From all the I hit them and can not find them threads, I am going to say option 2. You're assuming everyone can shoot
It's a matter of inchessometimes on penatration

Average whitetail is shot at 17 yds, which is why I play the KE game. Fran when I go elk hunting, I may go lighter. Right now I am above 550 grains. For Elk I may fo 425-450 because of distance.

lets not for get silence. the bow must be quiet while spitting arrows at those speeds if its not then its not worth a da**. thats why I bought a mathews switchback orriginally. it was supper quiet in the shop shooting lane and it still had some giddy up to it.
I get 250 out of the hunting set up. its plenty for me.

See Gary - I think most of the bad hits (nonrecoveries) aren't a factor of KE lacking. Just bad shooting - and occasionally misjudging the yardage.

Switch shooter that is the big one IMO and most over looked.

Quick put a 550+ grain arrow on the HCA and then one of your speed rockets. All I can say is in 24 years of bowhunting I have never had a deer "jump" my string. I bet I shoot a slower setup than most here.

Really not all that much difference, Gary. I put an STS on it - bowjax on both limbs - and bowjax on the cables - and she's pretty quiet. All you can hear is the string slapping the STS bumper.

I agree though - it's a personal preference. And I can see both sides of the fence. But honestly, I think the perceived "need" for insane KE is overstated by most on this board.

I'd take a better trajectory 10 times out of 10 - as long as I'm hunting whities.

Quick, I bet its a bit or all the above, bad shooting, lack of KE and a few of a out of tune bows. If the arrow can't fly strait because its not in tune then there is no way its going to be able the penatrate either. Personaly your set up is way light for my taste, but to each their own. I would be willing to bet though my 500 grain arrowgoing 275 f/s, could out penatrate your 290 grain arrow going 350 f/s. In a friendly type of competition of course.

IEI - your setupmay or may not out-penetrate my bow (you have me by 4# KE). But does it really matter? We're both probably way overbowed for whitetails anyway. So it's a zero-sum game. For what it's worth, You might be surprised by the results of our "friendly game." I know I was. I had NO intent on hunting with this setup when I started experimenting with it. But I had enough confidence in it to lug it out there and my first shot at a deer was at 37 yards.

Honestly, it doesn't take much to punch through a ribcage. Hell, I shot 2 pretty nice bucks this year - passed through both.

Just like KE can be a crutch for bad shooting - speed can be a crutch for misjudged yardage.

I'll drink to that, (coke a cola of course).But it still would be fun to do a test, maybe we could figure out a way for a bunch of us to test our equipment to see howit penatrates.Then we could postthe results along with arrow type,weight and speed . That would beawealth of valuable info if all involved had the same medium/target to test the equipment on.

Fran wait to you crutch one in the shoulder and I have with my setups. He looks good on the wall

To be totally honest, Gary - I think I may have blew through shoulder blade on Buck #2 this year. He was quartering-toward a little, and I hit a little forward and high entry. I never skinned him to see, but if I didn't hit the shoulderblade, I was close.

Smashed something pretty hard, b/c I heard it hit hard and the arrow was barely sticking in the ground.

The first deer was clean rib punchthrough - and it was buried 4" deep in the mud, far side.