I am shooting pretty accurate but one thing i cant stand is that my bow isnt the flattest shooting bow in the world. My bow is maxed out weight wise but obviously cant increase length. Between 15-20 yards my arrow drops about 4-5", and 20-25 yards about the same. I know its something i have to deal with, but is there any way to flatten my shot at all? One guy said his bow is only dropping an inch from 20-40 yards. Man i wish mine would do that. Thanks for any help. My setup by the way is a PSE Firestorm, set at 60# and 27". Im shooting Beman Max 4 (400's) arrows with 100gr tips (Slick Tricks)

Lighter arrow, lighter points.

Or, a new bow.

Pretty tough to do when you are about at your max for speed, which is what makes for flat shooting. To increase speed you can lighten your arrrows way up, but for a hunting setup you are sacrificing KE which is something that I would highly advise against. If you are shooting accurately with your current setup, I wouldn't be too concerned with the trajectory. Speed is what you need to change trajectory, and I think with your current bow you aren't going to be able to achieve what others can with the same stats.

The only thing I can think of is that might help a little is shooting lighter arrows. Those beamans are a relatively heavy arrow. Carbon Express maxima 250s are really light and may help some, but they are costly.

Yep a lighter arrow is about your only option. However, be advised alot of the folks on here won't agree with going to a lighter arrow because they believe you need about 754 ft/lbs of KE to kill a deer. [8D]

If your homeboy is telling you that his arrow is only dropping one inch between 20 and 40 yards - he's a flat-out liar. It's not possible with current archery equipment.

See, the thing about speed is - you can only get so much, and you will always be handicapped by your draw length and draw weight capabilities. If you want to take the "arch" out of your trajectory, you have to start cheating for speed. You can't just decide that you're going to draw 115# or stretch out your draw length to 32.5".

Here'sthe game I'm playing. At 29", 70# - I'm getting right around 350 fps. The thing is, I'm using a speed bow with a 285 grain arrow witha super-stiff shaft. (Most guys hunt at over 400 grains). In other words, I'm using a bow that's naturally built for speed, and I'm cheating on arrow weight. One thing worth noting is that there is only one bow on the market right now that will even warranty the bow while shooting with this kind of configuration (High Country). It's not conventional by any stretch of the imagination, but it works. It started as an experiment, but I'm so confident in it that I'm hunting with these arrows.

With conventional arrows, as you go down in arrow weight, you'll lose spine stiffness - and get a wet noodle effect. That's bad. You get too weak an arrow, and you just won't be able to shoot it very well. It happens. If you go light, you have tostay stiff. That's the problem. Nobody really offers a light, stiff arrow. (Except the HCA arrows, but they'll void your warranty).

As Goherd1111 noted, the Huntingnet "Big Arrow"Ethics Policeare always working the beat, and they'll be sure to give you a fun lecture on how you're hunting with some kind of inhumane setup by bumping down your arrow weight.

Note: The best speed I've ever clocked out of my bow was a 369, and even then, my 20 yard pin would be close to10" low at 40 yards. For hunting, I'm cheating a little bit - I have my 20 yard pin sighted in about 1" hot, and I'm pretty good to 35 yards if I just hold the pin a couple inches high. At 350 fps, I hit about 1" hot at 20, and about 3-4" low at 35. Those are legitimate numbers.

I love hearing people say "I'm one pin to 40 yards." Yeah, and I'm Santa Claus.

To get the real quick & dirty on your arrow's trajectory (what it is, and what you want it to be) - use this link. Very, very useful.
http://www.lmariana.com/traj.htm

Crank up the poundage and it will fly faster which equates to flatter trajectory.

One thing I can see that would help you out - easily... Check out the Gold Tip Ultralight 400. 7.4 gpi, which is a good bit lighter than your Bemans at 10.4 gpi, and it's still spined stiff enough for your draw weight/length. Cash money.

On a 28" arrow, that cuts your shaft weight down from 291.2 to 207.2.

The rule of thumb is five grains per pound of draw weight. So, 60# x 5 = 300 grains. That's where you'll wanna be, if you want the most speed possible out of your bow. So, at 60#,you'll want to be as close to 300 grains as you can get.

A Gold Tip Ultralight 400 with a 100 grain head would put you right around 300 grains.

Your bow will be a little louder, so you might want to plug an STS unit on there to take the twang out of the string. I'd say with a newSTS on there, and a bump down to near 300 grains, you'll be looking at a faster, quieter setup than what you started with.

Just my .02

I agree with the last two posters on one thing. Whoever is only getting 1" drop between 20 and 40 yards has no idea of what he is talking about. The bow hasn't been made that can do that. Look at Quicksilver's setup. Nearly 80 fps faster than what's probably average and still getting 10" drop. At least he's honest about it.

As for your bow? There is something seriously flawed here. Not even the slowest bow has 4-5" of drop between 15 & 20 yards. Even with a heavy arrow with your setip there should probably be only about 1 1/2" difference at these distances. Maybe 2" from 20 to 25 yards. This would be fairly normal for a bow shooting 230 fps or so, slow by today's standards.

There are ways to get more speed, but you have to willing to spend a few dollars and the time to play around and find what works. It also helps to have your own chronograph or access to one.

Look, I shoot a 27" draw and used to shoot 60# so I know what can be had. You have to buy and set up arrows for a minimum of 5 gr/lb (sorry Quicksilver) because your limb design isn't going to hold up if you go lighter. Trust me on this one. I've replaced a lot of this style of limb on PSE's.

Next, what all is on the string. Heck, just for starters get rid of the factory strings and get a good set of aftermarket ones (Gibblet comes to mind). Order them BCY 8215. This may gain you as much as 10 fps right there. Not guaranteed, but it doesn't matter. You'll have good strings.

OK, back to what's on the string. Brass nock sets? Each ones slows the bow down 4 fps. If you have a peep and kisser get rid of one of them. You don't need both. If you keep the peep then use one without a rubber tube aligner. These two combined can give you another 10 fps.

What kind of string silencers? Some rob you of less speed than others. Try the Simms Super Leeches. Then try to keep them as close to the cam as possible while balancing out speed and quiet. If you err go for more quiet. This is a hunting rig.

If all else fails and you feel a real need for speed then next time don't buy a bow based on price or shortness of A2A. Look for bows with the highest IBO rating right off the shelf.

Giving you an idea of what's possible, I have set up a few Martin bows with Nitrous cams. All were set at a measured 27" AMO draw and 53#. All shooting at 5 gr/lb. Here's some results:

2004 Martin SlayR---299 fps
2005 ShadowCat SE (9 3/8" brace)---272 fps
2007 Pantera (7" brace)---287 fps.

These were all set as 3D rigs. They typically drop about 12 fps when I have them set in hunting trim with a slightly heavier arrow. And all produce enough of that often over rated KE for deer sized game.

What was neat about the SlayR in particular was that I could sight it in for 25 yards and only have a vertical spread of 2 1/2" between 20 and 30 yards.

How did I know you'd be contributing to this thread, Fran?

Some good stuff there...