Maximum KE out of short draw length??
 

Unfortunately I am stuck with " gator arms" that don' t allow me to pull a 30" draw. My draw length is 26" and seeing how I can' t do much about that I was wondering what I could do to maximize my KE with the short draw.

I pull 63lbs very comfortably. I am still young and strong enough to pull probably what my limbs could be maxed out to but I feel very smooth and my bow is quiet as is so I didn' t see the need to crank it up.

I shoot just under 250fps with ICS carbon arrows but I am not sure EXACTLY what they weigh.

Are my only choices to shoot as fast and as much poundage as I can handle or am I better off shooting slower with a heavier arrow??


I have only arrowed one deer my whole life.........last year was my first season. The arrow was tipped with a 75 grain WASP JAKHAMMER SST mechanical that entered behind the left shoulder from 25 feet above and was stopped by the hide on the opposite side of the chest. The deer ran off with the arrow sticking out of his shoulder and must have pulled it out himself because I found it about 30 yards away......then I found him about 70 yards later. The blood trail was not great. I did find spots of pink frothy blood but they were all no bigger then a dime and some just drips which I found by crawling on my hands and knees. It was a rainy day so that made it harder but I stuck to good tracking technique and marked the trail well and we found him. When I removed his hide to get him ready for processing I saw the wound in the opposite chest wall stopped just by the hide. Field dressing showed a hole through the center of the left lung......right through the heart.......and out the tip of the right lung......Seemingly a PERFECT shot and yet I had to get on hands and knees to follow the blood trail. i want PASS--THROUGHS and LARGE blood trails. I would hate to lose an animal on a great shot because my arrow didn' t penetrate enough.

Would I be better off with a cut on contact broadhead also?? I have a friend that claims he has pass--throughs on 23 out of 24 deer taken with his bow and he shoots 27" draw and steelforce heads.

Should I change my bow setup.......broadheads......arrows or all or none of the above????


Thanks

RE: Maximum KE out of short draw length??
 

Welcome to bowhunting atlas! Blood trails will not always be a yellow brick road you have to get down and dirty to get the job done. It sound like you did that Congratulations on the deer. I also have a short draw and have to play games to get speed & KE. I have a 37" Parker that I asked the dealer to find one with some stiff limbs so I actually get about 73lbs draw weight out of it. Then I went with a 65% module instead of anything higher to gran a few FPS. Throw on a Fast flight string like a Zebra and grab a few more FPS ( only fall back Zebras stretch like hell). I finish it off by shooting feathers instead of vanes. My current set up gives me 255 FPS with a 430-435 grain arrow. With short draw length I' m also able to cheat and shoot a slightly under spined arrow 2213 Easton. 90 grain Wasp SST broadheads. I recently shot a Gold Tip 5575 with a 70 grain tip and 4" feathers at 272-274 FPS. With this set up (the heavier arrow) I have taken an elk and had four or five pass throughs on Deer. Hope this helps.

RE: Maximum KE out of short draw length??
 

Changing to a cut on contact head should improve your penetration and get you a pass through, barring any major bone contact. If you like the mechanical heads switch to one with a smaller cutting diameter, i beleive the jack hammer has a two inch cutting diameter, takes a lot of force to push that all the way through a deer, no matter how sharp it is.

RE: Maximum KE out of short draw length??
 

The 75 grain head has a 1 1/8" cutting diameter.......I chose the smallest one I could find because I know I don' t shoot screaming missles.

So is it better to shoot a heavier arrow or a faster lighter one??

RE: Maximum KE out of short draw length??
 

The impulse that is available for penetrating a deer - the force times time - is equal to the momentum of the arrow. Doubling the weight of the arrow will lead to about a 50% increase in momentum, about a 10% increase in energy, and on most hits, about a 50% increase in penetration.

But you' d pay with a big decrease in speed. Say a decrease from 300 fps to 225 fps, if you were starting at 300.

RE: Maximum KE out of short draw length??
 

Even if you went to something like a 2115, you would likely increase arrow weight by 25% or so, but wouldn' t really gain much in the way of energy - certainly not near enough to offset the speed loss you' d get. I assume you' d rather stay around 250 fps instead dropping down to 220 or so? You would gain about 25% in momentum, but 25% more than a little bit is only a little bit more. Again, not enough to cover the speed loss.

I would recommend going to a 100 grain tip like the Steelforce or Magnus Stinger to get the most penetration possible with the energy you' re getting. If you really want more juice on the arrow, then you' re going to have to crank up the poundage.

RE: Maximum KE out of short draw length??
 

The only ways to signficantly increase the KE for any given bow setup is to increase draw weight or get a bow with a faster speed rating...though the latter usually means a compromise in forgiveness to some level because of the resulting shorter brace height or a more difficult draw cycle in case of the former.

Increasing arrow weight without changing the rest of your setup at all will not significantly increase your Kinetic energy and therefore will not greatly improve penetration. However, if it is done in conjunction with increasing draw weight or changing the choice of bow then it can have a significant impact....more so than just changing draw weight or changing the bow style by itself.

What I see most short draw archers now doing is switching to some of the Bowtech lineup of bows simply because they produce more energy in comparison to just about anything else out there. They still offer relatively forgiving designs in terms of brace height, axle to axle length, etc.. but the trade off is in the draw cycle. The draw cycle is much stiffer than most of the other cams on the market so that " 63 lbs" might feel more like 70.

Switching to a cut on impact head will not help if your shots are marginal or if they hit bone....and if you do make the correct shot placement then it does not really matter what head you choose to use. However, considering your choice of an ICS carbon coupled with your much shorter than average draw length, a replacement blade broadhead like a Muzzy or Thunderhead or a Cut on Impact head like a Magnus, etc... would probably be better suited for effectively taking game.

RE: Maximum KE out of short draw length??
 

I shot a Parker feather mag at 62 lbs. with Easton epic 500 at 26.5 inches which weigh 344 grns. this year. I have a 27" draw length and the parker is no speed burner. I used the Rocket steel head 100 and it blew thru a doe at 25 yards and I watched her fall after going 50 yards. With good shot placement, this combination seems to work very well. Don

RE: Maximum KE out of short draw length??
 

Autherp has great advise I was going to say 100 grain magnus , both the heads he mentions are great and very sharp out of the box, if you go with the standard magnus you will have to sharpen them up a little first but its easy to do.

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