ORIGINAL: Arthur P

Well, I know everyone's been expecting me to post up on this'n and I hate to disappoint, so...[8D]

Everyone seems to finally concede that heavier arrows penetrate better in all situations, so the debate is how far in the mud do you want to bury the arrow after it passes through, right? I agree that light arrows will generally do the job on thin skinned, medium size game like deer. Generally. But stuff happens. A little extra weight in the arrow could mean the difference between a short blood trail and a long one. I'd rather bury the arrow a little deeper in the mud on a solid passthru than be in a situation where I need the extra penetration and not have it.

Next, I hate it when I hear someone say they want to shoot light and fast so the arrow will go exactly where they want it. Since a heavy arrow will shoot exactly where it's aimed as well, I can only assume what they mean is they expect the speed and trajectory to bail their arses out when they screw up their yardage estimation. Stinkin' thinkin'!

If you can't judge yardage, buy a flippin' rangefinder AND USE IT!

With whitetail deer being taken at somewhere around 18 yards, on the national average, speed and flat trajectory is a bunch of baloney. There is no trajectory advantage that close. Time of flight between a 300 fps arrow and a 250 fps arrow at 18 yards is something like two one-hundredths of a second. Less than a blink of the eyes. The deer isn't going to move more than an inch further trying to dodge the slow arrow vs the fast one.

And if the heavier arrow is quieter, Mr Antlers might not hear it in time to dodge at all.

If you want speed to flatten out the trajectory for taking pot shots at 40-50 yards and beyond, again, that's stinkin' thinkin'. First, you are admitting to the world that you're so crappy a hunter you can't get within solid bow range of the animal and you'd be better off with a nice little carbine instead of a bow. Besides that, that light, fast arrow will bleed off MUCH more of it's energy than the heavier one will over that much distance.

Just to make some rough comparisons, I ran a few arrows through the ballistics program at www.bowjackson.com I adjusted them all to 70 ft lbs of energy at the bow but, in reality, the heavier arrows will actually have more than that:

350 gn arrow
0 yards 350 fps 70 ft lbs
50 yards 275 fps 59 ft lbs

400 gn arrow
0 yards 280 fps 70 ft lbs
50 yards 260 fps 60 ft lbs

500 gn arrow
0 yards 252 fps 70 ft lbs
50 yards 238 fps 63 ft lbs

800 gn arrow (just to be silly [8D])
0 yards 199 fps 70 ft lbs
50 yards 193 fps 66 ft lbs

The 350 gn arrow loses 75 fps and 11 ft lbs of energy over 50 yards. The 800 gn arrow loses only 6 fps and 4 ft lbs over the same 50 yards.

Now, why do the heavier arrows retain more speed and energy downrange than the light ones? Because light arrows can't even penetrate AIR better than heavy ones. Why? Because air resistance increases the faster the projectile goes. Ever stuck your hand out the car window at 70 mph and noticed how much harder it is to hold it against the wind than it is when you're driving 30 mph? Faster speed, greater resistance. Duh!

It takes more of the light arrow's energy to overcome resistance. It's also going to need significantly more energy to penetrate as well as the heavier, slower arrow when it gets to the animal. (Flesh gives a lot more resistance than air, ya know.)

I'm not about to tell anyone what arrows to use, as long as they have some clue about how arrows and penetration works. Some people like skating on the thin edge, some like the odds stacked more in their favor. Always been that way, always will be. I'm pretty darn conservative and like to maximize my penetration potential because I've run into far too many situations in the woods where Murphy did his level best to kick my butt.

Heavier arrows are not any kind of disadvantage to me. I can judge yardage, and I'm good enough of a hunter to get close enough so that trajectory is a non-issue anyway (30 yards and less). And the challenge of getting close is why I choose to hunt with a bow instead of a rifle. To top it off, I've almost exclusively chosen to use a recurve or longbow over the years instead of a compound. And I shoot barebow (not 'instinctive.' There's a difference), so I'm visualizing the trajectory in my mind while I'm aiming.

I use trajectory as an aiming device and, besides that, there are few things in hunting I think are as beautiful as the flight of an arrow. I pity those poor sods who shoot arrows so light and so fast they can't see their arrows, because I think they are truly missing out on something special.

Anyway, to get back to the point... Bottom line is, if you're going to shoot light arrows, you darn sure BETTER be putting out a butt load of energy, 'cuz you're gonna need it. If you're using a bow that's not putting out that much energy, then you're doing yourself and the animals you hunt a huge favor by going up in arrow weight.