Tazman, I wish I had seen that show. It's sounds like a good one.

Certainly some bows are quieter than others and some faster than others. But they all have the potential to spook a game animal such that the animal will attempt to jump the string in many situations.

Dick_cress, I also shoot an FX and have had lots of remarks about how quiet it is. However, I have still had a couple deer attempt to jump. Fortunately I was close enough that they didn't have time to react severely.

The fast bows of today result in less opportunity for string jumping. Yes, sound travels at about 1100 fps, which is about 4X faster than arrows from today's typical compound. But there is certainly reaction time to consider. Take it to an extreme for demonstration purposes - suppose the deer is just 1 yard away. No matter how fast it can react, it's movement will be negligible by the time the arrow reaches it (whether it hears the sound or sees the movement).

Now, somewhere there is a grey zone where the deer will be able to react fast enough. Each shooter must determine what range that is and keep to shots that provide for maximum potential success.

As with many threads on topics similar to this, there are numerous opinions, and most of them are right. It's just that there seems to be numerous 'subtopics' in which people are supporting their own views. This is good!<img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle>