i currently shoot 2213 aluminum arrows with 125 grain muzzy' s...i am going to switch to a pendulum sight and was thinking about going with carbon arrows...i shoot about 54# draw...how much more distance will i get with the carbons opposed to the aluminums if any, and any recomendations about what size carbon arrow to get and what grain muzzy to use( i really like my 125' s though) thanks..

Carbons won' t give you any more distance.

They will fly faster and flatten out a bit - but you still gotta hit what your aiming at, and they won' t help you much there.

Need to know more info on your setup to help with arrow selection

I like the Goldtips myself and a 100grn broadhead. If i were going to hunt game bigger than deer i would shoot a heavier broadhead but for deer i think the 100grn is really all you need. According to the Goldtip charts at 54lbs i would go with the 3555 and a 100grn muzzy if you don' t plan on turning your poundage up any but if you do the 5575 would be better imo. If you switch to carbon and a lighter broadhead your gonna get more fps which in turn will shoot flatter and maybe give you a little more distance how much i don' t know but the flop side is increased noise and less ke with the lighter arrow. Good Luck!

It would help if we knew what your draw length is and what length arrow you shoot, but just from looking at the chart and making a couple of assumptions:

If you drop down to 100 grain heads you' ll be right on the top edge of the 3555 spine range, unless your arrows are less than 27" long. I' d say you' ll need to bump up to 5575, especially if you' re shooting a single cam or hard double cam bow. If you stick with the 125 grainers, you' ll most definitely need to go 5575.

Figuring for a 28" arrow, 125 gn heads and 4" vanes, your 2213' s weigh somewhere in the neighborhood of 475 gns. A 5575 set up the same will weigh around 390. You' d pick up some 18-19 fps, but that won' t really give you any more distance to speak of. It might flatten your 30 yard trajectory a quarter to a half inch.

But you' d get a lot tougher arrow!

Food for thought. Using ArthurP' s stated arrow weight of 390 gr. I do not know what your fps is, but lets say 230 fps. Your 390 arrow will produce 46 ftlb of ke. If you increase your arrow weight by 10% to 429 gr you only increase your ke by 6 ftlb. Now increase your velocity by 10% and you get a whoping 63 ftlb of ke. Thats an increase of 9 ftlb, 30% more. So by going lighter on your arrow weight, you increase your velocity thereby increasing your ke. A lot of people fail to recognize the importance of higher speeds. More ke and you shoot flatter, increasing your effective range. Higher ke means better penatration. Just my 2 cents.

Capt Ray but I hate to rain on your paradebut going lighter does not increase your ke BECAUSE the bow becomes less efficient with a lighter arrow.Increasing velocity does increase ke only if the arrow weight has remained the same.You must increase draw weight or draw length to achieve this and for some,neither is an option.

I just want to clarify this because it seems more and more that people are making this mistake.

Here is an example.

My target setup is shooting a 302 gr arrow @ 282 fps.53.3 ft/lb ke

It is shooting a 358 gr arrow 262 fps @ 54.5 ft/lb ke. and it really isn' t tuned for the heavy arrow.I could pick up another 1-2 fps by tuning.

TFOX, your not completely wrong or right. I agree a properly tuned bow is required for optimum arrow flight, and some tunning will be required to compensate for a change in either arrow weight or draw weight. But ke is ke know matter if it comes from velocity or mass ( arrow weight). Kinetic energy is velocity squared times mass, divided by 450,240. Whenever you increase either mass or velocity your ke will change. You are not raining on my parade.

Capt Ray, I see where TFOX is coming from, and I would tend to agree with him.

You state that increasing speed 10% produces more KE than increasing the weight. It is not linear, in order to shoot faster with a lighter arrow your KE will stay approximately the same due to the drop in arrow weight. There are only 3 ways to increase speed with any given bow, 1. decrease arrow weight, 2. increase draw weight, or 3. increase draw length.

Here are my 2 setups out of my bow:
3D: 360 grain arrow, 284 fps, KE 64.4
hunting arrow: 455 grain arrow, 266 fps, KE 71

Heavier arrows, shot from the same bow, at the same poundage, same draw length and same draw weight will generally produce more KE than the lighter faster setups, to a point. There comes a point where the arrow becomes too heavy and there is too much speed loss.


Nothing wrong per se with shooting light fast setups, but they do not produce more KE in general.

They' re telling it true, Capt Ray. You' re not taking bow efficiency into account. A heavier arrow takes more of the energy from the bow as it begins moving and accelerates on release, so that arrow absorbs more energy than a lighter arrow does. It' s not moving as fast as the lighter arrow, but it' s packing a bit more punch. Usually not more than 3-4 ft lbs though.

You can shoot different weight arrows out of a given bow through the chronograph, punch the numbers into your calculator and plot the graph. As arrow weight goes up, KE goes UP, speed goes down. When you find the point where the two slopes on the graph cross, that' s the theoretical point where you' ll get the most KE at the flattest trajectory. Do you want flatter trajectory than that? Then you drop arrow weight and trade off KE for speed. You want more KE? Then you add arrow weight and trade off trajectory for KE.

It' s all so simple...