Arrow Set-up for Low Poundage Whitetails

[ddowning]

300 is light but around 400 isn’t. Guys don’t shoot 300 for penetration problems, it’s more of ridiculous nightmare for tuning. Which, will cause major penetration issues as well. I would have him shoot a 500 axis and a two blade coc. Magnus stingers or a Simmons Mako would be my choice.

There is so much marketing bs floating around right now it is insane. Obviously, heavy, slow, cut on contact works. Personally, I want as much danger space as I can get. If I need better penetration I will switch to a smaller more pointy broadhead. Broadhead sharpness is the #1 limiter of penetration.

My experience is the opposite of what is popular today. I won't argue elk, bear, etc. I was a tournament 3-d shooter first. No one in my family was a deer hunter so the learning curve was long. My first whitetail was shot at 60 lbs with a 300 grain arrow and a 75 grain rocket miniblaster which was a 3 blade 1.75" cut mechanical. The shot was 52 yards and broadside. It was a complete pass through. This was repeated many times. The only thing I did that was unconventional for the time was to take the brand new broadhead blades and sharpen then RAZOR sharp.

My current set-up is a 360 grain arrow at 74 pounds with the same broadhead. Within the constraints of normal hunting distances, 50 yards and under, there have been zero issues.

I am NOT advocating mechanical heads for low poundage setups, but the heavy arrow craze is EXTREMELY overblown. Today's bows are quieter, smoother, and more shootable than years ago and having a margin of error for range is very valuable.

 

[stanginthe11s]

whoa, you have to ease into the slide. you can't just post such controversial stuff right off the bat.
also, I might recommend you up your arrow weight a little. that is just for the sake of the bow and nothing else. newer bows are not built to handle light arrows.

 

[ddowning]

Bow is a 2002 BT Patriot. Not much has happened since TEC risers and parallel limb designs. There have been a few minor improvements, but nothing spectacular enough to make me want new.

You are correct. When everything was set up I was competing heavily in IBO. Got good enough to win the piddley Midwest Triple Crown, but could never do quite well enough to win at the national level events. Alas, when it was time to get serious and figure out how to win or go to college and get a real job, I chose the latter. The bow has hardly been shot since 2004. A few hundred arrows a year before and during hunting season. My kids just took up archery and I got the bug again.

When I was shooting competitively I restrung (and cabled) a couple times a year (sometimes more) and replaced the cam bushings a few times. I think things are mostly fine as I haven't had to adjust my pin spacing on the old Hogg-it since 2004. I have restrung a couple times and adjusted cam timing a couple times, but everything appears to be pretty good. I guess I was always alright with doing maintenance for the speed for 3-d. After I quit I was burned out and LAZY and didn't want to mess with anything...I just wanted to poke some whitetails.

 

[fatlander]

Get him some gold tip hunters, blazer vanes, standard inserts, tipped magnus stingers.

Building out a dozen 4MM arrows with broadheads would cost more than that bow. Standard diameter broadheads kill stuff just as dead as the micros.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[mattflipper]

Keeping the ranges short and cut on contact is key. Cut the arrow weight like has been said many times. I’ve dealt with this lately with my oldest daughter coming up bow hunting the last 4 years. It’s dead broadside or no shot all the time. And it’s hard to make her pass on shots at 20 but we kept it at 15/16 for a couple of years for penetration and to minimize the room for error. Letting them shoot and lose animals because of poor shot selection is doing more harm than good to the herd and their attitude towards hunting.

 

[4doutfitter]

both my boys started killing pigs and deer with their small compounds when they were 7 and 9 years old, I cooked up heavy arrow in 400s range and 2 bladed magnus worked great for them for years , keep it inside 15 and you should be good. good luck