Thank you all for letting me know how much I' m overthinking things. Fact is, when stuck at work and unable to shoot, or as SA put it- " If you spent as much time scouting, practicing, and hunting as you do worrying about your KE, then you could answer all of these questions yourself, because you would actually be running an arrow through one and deciding for yourself." , thinking is about all I have left.

I' m not THAT worried about it. I just like analyzing and discussing things. If you don' t, you don' t have to participate.

I don' t need a new bow. I can scout, practice hunt and send an arrow through a deer just fine with what I have, and have been for a long long time. I' m just one of those that IF I decide to get something new, I want some thought put into the process so I can be comfortable with my decision and subsequent purchase. I' m NOT gonna buy 3-4 bows per year, every year, like some. Once I reach a comfort zone, I see no need to change for the sake of change.

Art, thanks for your follow up. the 41' #s of ke minimum is the upper range on Eastons chart, from 25-41. I chose the upper end as I was interested in focusing on pass throughs.

Honestly, I doubt my selfbows put out half the KE of your setup. Yet, barring hits on thick bone, passthroughs are typical on whitetails. (Right now I' m using a 63# selfbow, 620 grn ash shafts, and cut-on-contact heads, travelling at 150 fps off the bow.)

This year I made my own broadheads from circular saw blades and bound them to my shafts with fine wire. I shot a doe with one the other week. The arrow took a chunk out of her front leg bone going in, destroyed her lungs, and lodged in her far leg bone, which I had to forcably remove when butchering. I was very pleased with that. With more force, perhaps it could have severed her legbone in two and passed completely though. I don' t know what it would have taken to achieve that...don' t much care really as dead is dead. Next year when I head to Alaska in search of caribou, I plan on using a setup very similar to this.

BTW, don' t worry about KE, as it is misapplied to archery purposes. If you look in any Physics 101 book textbook you' ll find that momentum pertains to circumstances of collision. Regardless, arrow and broadhead selection and tuning are just as critical to penetration as speed. Shoot what weight you can comfortably handle, then choose an arrow and broadhead accordingly.

Arthur,

RB,
If it makes you feel any better, my set-up only produces a mere 65# of KE and went through an 800 lb. bull elk this year like it was butter (and took a rib on each side). I was only shooting 415 gr. arrows so the momentum wasn' t all that great......but that elk didn' t know any difference .

That being said, I' m currently setting my MQ1 up to shoot 580 gr. 2317 xx78s w/ 150 gr. Snuffers for next year......Go figure!