Last season a guy I know who is an experienced hunter but new to bow hunting just like me - and one of the very few people I allow to hunt my farm because I know he'll only take a broadside or quartering away shot - had a deer move on him at the last minute and wound up hitting the deer in the shoulder blade at around 35 yards or so and lost the deer. One of the local bow whisperers where he lives told us we should try to shoot the heaviest arrow possible within the limits of our equipment which might allow us to salvage a clean kill if everything went wrong at the last minute. And reading on the various forums last year it seamed the general consensus was that heavier is better, as long as you're still keeping up the speed.

So I ran some numbers based on a new bow purchase for next season, which will likely be a Bear Agenda, PSE DNA, an Obsession Evo, or something similar. Something hitting close to 350 IBO. Using one of the lightest arrows and one of the heaviest arrows from CE I show a 65/29/350 bow throwing the Mutiny Slasher @ 359gr at 321fp and 82 ft-lbs. The same bow shoots the Piledriver Hunter @ 535gr at 269fps and 86 ft-lbs.

I don't remember much from my physics classes in college so many years ago, but it seems a 4 ft-lb difference isn't much energy gained for the longer time in flight. In the real world, does it make a lot more difference than it seems to? Or am I not fully appreciating what 4 ft lbs really amounts to? Would the difference be worth the considerable speed loss?