I am somewhat of a self taught bowhunter. I never have had resources or people with the knowledge to teach me some in and outs of bowhunting.I have been bowhunting for about 9 or 10 years.I have just recently got into these forums and i have been able to put a name to some of the things i have been doing as far as tuning and shooting. But i never heard or thought of this FOC. I have tried to read up on it but it mostly gives me information on how to find your FOC. What i dont know is what is the point of knowing that or setting your arrows up to a certain %?Whats the advantages/disadvantages of having a high FOC % andwhat are the advantages/disadvantages of a lower FOC%? What if your arrow is perfectly balanced? Is that possible?Any information on this would be greatly appreciated.
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One Shot, One Kill.......Semper Fidelis!
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To put it as simply as possible.....An arrow will ALWAYS fly heavy end forward. If the nock end were heavier than the tip, it would turn tails and fly nock forward. Guaranteed. So the closer your balance point is tho the dead center of the arrow, the harder the fletching has to work at keeping it straight.
Move that balance point closer to the nock, and your arrow is MUCH more stable.
In other words, have more weight toward the front than the back.
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FOC (Front of Center) essentially is a measure of how much "leverage" your vanes will have to steer the arrow. If you think of a fulcrum (teeter totter), the longer the "lever" the more leverage. Your arrow works the same way. The point at which your arrow balances is the fulcrum of the lever. If you have high FOC (say 20%), that means that the center of balance is moved toward the point of the arrow. Therefore the vanes are on the end of a very long lever arm. That means that the vanes will have more "leverage" to steer the arrow.
On the other hand, if you have a low FOC % (say 6%), that means that the center of balance is further away from the tip of the arrow, relatively speaking. So in this case the vanes are on the end of a "shorter" lever arm. So your vanes will not have as much "leverage" to steer the arrow.
Yeah, I had it right the first time. I originally stated to have the balance point closer to the tip, and I know more weight has to be forward....I confused myself into thinking the way to get that was to have the balance point toward the rear...Which is completely backwards....
The closer the balance point is to the tip, the more weight you have toward the front of the arrow, which is what you're after....
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thats great that helps a lot. So the goal is to get as much weight to the front as possible, is there a limit? Can you go too far?
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I believe the goal for a hunting set up is 11-14%, is that right fellas?
I've heard everything from 8-15%. Some guys on Archertalk swear by 20-25%. I don't really know.
Most of the time, if you choose an arrow that is the proper length and spine for your bow, and choose a tip that maintains proper dynamic spine, the FOC will take care of itself. You can get into trouble when you start shooting 75 grain broadheads on a heavy arrow, or a 150-200 grain broadhead on a light arrow. If you avoid extremes, it usually works out OK in terms of FOC.
Thank you guys that helps out a lot. I guess i just got lucky all this time not paying attention to it. I have been shooting a 29" carbon (dont know the weight, they are from back when they were first coming out) with an 85 grain tip and i had great groups. But i guess i will have to play around with this new information and see where it takes me. Thanks a lot guys.
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One Shot, One Kill.......Semper Fidelis!
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Not necessarily lucky, it's more common to have an adequate FOC than not. To not have one you would need to shoot a very light tip/broadhead and have a pile of weight toward the nock end of your arrow, heavy nocks, inserts, fletch, wraps etc...With most people shooting 100 grain heads, or slightly lighter we usually don't have a fear of a light FOC.
Big Question About Front Of Center (FOC)
