energy
 

have a bowhunting mag . norb mullaney is testing two bob lee bows one is a long bow the other is a recurve. the recurve is makeing about 36 pounds of energy with a 450 grain arrow. the draw lenght is 28 inches.. that dont seam like a hole lot to me.. is all the recurve like that??? it says p.d.f=55.1lb ... is this the draw weight fore the bow???? the book is the 1996 buyers guide..the speed fore the bow with a 28 inch draw is a 190.1.. was going to get a cheap one and see if i' can get good with it before deer season next year. thanks gate<img src=icon_smile_shock.gif border=0 align=middle>

RE: energy
 

http://home.att.net/~sajackson/archery.html

According to Jackson's, my bow, shooting a 523 gr arrow 175 FPS would generate 36 footpounds of energy. If I were getting 180 FPS I would be seeing 38 footpounds and 185 FPS would get me 40 footpounds. I think I am in the 175 range. Go to this site, click the KE energy calculator, enter the arrow weight and FPS and there you go. Thats right though, a 450 gr arrow pushing 190 FPS would generate the same KE/footpounds as my 523 arrow going 175 FPS.

Bottom line, my arrows thump a target when they hit - I have no doubt under 20 yards, and me taking the right shot, I could pass through an elk size animal with a razor sharp broadhead on my 29 1/4 inch 2216 arrows.

RE: energy
 

Even though Kenetic Energy is important for penetration, it isn't all that causes an arrow to penetrate. The actual energy going into the arrow, design of the broadhead, material and diameter of the shaft, arrow flight and so on are all involved.

All else being equal, a bow of higher KE will penetrate deeper but a pass through is still a pass through no matter how much KE the bow produces. Meaning, my bow with a 500g. arrow 29&quot; long back of point and a razor sharp 2 blade broadhead will break ribs going in and coming out of a deer sized animal and it produces about 38'#s of KE. If the bow only produced 20 #s of KE it would still completely penetrate a deers chest for a clean kill. A point in fact is that compounds produce lots of KE and if you ask the average compound hunter, they will tell you that sometimes they do not get complete penetration because of things that have absolutely nothing to do with KE. Shot placement being at the top of the list. If you hit the animal in solid bone like a shoulder, you will not get complete penetration with a bow and odds are you'll have a deer running around wounded with your arrow in it. Shot placement is critical. The most powerful bow on earth doesn't produce enough KE to kill a deer from shock like a rifle does. They kill by cutting tissue with the broadhead which causes hemorage and the animal dies from loss of blood, plain and simple.

To many variables go into how much penetration is achieved with a particular setup, so for anyone to say that KE is the only reason or the most imporatant one for obtaining good penetration, they are making a misleading statement at best.

Get yourself a 40-50# bow and practice with it until you can hit what you are looking at every time. Learn to track and find your arrow shot deer and most of all, have fun. That's what it's all about.

RE: energy
 

Wahya - Good pint on arrow flight. I suspect that because my arrows are flying perfectly now, they will penetrate much better than when I was using arrows that weren't quite right for my bow's setup - thus a loss in KE upon impact. I don't know how much loss we're talking about, maybe 10%, maybe more depending on how eratic your arrows flight is, but VERY significant I think.

RE: energy
 

energy going into the arrow = momentum <img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle>!

The way a guy explained it to me kinda makes more sense in the hole debate Mom VS Ke...they are BOTH important! The Ke effects impact, the Momentum carrys through the cutting.....Then again all that tech jargin is waaaaaay out of my league LOL! Dan near a pass through on a moose, thats all I care about. Any stickbow that can get through the other side (moose) after splitting ribs is good enuf for me on North America! <img src=icon_smile_wink.gif border=0 align=middle>!

great post Mike..ya hit all the big ones right on the head in the first paragraph!!!

Edited by - Lilhunter on 01/08/2002 15:36:14