What do you put more importance in raw speed or higher brace and a deflex riser vs a highly reflexed one? Looking at the specs between a Hoyt Protect ( which in theory should be easiest to shoot well because of its 8"+ brace and Deflex riser) and the VTec. This would be my one and only bow bow to hunt with and play around only at 3D.
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Right now I am playing with the best of both worlds. I am shooting the Pride by Pearson which is fast and forgiving with an almost 8" brace height and only 32 1/4 ata. My actuall preference is forgiveness over speed. 250 fps is plenty of speed for me to do what I want and with a longer brace height I get plenty of forgiveness. I don't need the speed up around 300fps, maybe if I was competitive in 3d all the time but I am not. I can easily get close to that with the Pride but opt not to so I shoot a lesser poundage and maintain decent speed and keep my accuracy level higher that way.
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My actuall preference is forgiveness over speed. 250 fps is plenty of speed for me to do what I want and with a longer brace height I get plenty of forgiveness. I don't need the speed up around 300fps, maybe if I was competitive in 3d all the time but I am not.
Interesting. I guess another question should be at 40 yds how much flatter would an arrow doing 260fps impact compared to one that starts around 290 fps. I can't see myself taking a shot past 40 at game anyway. If its a couple inches no big deal, if its a foot then thats a totally different thing.
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I prefer to get a forgiving bow. You can always make the bow faster, by changing arrows, eliminating everything off the string, etc etc, but you cant really make a bow more forgiving than what it was built to be.
Also realize that the bows with 3" of reflex and 33" ata are completely different animals than those of just a few years ago. Pararrel limbs have radically changed things. You can make a bow with 3.5" of reflex, 33" ata, and still have a 22" riser. The nature of the limbs angle also increases the brace height well beyond what was possible with 3" of reflex, and standard, more upright limbs.
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I think its possible to get a happy medium. I'm shooting a Bowtech Tomkat for 3D comps and with a 350grain arrow @ 65# (29" DL) I'm getting 281fps. At 70# it goes up to 294fps which generates a KE of 67. I wouldnt consider hunting with this however and therefore the Knight is set up at 70# (29" DL) with a 450 grain arrow shooting at 285fps. Ke is around 80. At the end of the day its all about what works for you.
A forgiving bow is more important to me than speed. I use the same bow for both hunting and 3-D. After all, that's the purpose of a 3-D shoot: to sharpen my skills on range estimation and shooting abilities. My bow is a Pro Tec with LX Pro limbs set at 68# with a 33 7/8" 2514 Super Slam. My arrow weight is over 600 grains with an initial speed of 258 fps. This is more than enough KE for a quick and accurate kill and also very forgiving for both hunting and 3-D.
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I think the bows of today, with 3" reflex and parallel limbs are exactly the same beasts of several years ago, except they've got more reasonable brace heights. The grip is still between the cams and the pivot points of the limbs, so the hand is still in a perfect position, with lots of mechanical advantage, to cause torque.
Most of the serious 3D'ing Hoyt shooters in my neck of the woods - the ones doing the IBO, ASA and Deerman tournament circuits - are choosing the ProTec over the Xtec. My ProTec is the LXPro model with Accuwheels, 46" axle to axle. It does exactly what I want. Very nice finger shooter's bow. The ProTecs the other guys are using - with Cam 1/2 and the short limbs - are short rocket launchers! I don't know their speeds - but shooting ASA they were probably 280ish.
One guy took his ProTec, lined up his top axle with the top axle in my bow, and his bottom axle was just about even with the bottom end of my riser. I also noticed Hoyt is putting nicer grips on the ProTec today than they did when I got mine.[>:]
I don't think they are "mutually exclusive" . You can have both in one bow . I also think brace height is overrated as far as forgiveness goes . the reflex / deflex thing is probably more critical . The statement I made about brace height is related to the fact that Ive had bows with around 6"s of brace that were accurate/forgiving , and bows with 8"s that were not .
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I'm shooting 240 fps at 60 lbs with 6.8 gpp and I am relatively happy. sure I'd love a few more fps, but compared to my xi leg mag set at 70, and only getting 235 (years ago), I cannot complain. I'd like to have a bow that would have a higher draw weight, but maybe in the near future
Speed or Forgiveness?
