Quite frankly, my opinion of this light arrow, high speed thing is that it was founded in the late 80's/early 90's by people doing their damnedest to justify being cheapskates and hunting with their 3D rigs instead of getting real hunting equipment. (Of course, they are also the ones that ruined 3D by bringing target bows into the game instead of competing with hunting bows, but that's another topic.) Just expressing my opinion based on personal observation. Flame on, if you must.

The thing that worries me about this speed/kinetic energy focus is that a lot of new people can look at the numbers you guys are posting, like 280 fps and 70 fpe, and think they can't hunt with their bows because they can't get anywhere near those numbers with their setups.

Does high speed and a heavy reliance on KE work? Of course it does. But it's only ONE way of skinning this cat. Just like shooting an 800 grain arrow at 150 fps out of a selfbow and relying heavily on momentum. It too is only one way. Both are getting into the realm of expert archers, and neither are even close to the best way for most people. High speed rigs are not the easiest things in the world to shoot accurately, no matter how easy they may seem to YOU. They put demands on shooting form and tuning skills that most people cannot meet. The selfbow makes high demands on the shooter's hunting skills, being able to get very close to the animal and being able to shoot without all the stuff everyone thinks is indespensible nowadays... like sights, release, rangefinder, blah, blah, blah.

In my not-so-humble opinion, everyone between the two extremes would all be better served by moderate performance bows designed with more of an emphasis on forgiveness instead speed, shooting around 7-8 grains per pound with fixed blade broadheads around 220-250 fps. That's all you really need. For traditonal gear, I don't like to see hunting arrows weigh less than 9 grains per pound (and I'm sure to catch heck from some of them, too).




Edited by - Arthur P on 08/18/2002 07:22:07