ORIGINAL: AllenRead
davepjr71,
Your last post leads me to believe that you haven't read Dr Ashby's work.
Check this link and be ready for some really techincal reading:
http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forum;f=24
You can also read a shorter synopsis in the most recent Traditional Bowhunter magazine.
Dr Ashby has quantified it, at least for Asian Buffalo. He selected this species because it is on of the tougher animals to kill in the world and large numbers of them are culled in his area. His research is based on many years and hundreds of archery kills on these buffalo.
Many of us may be overreacting to the data collected on buffalo and assuming that it applies to whitetail deer. However, I look at it that if a certain setup with heavy arrows will penetrate the ribs on one side of one of those critters, it will definitely take out any deer around here.
I want the margin of lethality that a heavy arrow provides. Obviously almost any arrow will take a whitetail with sufficient KE and good arrow placement. Unfortunately, I have a very short draw length and the fastest my arrows will be is about 260 fps even with 5 grains per pound arrows. If 12 to 14 grain per pound arrows can give me better lethality, I'm going to use them.
Interesting read. However, I'd like to see the same test done with modern equipment thatdoes not have a top velocity of about 130 fps.
This falls back to taking a good hot and practicing and even about my statement that someone reads one article and it's the gospil.
Even if an arrow does not pass thru game if it hits it in the boiler it's just as dead. IfI was going to hunt game larger than deer than I may rethink. But not for deer.
P.S. I read more technical data on a daily basis.