Hey guys,

Tonght I looked at the FOC for the arrows that the guy who tuned my bow let me borrow. Like I said, these are getting about 1/4" high tears through paper, but, on the range, they are flying perfect.

29.25" PSE Carbon Force Dominator 300' s, 100 grain tips, 3- 4" duravanes. The FOC rating for these is in the 9.1-9.2 range. This seems to be very low.

I have decided just to get new arrows instead of messing around with my BlackHawk Vapors. They all need re-fletched. Whoever made them, didn' t do a good job of glueing the vanes on, as I have had some just fly off in mid-flight. So, I am just going to buy arrows that are identical as the ones John let me borrow. They are flying great, and my bow is perfectly tuned for them.

Now, my question is, should I be concerned about spine and FOC if these are shooting perfect. A guy on another board ran these arrows through a program and said that they would be under-spined for my bow, but they shoot great, and, I have read that FOC for hunting arrows should be in the 11-14 range, while these are just barely over 9.

I could use feathers instead of vanes, and that would give me a FOC of 11.6.

I could keep the vanes and use a 125 grain tip, and that would put me at 11.5

I could use feathers and 125 grain heads, and that would put me at 13.9

Or, should I just stick with the plan of buying the arrows John let me borrow, even thought the should be underspined and have too small of a FOC %, since they are shooting good?

Try shooting broadheads! If they shoot the same as your field tips or dont hit the same spot but group good(adjust your sight) , then dont give the f.o.c. a second thought.

Well I' m no expert but will say that I currently shoot an foc of 8 out of my 4runner extreme and have yet to have anything but a pass thru out to 35 yds. I shoot GT 5575' s and their web site recommends min. of 8. The way I understand it is that at longer ranges (45+) this helps the arrow maintain altitude and speed?! The shaft ends up being pulled rather than pushed.I would say that it would be more important hunting big game at longer distance. Then too there is the old addage " IF IT AIN" T BROKE DON" T FIX IT" !! This being the case with my set up I' ll shoot it. But would like to know if the info I have is correct???

Buck Magnet, don' t fret the FOC too much. While it' s important, your not that far off and if your arrows are flying perfect, especially once you switch to broadheads, that' s most the battle. FOC is something you can check and turn to if the arrow flight is poor as long as everything else is in tune, ie bow, arrows and arrows to bow.

I agree with Rob,

FOC is the LAST thing I would check on a setup that isn' t flying right.

And the first thing I would ignore if the bow is shooting great

I agree with the above. However, I WOULD ditch the plastic and go to feathers, just on general principal.

I think FOC is more of a concern with broadheads and with a bow that isn' t tuned as good as it could be. In other words, increasing the FOC on a poor flying arrow, may be more of a " band-aid" than a cure for tuning problem. I think the best shooting arrows have a rather high FOC along with a great tuning job on the bow they' re being shot out of.

I agree that foc isn' t as critical if you are already getting good arrow flight,BUT imo,the lower your ke is,the more important it becomes for good penetration.Even if the arrows are hitting their mark,foc at 10%-12% should in most cases be OPTIMUM for penetration.



The real problem is with really low foc .Like 5% and yea there are some cases where people do it.30" arrows with 57 gr broadheads isn' t good for hunting.regardless of arrow flight.




Some will have a hard time getting foc above 10% with vanes but those people in general will be using longer arrows and therefore should have longer draws and that will give you plenty of ke so you don' t need to worry about it as much.I think you are in this category.You should be fine as long as the arrows are flying well.


This may not be an absolute but is a good rule of thumb to use.



Regardless of anything else,arrow flight is the most important for penetration and hitting your mark is the more important than anything else.That isn' t downplaying sharpness of broadheads or the design of them.