ORIGINAL: buckeyebuckhntr
Someone argue with this..... Shot from the SAME BOW, nothing hypothetical here. Real world numbers.......
350 Grains at 300FPS yields 69.87 ft lb KE
500 Grains at 254 FPS yields 71.55 ft lb KE
At 350 grains and 300 FPS your arrows trajectorydrops 22.92 inches from 20 to 50 yards and loses 4.15 ft lb of KE from 0 to 50 yards.
At 500 grains and 254 FPS your arrows trajectory drops 34.34 inches from 20 to 50 yards and loses 3 ft lb of KE from 0 to 50 yards.
SO, in essence you flatten your trajectory 11 1/2 inches while only sacrificing less than 2 ft lb of KE with the lighter faster arrow setup.
While I do not hunt at 350 grains, I am just proving a point here.
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I am not going to argue light verses heavy,been there and done that in the past and many here know I am not of coventional wisdom on the whole thing.
There is one major flaw in your trajectory numbers.If we both have a 40 yard pin,then the TOTAL drop is completely irrelevant.Now,the only difference that matters is the miss difference between the 2 arrows.
I checked with my Archers Advantage program and the miss difference is very minimal.
This is out of the same bow at same poundage.I chose the kill zone on a large Mckenzie buck.This represents what yardage you can shoot and still hit the kill zone.(of course,this is assuming a perfect shot)
527 gr arrow @ 261 fps.
40 yards 34.7- 44.1 yards
43 yards 38.3- 46.8 yards
421 gr arrow @ 286 fps
40 yards 33.7- 44.6 yards
43 yards 37.4- 47.4 yards
If you do the math there is very little miss difference between the two.
heavy arrow difference between 40 and 43 yards
shortside long side
38.3-34.7=3.6 yards 46.8-44.1= 2.7 yards
light arrow
short sidelong side
37.4-33.7= 3.7 yards 47.4-44.6= 2.8 yards
If you follow along closely,you only gain .1 yard on a 3 yard,yardage miss at the long side and short side of the miss difference.
At 40 yards,most will have apin set.Most will be within 5 yards of the yardageand most will have a rangefinder for that long of a shot. IMO To still make a good shot with either,the heavy or light arrow you still need to be within 3 yards of the actuall distance.This allows for shooter error along withyardage error.
Again,as you can see,the fast arrow gave you a whopping .1 gain on a 3 yard misjudgement.
Now I hope this isn't to confusing to follow but this is the way it is,these are facts and I personally have proven it to myself many times over.Everytinme I set up a sight tape or set pin gap with the program,it proves itself all over again.It is always right,unless I make an error.
Greg
1 more thing,some of us are little whimps and cranking another 5 or 3 pounds out of our bows isn't advisable.That part of tweaking will do more harm than good.
The most important part of any setup is that it fits the hunter,the 2nd thing is that it is tuned well.3rd is to have a broadhead that matches the other 2.The rest will take care of itself if those3 things are met.[8D]