How Much Will Your Arrow Drop At 30 yards?

[Earl E. Nov...mber]

That's why it is hard to shoot through a hole in the brush that is 15 yards away.. Most people will hit something on the top of the window..

Ever try shooting at something through a 3 wire fence? How many times did you hit the upper wire?

i have one sad tale  about trajectory.  i was woking my way on the edge of flat corn field with a 25 yard brushy edge to the fence.  The 12 point massive dominant buck was coming up the hill towards the fence nearing the top flat. Looking at the situation, I decided that I needed to clear that top wire by 1" to 3" for the arrow to drop into the spot. When the time was right i drew my 90 Hill bow back and cleared that fence by 2" and sailed that arrow 7" over the bucks back and 300 yards down the open wooded hillside into a sampling. I bend down a bit when I shoot. If I would not have been doing all of that math, I would have shot between the two top strands and killed the buck.

[Ragnarok Forge]

The laws of Physics have not changed for a very long time.  Trajectory was a known quantity way back in the roman era and before. It is interesting to learn what trajectory is or will be.  It is another thing entirely to try and apply those facts to how we shoot.  I focus on staring at what I want to hit and then hitting it on the first shot.  I love understanding how it works, I am not capable of actually applying it mentally to the already complex physical and mental process of shooting a bow.

[Cherokee Scout]

No disrespect intended, but there is no way an arrow drops 9' in 30 yds. There must be an error in the formula. Imagine if you are shooting at an indoor range.If your arrow leaves the bow at 4.5 feet above the ground. The ceiling of the range would have to be at least 13.5 feet tall or the arrow would hit the ceiling. I may be wrong, but that does not seem right to me.

[Hermon]

2fletch's formula: 32 x (time x time)
Friends formula: ((time x time) x 32.2)) / 2

Basically the results from the same inuputs is one is half of the other. Or twice the other depending on which side of the fence you are on.  I am not smart enough to know which formula is correct, but from my gut feeling it is Friends.

[2fletch]

Friend, I doubt that you are a redneck, but there really is someone whose user name is "redneck engineer" and he did post the same formula that you did. I'm curious why you would divide the results by 2.

This question has come up before and I believe that it deserves debate and resolution. I know an ex NASA engineer. Maybe I'll get his imput. I don't mind being wrong, but I do want to know the answer.

Cherokee Scout, since the drop occurs all through the distance of the range it wouldn't be necessary to have a 13.5 foot ceiling.

   

[Bud B.]

Don,

I took that longbow I got from you and shot at a Bison at 66 yards in 3D. I had shot at it before and hit way short. I had to look way above my sight path and try to estimate flight path of the arrow. There was a limb sticking out at about 1/3 the distance that I thought was where I needed to be. It was about 20' off the ground. I lined up on the Bison, drew, shot at the limb so that I would just shoot over it and released. What a heck of an arc at 66 yards. My guess is the arrow reached a peak of 25-30 feet high before dropping into the Bison's hump. I hit inside the 8 ring. I'm guessing my aim was about 40 degrees high from flat. Mabe even close to 45 degrees.

The first shot skipped up into the Bison's midsection the previous tournament when I shot there about two weeks earlier. I hit some quartz on the ground and deflected the arrow into the target. On that shot I thought I was going to shoot over the Bison.

I guess if I shot off the rim of the Grand Canyon and shot level it might go 100 yards out before straight drop took over. The drop curve to get that far out would be interesting to see in graph form.

[Javi]

2315 weighing 544 grains fired from a bow 5 feet above the ground and traveling 170 fps as it leaves the bow would have an apogee of approximately 27.79 inches above line of sight at 21 yards when fired at a target 40 yards away and at 5 feet above the ground.  Numbers are approximate due to variables such as wind speed and direction, variations in drag from fletching and shaft finish, etcetera.  Note: velocity at target would be approximately 138 fps.  The point at which the arrow will cross line of sight will depend on several factors include the distance from your eye to the arrow at full draw.


Note to Bud B... same arrow as above fired at a target 66 yards away would have an apogee of approximately 91.49 inches above LOS at 35 yards.. speed at target 120fps

[Gehrke145]

With my compound I shoot about 10 inches low at 40 with my 30 yard pin (14 inches low with my 20) My recurves are about 100 fps slower I can't believe the drop to be more then double?

[Rob W.]

After reading this I Missed a 40yd shot on an elk target today. I must not have carried the 1.

All this lobbing the arrow over the moon stuff to make it to the target talk has made lose confidence in my bows.  Can anyone recommend a good compound for me? I like to draw short and heal the bow and I shoot better when I snap shoot.

[Ragnarok Forge]

I think Javi did the math.  It would really supriuse most folks to see a side on video of them selves shooting at 20, 30, and 40 yards.  If you have a video camera, set it up for a side view and shoot all three yardages then view the tape to see the difference.  One inch of raised arm height with the bow arm, equates to a lot of elevation and added arc at 30 & 40 yards.

[SHOOTO8S]

If an arrow is dead level when shot...Don's numbers are very close if not dead on.

What you gotta consider....with most anchors, our eye is above the arrow, so were lauching arrows upwards and as a result, get an arched trajectory.

Shot level...theres no arc, only drop  

[JimB]

Most don't stop to think that we may look over the arrow point but our anchor and subsequently our arrow nock is way below out eye.The arrow is pointing up but our line of sight is from our pupil,across the tip to our aiming spot.

I thought that sounded like too much drop also.My eye is 2 1/2" above my arrow nock and the arrow is 33" long.My point on is 30 yds.You can do the math and if you draw a line from my eye to the target and draw a line representing how my arrow is pointed,my arrow is actually pointed 81.8" above the target.

It doesn't look like that to me when I shoot as I see the point even with the target but the nock is 2 1/2" lower than my eye.If your nock were even with your eye,you would quickly learn how much drop there really was.

[JimB]

Sorry,I'm a slow typist.

[Bjorn]

OK, so what is the answer? How much will the arrow drop at 30 yards?

[Friend]

See web-site for Arrow Balistics calculator:

 http://www.outdoorsden.com/archery/archbal.asp

[sweeney3]

I don't do math and calcufiguring when I can keep from it, but I know that my arrows drop too much for me to try and shoot live animals at 30 yards.  Targets, sure.  But I have yet to try a live shot at that range and doubt I will.  Just too little margin for error for me.

[Pierre Lucas]

Scott,

That I believe that is the real close.  I think there is still some environmental and phyiscal factors to consider but darn close.

Good job.

God Bless,  Pierre

[cacciatore]

Thanks for sharing your data,but I still love to shoot my bow and look at the target without calculate too much,that bull elk moves faster of what I count!I get rid of my compound for that reason!