Danny45

Sorry Art, no offense meant. By the way, that 45 after my name doesn' t just stand for my favorite caliber any more! [:@] LOL

I just seem to remember that a lot of people didn' t put in the time to tune like I did, and apparently you did too.

Arthur P

Danny, most ' old schoolers' I knew that bowhunted ' way back when' were also competitive shooters. We had our bows tuned. There were a lot more competitive shooters back then and a good deal fewer bowhunters, but even then compeitive shooters didn' t make up a majority of bowhunters. Today there are a lot more bowhunters and a lot fewer competitive hunters. Competitive shooters aren' t anything but a tiny fraction of everyone out there now. Most bowhunters swear they don' t even have time to shoot a few arrows once or twice a week. If they refuse to make time to practice, I seriously doubt they are making time to meticulously tune their bows.

People that hang out on these forums are far removed from the average ' bowhunter' and that' s a fact that a whole lot of these folks don' t seem to understand. Someone that' s highly experienced can probably get an arrow to shoot pretty decently with low FOC, like 7-8%, but I think it' s an unstable arrow that will be deflected easily and blown around more by the wind than it would be with a higher FOC. That goes especially for shooting into a stiff breeze!

Bump up around 15% and that arrow will plow right along and not much will affect it. There will be detrimental effects on trajectory but those effects won' t be much of an issue over normal hunting yardages. I like to split the difference between those two points.

Buckbuster4ou

I like to get mine around 10% or a littl over.

kimndavid

somewhere in the 10-14% range....just seems to make the arrow less critical in windy conditions or a less than perfect release(not that I ever have one[:-]).

>>>---DAVIDP---SILERCITY,NC--->

mlaubner

This all sounds great, but does this % number need to change if you use those crazy " Turbo nocks" ?

Straightarrow

I think the ideal FOC varies with each set-up. A buddy of mine just got a new Merlin Quest 35, and I don' t know what it is about it' s nock travel with the new Omega cam, but that arrow comes off so straight, I think he could shoot the biggest fixed blade broadhead there is, at around 5% FOC.

A little story about his bow - he was practicing at 20 yards with field tips and noticed something didn' t feel right on his last arrow in a group, and he noticed a very slight fishtail to the arrow. When he pulled it out of the target, he saw that it had lost the field tip and insert on the prior shot. Funny thing, it was dead center in his 1.5" group! Even so, his hunting arrow will have an FOC of about 12%. In a brisk wind, higher FOC becomes far more important.

mlaubner

Can I then assume that if your bow is finely tuned that the F.O.C. is not as critical unless there is a stiff cross breeze?

Straightarrow

I think it depends on the bow. Some need all the help they can get. It seems to me that poor nock travel may affect broadhead flight more than it does a field tip. For instance, if I shot an arrow out of my bow, with no tip, (unlike my friend' s bow) it would probably hit the target sideways, no matter how I tuned my bow. It doesn' t seem as forgiving in this area. However, when I get my FOC up to about 11%, fixed blade broadheads fly quite well.