My mom is wanting to start bowhunting next year(ya i cant believe it either lol) and we were needing a little help with what her arrow weight should be. I was thinking around 430-450 grains but i asked this question over on AT and they said to go light, like around 330 grains or so. She will be drawing 40lbs and a 23.5in draw length with a Diamond Razor Edge. So how heavy do you guys think her arrows should be? Thoughts?

Personally I like your thinking of staying on the heavier side and keeping the momentum. Anything around 400 grns would be a middle ground.

You do know that the weight is not what you are needing, its the spine of the arrow. You can have several different shafts with the same spine with a different weight in each one. For hunting you do want to go with a bit on the heavy side for more ke! For her in GT you will need a .600 spine which has an offering of 7.4gpi, 8.2, 8.6, 5.7 that is 4 different weights. So if you go with the 7.4gpi X 23.5" is 173.9gr plus vanes, nock, and insert would make the arrow 208 gr. add a tip of 85-100grs and that would be the weight of that shaft. I think around the 300gr arrow is still a little heavy but as said earlier, more ke. The 5.7gpi shaft dressed would put it close to 260grs total. It would fly faster but not as much ke and that is with a 85gr tip. I also sell the weight forward GT 20 shafts and that is at 6.5gpi and would be a great compromise between the two weights.

I think a 430-450 grain arrow out of that setup would be way too much overkill. I understand wanting to shoot a heavier arrow out of a light dw setup for ke purposes, but there is a point where the gain in ke verus the lost of speed can hurt you.

If I ran the numbers correctly, a 330 grain arrow (typical of an Easton Redline with 125 grain tip) is going to produce around 24lbs of ke, where a 430 grain arrow, out of the same setup is going to only produce 22lbs of ke. The 430 grain arrow will have slightly more momentum, but imho, not enough to make up for the lost in speed (about 30fps) between a 330 grain and 430 grain arrow.

*note*, I did not run these numbers by hand, I cheated and used http://www.backcountrybowhunting.com/articles/tools.php because I am feeling pretty lazy right now.

Most of the time I hunt with a 360 to 400 grain arrow, but I have the wife setup shooting a 325 grain arrow.

Get the spine, foc, and flight right and you will have no trouble with penetration. A lot of things factor in to good penetration, and weight is only one.

She will have No trouble penetrating deer with her setup if she uses the right broadhead which is more important than arrow weight IMO.

Dan

Thanks guys, just goes to show ya how much i know, thats why i asked. I figured since most trad guys use heavy arrow setups that the same would apply to compounds with low pulling weight/short draw lengths. But im guessing trad bow need an arrow with more foc maybe? Anyway, thanks a bunch.