Even as a compound shooter I never liked the speed "PUSH", never made sense to me. My brother was just the opposite, he would trade bows for a few extra FPS in a heart beat, shot arrows so thin and light that you could barely see em in a quiver. Part of this was caused by a couple of misjudged distances and part by deer "jumping the string". Claimed the flatter trajectory and shorter time to target were all the benefit he needed to eliminate such pesky details. Now truth be told he needed to work on his range estimation and he had a bad habit of shooting at alert deer thus causing a great deal of his problem. Of course the Pros down at the local sporting goods store helped plant the speed seed and thats all it took.
One practice session he and I got together and he noticed a strange phenomenon, my compound bow was quieter... much quieter than his. We both hit the target where we were aiming, even did some silly shots like calling out an eye or the targets nose and hitting it. Also my big ole heavy lincoln log arrows were penetrating the target much deeper than his, had to explain some math at that point (mass X acceleration = force) since my arrow absorbed more of the bows energy and retained it better to the target, I saw the benefit of quieting my bow and achieving great penetration. As a con to my pros I also saw a degraded trajectory, time to target isnt really an issue if you shoot at deer that arent already coiled like a truck spring and ready to unload.
Now at the pro shop next years bows were still a mechanical marvel of synthetic materials and wheels and cables, no need to get a new one of those right. Oops!! The new model shoots 5 or 10 FPS faster!! They were selling the only thing that they could consistently improve on in the course of a single year. Not to mention at the range guys pulled out that shiney new bow and all eyes turned to the latest, greatest, fastest bow in the market and the owner had bragging rights. Didnt matter if he could or couldnt shoot well his bow was FAST!
One of the reasons I got back to traditional bows was because I grew tired of the hype and the mechanical beasts that bows had become. I am a journeyman millwright by trade and even I was wore out maintaining such a gross over statement of technology, so much to measure, so much to fail.
I have also noticed lately that the new trend with pro shops is to push the distance factor. Apparently because its fast you can also shoot far, would be nice if everyone who shoots that far were also accurate. Honestly Ive seen videos in the stores showing horrid shots at insane distances and then the glory performance later when they find the deer. Never see the tracking job it takes to get there except for the last 20 yards though.
Fact is they have to sell "easier" and "faster" and "farther" because telling the average consumer that its "hard" and "takes lots of practice" and "takes lots of time" isnt gonna sell many bows.
Topic: What a load of (Read 1245 times)
