sits in trees

guy's i woke up still full this a.m. what a great country we live in!

ok could someone please help me with the advertised speed on a coumpound bow, for ex if a bow is advertised at 315 fps what does that really mean?(arrow weight, draw etc) and also what about crossbow advertised speeds?how does all that work? thanks in advance for any info.....sits

445 supermag

Not sure what you are after here but... Usually any kind of bow from compound bow to recurve from crossbows they give you what the advertised speed of that bow with a certain grain weight of an arrow.

A lot of bows will say 330 fps with a 420 grain arrow. So a manufacture will say with there spects of their bows with say a 16" draw cycle at 200 lb pull with a 450 grain arrow will shoot at 330 fps or whatever. All things need to be considered.

Now the vertical bow guys its usually listed as a 30" draw with a 350 grain arrow at 70 LB pull. But these bows a adjustable so it changes if and when you change one of these aspects.

I may be wrong here but this is what I think. More knowledgeable people will follow to correct me where I may be wrong

Brian

sits in trees

what i'm getting at is, is there a standard for x-bows on advertised arrow speed like there is for compounds, for an x-bow is it always a 420 gr arrow? what is the standard for x-bows so you can make an equal comparision on speed?

Cossack

No there is no such standard. Excalibur uses a 350 grain arrow and Parker lists it's results from shooting a 405 grn arrow. Moreover, they do not specify the arrow weight in bold terms. You have to dig to find it. Long sotry short, buyer beware, know what the specs mean. Bummer but that's the way marketing is done nowdays.

sits in trees

interesting, thanks.

Wyvern Crossbow

With Excal it is one of my pet peeves. As a retailer people see "305fps" and expect that is what it will shoot. Their bows (and everyone elses) will shoot advertized but only if you read the fine print as to how to achieve it. Excals numbers are fluffed pretty good compared to what you will shoot even with a factory Excal arrow as everyone else (except Tenpoint on their recurves) at least use a fairly realistic weight you can find in an off the shelf arrow, not some custom built 350 grain nonsense, but that is just my opinion. It still is no where as bad as AMO standards in compounds. People get pretty dissapointed when they buy a 315fps compound and chrono 275fps because the standard is set at the maximum that bow will safely shoot. It is all realitive anyway as a heavier arrow will generaly be more consistant and quites the bow down and helps prevent parts damage and wear. There is not a production hunting crossbow on the market today that is not overkill in the speed department for whitetail anyway so it is generaly more important to hit what you are aiming at and not worry so much that the arrow is 15fps slower than what the manufactuer advertizes.

Wyvern

nksmfamjp

The only thing I would add is that I believe the numbers are apples to apples because generally the manufacturer makes the arrow they test with for purchase. Even though Excal tests with a 350gr and Tenpoint a 420gr. The Tenpoint cannot shoot 350 gr arrows repeatedly without damage as it is too light.

It would be nice to see 2 numbers like a fastest speed with the companies stock arrows and a standard ~450 - 500 grn arrow(2219, dual al inserts, 125 grn head.). Seems like you have to shoot ~450 to get enough FOC.

907Alaska

With my ExoMax which was advertised at 355fps, the best we can do with a 416gr arrow weight is 305fps...I do know that string changeouts will yeild better results also with the Excals.

awshucks

I got my first Excal quite awhile before I got my first computer. life was better then, I think, lol.

It was an Emax from Cabelas and came w/ FFF string and GT's at around 357 gr. It got real close to the advertised fps of 350. No chrony then.

I know somewhere along the line they quit providing FFF's on new bows, probably due to limb issues w/ dry fires.

I just weighed some arrows that came w/ new Emax that had an endless loop dacron on it, and they were 408 gr. They were GT L II's btw, still Millers favorite arrow and the bow package came from him.

Here's where it gets interesting. Those 408 gr GT's have brass 110 gr inserts vs 32 gr aluminum. If you do the math on same arrows w/ alum inserts[- 78 gr] you come up w/ 330 gr, which is under the 350 gr minimum for Excals. [could be reached via 125 gr points]

Somewhere along the line, Gt shifted specs on their arrows as I have some that are identical to the 408 gr ones by the eye, but they weigh an average of 430 gr. Do the same math on them [- 78 gr] and you get 352 gr or so, if they had alum inserts.

Maybe Wyvern can shed some light on this, he has far more experience w/ them than I do, and probably for a lot longer time.

Wyvern Crossbow

Getting 350gr is not impossible...just impractical. It makes the bow very loud (by comparison) adds to the shock and wear and tear on the bow, and with such light components the FOC is very low. Excal used to come with much larger fletching (feathers even) from the factory to add stability in a very low FOC arrow. Worked fine by causing enough drag that it steered the arrow well. You can make very light/low FOC arrows and add enough rear drag that you keep the accuracy, but at the expense of speed at distance (basicly you hang an anchor off the back of the arrow) A chrono at 3" off the end of the bow will show a very fast arrow but it will loose speed very quickly. One of the reasons I am playing with the high FOC arrows and blazers. Enough FOC to keep the arrow stable and accurate in flight and very low drag for flatter trajectories. The trade off is you need that extra weigh up front and getting less than about 400gr and making it effective is very tough. Personaly I love the GT's and the brass inserts and that is pretty much all I sell as well....

Wyvern