ORIGINAL: Straightarrow
I may be old, crusty and set (I know Arthur is
), but that isn't a disadvantage. You'll find out as you age, you don't get stupider. Experince is actually an advantage that the young haven't... well... experienced.
Let's talk about speed. Of course it's an advantage if everything else is equal. The problem is, increasing speed, doesn't leave everything else equal. If you get it by increasing draw weight or draw length, dynamic spine is changed and your "tuned arrow" is no longer tuned to shoot it's best out of that setup. The arrow now flys unpredictably in some situations. Increasing draw weight or draw length, by itself, can make shooting more difficult.
If you increase it by decreasing arrow weight, that's fine, unless you change the spine. If the spine is weaker, you now have to reduce the draw weight, which slows down your arrow. If you don't reduce your draw weight, your tuned setup will no longer be optimally tuned - arrow doesn't fly as well.
If you increase arrow speed by reducing tip weight, you automatically increase dynamic spine of your arrow - and you decrease FOC. In my opinion a high FOC is the absolute most critical aspect of a good hunting arrow. Once again, these changes are not a good thing.
No matter what area we adjust in our attempt to increase arrow speed in a significant way, we have to mess with another important aspect of a good hunting setup. This is why you should design an arrow for two things. First, choose a weight that will give enough penetration for the size game you're after. Second, build that weight arrow for the most accuracy with a broadhead on it, and accept speed for what it is. This will give "average Joe" the best chance of killing his quarry.
Myself, in addition to whitetails, I hunt elk almost every year and do not want to have two different sets of hunting arrows, so I design my hunting arrows around 550 grains, which is the minimum I want to be shooting a large elk with. I put a broadhead on that gives me at least a 15% FOC and large helical feathers on the back. These cut through a stiff breeze and small twigs better much better than the dozens of lighter, lower FOC arrows I've tried in the past. I learned a long time ago that I take home more game if I'm shooting a super stable, accurate arrow vs. one that is high speed, but not as stable in wind or other less-than-ideal situations.
Over the years, I've watched hundreds of young people get into bowhunting, and invariably the ones that have the most success are the ones who concentrate on accuracy and do what they can to their setups to accomplish that. In fact, one of the very biggest boosts to success that I've witnessed, have been to those who have greatly reduced draw weight. I've seen guys go from 70 lb bows to 55 lbs and like magic start hitting what they're aiming at. Trust me, their speed went way down, and their accuracy way up, and they took home more game.