Increase poundage or not?
 

Hey I had my bow chronoed the other day and when I saw the reading I thought something was wrong with the chrono. So did the shop owner, so she changed the batteries and did some other stuff but still the same. Well my bow consistintly hit 232 fps. I was pretty upset cause I dont feel like shooting a bow that slow. I know that a slow arrow will kill a deer as well as a fast one but I would rather shoot a fast one. My bow( 06 Hoyt Lazertec) has an IBO of 295. Well my actual bow is adjustable from 60-50 pounds. and the draw legnth is 27-29and a half. I am currently shooting at 50 pounds and at a 27 in draw. My arrows(maximas) came out to 332 grains so I am already shooting a light arrow. Also I can handle my current poundage pretty easily. I shot about 40 arrows at that poundage with no tiredness. So I think I could easily crank it to 55. But, I just spent some money getting a sticker for my adjustable single pin sight that if I adjust my poundage at all I have to have it all redone. So here is the dilemma. Should I leave it and shoot a slow arrow?Or should I spend the extra money getting my sight thing redone and go for some more fps? I was wanting to start shooting in some 3d competitions so maybe some more fps would be good. And suggestions would be great. If I dont get anything out of the info I will just leave it and shoot my slow arrows. I know that main reason is my short draw but hey, who doesnt want to shoot a fast arrow?

RE: Increase poundage or not?
 

How much are you expecting to get? You are limited by your draw length and peak weight. That IBO speed is not that great compared to other new bows out. And that is with a bow that is 70 lbs and 30 inches of draw with a 350 grn arrow and nothing on the string. And I bet they still fudge the numbers a bit. You are no where near that, even you if you maxed your bow out. You will not come any where near 295 fps unless you shoot a very light arrow.

If you can handle the draw weight my suggestion would be to turn it up and get a heavier arrow and not worry about the speed. I wish some would never shoot a bow thru a chrono. You took a perfectly good bow that you had confidence in and shot well, shot it thru a chrono and now doubt it on hunting game. That's just too bad.

I say if you want a fast bow, buy one. There are some you could probably get close to 300 fps with your specs and light arrows.

Paul

RE: Increase poundage or not?
 

Shooting 50 pounds, at 5 grains per pound that would yield a 250 gr arrow, not enough, IMO to hunt deer with. You heavier arrows are much better suited. Paul is right on. You're not EVER gonna hit that 295 with your bow. IBO speeds are rated at a 30" draw, 60#. Your 27" draw just won't get it done, but it's better to shoot the correct draw length than not. I would say if you won't be underspined, turn it up to 55 or so, but understand you are only going to hit around 250. But that's pretty respectable. A 332 gr arrow flying 250 gives you 46# of KE. That'll kill a deer, for sure. That is right at 6 grains per pound of draw weight.

RE: Increase poundage or not?
 

I'm pulling 70lbs. and my arrows are flying at 286 fps.
Thats fast enough for a complete pass thru and good enough for me.

RE: Increase poundage or not?
 

Sounds like to me you have already made up your mind, now you just want to hear from us that you are doing the right thing.I voted to keep your weight alone, what you are shooting will do the job you want it to do,but it sounds like you won't be happy until you get more speed out of it. Therfore I say ... Krank it up!!!You aren't going to hurt anything by getting more speed out of it (except for a few deer every once and awhile).

RE: Increase poundage or not?
 

What did you think of your bow and how it shot before you clocked it?I'm betting yoou saw absolutely nothing wrong with it until you saw the numbers.You set-up is fine for deer,bear & most other critters on this continent.

RE: Increase poundage or not?
 

ilovehunting

I'm kinda in the same situation you are, i'm 16 as well and i'm pulling back 54# with only a 27 inch draw length. I have a PSE Bruin and i'm getting about 230 fps out of it. I'm very confident in my setups ability to kill a deer,but i'm limiting my shots out to 30 yards. If you want to shoot in 3d competition,then thats a different situation, but if this is just for hunting, your setup will be fine.

RE: Increase poundage or not?
 

I hadnt in any way made up my mind. Despite the way I might have typed my questions. I had sorta decided to leave it alone. I just wanted some honest opinions on what I thought you might have answers for. Also I am not in any way doubting my bows ability to kill a deer. I am in fact in love with my bow I just thought hey if I can handle it why not? It was pretty much just myself thinking.

RE: Increase poundage or not?
 

Your still well over 5 grains per pound and increasing your draw weight with the same arrow will not only increase your speed, you will increase you Kinetic Energy. You alread said you can handle the extra weight so what are you waiting for?

RE: Increase poundage or not?
 

Why not shoot heavier? Keep shootin heavier til you can't anymore...that's my opinion.

Same thing with guns...why shoot a 9mm when you can handle a 45?

It's better to have too much than not enough...if it's arrow speed, kinetic energy, or gun loads...

RE: Increase poundage or not?
 

I would go ahead and crank it up. Bows are supposed to shoot their best the closer you get to maxed out. Any re-tuning will probably be minimal.

That said, I still wouldn't worry about the speed too much. I had pass-thru kills on nearly every deer I shot in my early bowhunting days . . . and I was shooting a Darton SL50 wayback then that consistently chronographed @173 fps!

RE: Increase poundage or not?
 

Fifty pounds is more than enough to kill a deer sized animal , switch to a heavier arrow .
Why increase your risk of damage to yourself if your current set up is already competant for what you hunt ? I can't count the number of guys I've seen who have had to permanently retire from bowhunting because of shoulder damage from shooting high poundage bows , and all over some false sense of being "manly" or a useless quest for one more foot per second that won't even matter. If it ain't broke don't fix it .

RE: Increase poundage or not?
 

Is your bow quite now? When you crank it up, you are bound to get a little more noise.

Just to give you some rough numbers...I was tinkering around with my bow the other day and found a few things out. My current set up is 72# PSE Vengeance NRG Hybrid, 538 gr XX75 2315s, and about a 29" DL.With this set-up I get 238-240 fps. I went and drop the poundage down to 67# and my bow shot about 230 fps. Again I dropped it down to 62# and the arrows flew out at 220 fps. My point is, if you crank your bow up 5# you are only going to gain about 10 fps. Now each bow is different, but will 10 fps really make that big of adifference? Will it be worth it when you have to readjust your sights?

There will be nothing wrong with you cranking it up; and there is nothing wrong with that option, everything will be fine once you get it set-up. There is nothing with your bow as it is now, it will kill a deer without a problem.

I'm not going to tell you my opinion, I'm just trying to give you some idea of what you can expect and some questions to ponder. Do what ever will give you more confidence when you step into the woods, thats the best option.

RE: Increase poundage or not?
 

I've never had a bow yet that performed better maxed out than it did turned all the way the down, or at half way. You might gain a slight amount of effeciency, but as far as accuracy and noise and the such it should not matter with a bow newer than 10 years old. Some of the older compounds get be a tad noisier if the limbs were not maxed out, but they are sort of noisy to begin with so it really didn't matter.

Dissadvantages to a faster bow are it can be less forgiving, it causes more wear on your bow do to increased vibration, it could be noisier, it could have more recoil or handshock, the bow may not fit you as well anymore.

The most common thing I see with archers is being over bowed. Either too much draw weight or too long of a draw length. The slight amount of speed you will pick up will not be worth the extra challenge of shooting the bow well.

I'm not telling you not to turn your bow up. Go a head and try it and see how it feels. I can shoot 60 lbs pretty easy, but choose to shoot around 55. If I shoot a lot and work my way up to it I can target shoot with 70 if I want. I can't hunt that way though becuase it is too hard to draw in odd situations and when I have been sitting for hours in the cold. Been there done that!

Keep in mind though if you turn the bow up you may have to get a heavier spined arrow, which in most cases will mean more weight. So you may not gain anything in speed. You would pick up some momentum and KE though.

I shoot 55 lbs at 26 inches with a 400-450 grn arrow. I think I shoot around 220 fps with that set up. I do have a pretty fast bow though, my IBO rating is around 324 fps. The most I have gotten out that bow is around 280 fps. That was turned all the way up (61 lbs) and with light arrows.

And you don't need an ultra fast bow to shoot 3-D. I have seen guys shooting recurves that are better than some with fast target bows with fancy sights. Equipment does not make a good shooter. I took a trap lesson a few weeks ago and asked the instructor if I get serious about it should I get a better gun (I have an A-5 stalker now). He looked me in the eye and said, "Son, you just can't buy talent, and beleive me I have seen people try! You have one of the best shotguns made, why would you want to waste money on something else?". I think the same thing applies to archery.

That being said, turning your bow up to 60 lbs and using the same arrows should put you somewhere around 260 fps or so if I did the math right. At 232 fps your arrow would drop 19 inches from 20 to 30 yards, at 262 fps it would drop 14 inches from 20 to 30 yards. That is still slow enough that you would have to be guessing yardarge pretty close to make a good shot. You may not even notice that big of a change in your pin gap on your sights.

All I can say is try it and see how it works, but another thing to consider is the less you mess with our set up the better you will shoot. I can tell you that from experience. I am the type that is always tinkering with something and changing my set up. It IS NOT conducive to good shooting. I shoot much better if I leave my bow alone and concentrate on shooting rather than my equipment.

Paul

RE: Increase poundage or not?
 

Well I decided to just leave it. At this point I live pretty far away from my archery shop so I dont feel like taking another trip. Also I wont have much time for doing that in the future so it doesnt really pay. Maybe next year.