How Much Will Your Arrow Drop At 30 yards?

[PaddyMac]

I have no more idea how much my arrows drop than how much I arc a softball throwing in from left field.

...which is why I sometimes throw into the dugout.

[2fletch]

When I shoot, the last thing on my mind is trying to figure the physics. I don't want anything technical to get in the way. Simplicity is what draws me to trad/primitive archery.

One of the Tradgangers sent a pm thanking me for raising this question. I enjoyed the variety of opinions and feel that I learned something as well.  

[Jason R. Wesbrock]

Originally posted by Ragnarok Forge:
This is why I shoot instinctive.  I enjoy the math but I don't bother with it when shooting

I'm primarily a gap shooter and never needed a calculator to kill an animal. I never needed one when I shot instinctively or string-walked either for that matter. Come to think of it, being able to see my arrow in my peripheral vision never caused any of the animals attached to my carcass tags to be any less dead.

Funny how these things work. Either way, deer season opens up north in about two weeks. It's a good thing too. I only have about two deer and a turkey and a half left in the freezer.    

This thing about how much your arrow speed drops by 40 yards.  when I lived out east of the Mississippi River, a neighbor compound shooter bought a new crono and wondered the same thing.  He was comparing the differences between light fat aluminum arrows to skinny carbons at 35 yards. He was concerned about being able to shoot under branches. He practiced at the ranges set up his pins to match both arrows until he was confident in his accuracy. the difference was financially dramatic.  He blew up his chronograph box with the first shot, completely missing the loops. If he could not get it right with an overdraw compound and the ability to shoot four inch groups at forty yards, I think that I am better off trusting my gut in tight shooting situations.

[WRV]

I never really put much thought into it till Don brought it up last night. Then I get to thinking about it and start spraying arrows all over the place..............  

[Margly]

With my 710 grains arrows out of my 57@31 Schafer I know the drop is big   :D  
At this range I can not see the target over the arrow amymore:)

[Margly]

Originally posted by Ragnarok Forge:
This is why I shoot instinctive.  I enjoy the math but I don't bother with it when shooting

On the spot      

[snag]

You just have to adjust how you think about the shot. I shoot some 800gr Sweetland Forgewoods that definitely have a different tradgetory than the 585gr Surewood douglas fir shafts I shoot most of the time. But they both shoot and hit their target...most of the time! haha

[2fletch]

The apogee (or apex) of the arrow's flight is what most of us are concerned with. How high will the arrow rise before starting to drop to the target is critical if you have a low hanging branch between you and what you are shooting at.

Many years ago I was designated the tournament director for the year at a local club. I ask someone if they would be the range master for the season. Since they had never done that before I also ask a past rangemaster if they would walk the range with the new guy and help us pick sites for the targets and where the stakes should be for X-bows and traditional. On the very first target (which was a javalena down hill and through a thicket with a very low ceiling) he wanted to put the X-bow stake at about 35 yards and the traditional stake at about 32 yards. This was obviously obsurd but he insisted that it should be so. The apogee of any traditional bow shooting under 200fps would have been up in the limbs of the bushs. I guess that was my first serious encounter with trajectory and the law of gravity.

Randy was spraying arrows but I don't think that he was really thinking...,just an excuse.

   

[Friend]

The sure answer is that the arrow will be dropping all the way.

[WRV]

  I bow to the wise elder....or Don

[2fletch]

Friend, you're right. Are you going to the IBO? It's right there close to Madisonville. If you do, look me up. I lived in that area as a kid as my dad worked for the L&N Railroad. We moved all along the line until he ended up in Louisville. There's another Tradganger (David Mitchell) who lived for awhile in Providence.

Don't believe Randy, he has a bum foot and can't bow. "Wise elder", I believe that he's taking to much pain killer.

Gotta go finish packing for the IBO. Can't wait to apply some of my new found knowledge. Now I know why I was shooting over the targets, I was using the wrong formula.

We're winning, we're in the lead. Get up I said!  

[tecum-tha]

I suspected that...

[Friend]

2fletch - Looking forward to meeting you in person. My plan is to be there Friday and Saturday then participate in one of the more local shoots on Sunday.

[WRV]

Just a little Aleve from time to time my friend. I refer to you as the wise elder since you have way more grey on top than me!  

[longbowman]

This is fun stuff to look at.  Way back when the first cam bows came out Bear Archery came out with a bow they said was the fastest in the world.  The Bear Delta V.  The Bear Archey Co. came to our annual Broadhead shoot and set up a mini range at our 60 yd. target.  They put up a bar set on a frame 15 ft. high half way to the target and had anybody with any bow try and hit the "bales" without going over the bar.  They had the only bow that could do it at the time.  It is truly amazin how far an arrow really drops.