19 May 2007
Arrow Energy to take down a Whitetail
Posted by Darrell under: Whitetail Deer .
A few days ago I was in an archery shop and was able to shoot my bow to find out what my arrow speed is. I was dissapointed to find out my arrow speed was only 257 fps. Advertised speed was 310. I soon learned that advertised speed and actual speeds are greatly different. Advertised speed happens only when you are using a given bow at maximum draw length and maximum draw weight, while using arrows that do not exceed 5 grams of weight per pound of draw.
This is generally unrealistic in the real world, unless you have long arms, are a hoss, and have custom made arrows. The guy running the archery shop informed me that my bow was probably about average for a good bow shooting my particular arrows. BTW, my arrows are 250g Redhead Supremes and weigh about 38x grams, which is sufficient for my 70# 29.5″ draw.
What all this means, though, is that my arrow energy is 50-55lbs, more than adequate to take down a big whitetail - if hit well. Most experts claim that 40-45lbs is enough. After all - shot placement is the really important factor here. Lots of energy in a rear leg isn’t going to make much difference compared to a lot less energy directly in the heart.
What I basically learned is that I should leave worrying about arrow speed and energy to the engineers and focus my energy on being accurate with what I’m shooting!
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