard stop with a reach over push of a button would at least look more controled.
Any one of these "details" in and of themselves may not be big number wise, some more so then others. The combination of paying attention to detail of several can add up to 10+fps pretty quick. These are details those in the business of testing bows are aware of, the average Joe is not. It's not they/we don't want to do a good fair job, we just don't have the experience and knowledge to know any better. Just some ideas to chew on....O.L.
Topic: Speed test-opinions? (Read 1727 times)
